In order to solve the difficult problem of electrochemical profiled tool electrode machining (ECM.S) technology design, mechanism of proceeding was developed. The paper is presenting procedures supporting ECM.S process simulation, used to evaluate border states, leading to process stability improvement and procedures used in the design process of profiled tool electrode, defined as a free-form surface. This allowed to develop a dedicated computer program, which also will be discussed. To achieve these goals a two-dimensional model of electrolyte flow in the interelectrode gap was proposed. Its simulation was used to determine conditions taking place in the interelectrode gap and visualized in the form of computed physical quantities distribution. The calculations results and their discussion are presented as well.

A conventional manual lathe electric motor drives the multi-stage gearbox transmitting torque to the spindle so that the workpiece makes contact with the machine tool at a given speed. The cutting speed is proportional to both the diameter of the workpiece and the spindle speed, however, the increments in spindle speed are limited. Manual lathe machines cannot be regulated at the optimum cutting speeds for all diameters. An innovative modernization of the main driveline of a TSB16 manual lathe is proposed in this paper, allowing for a cost-effective system for digital control of spindle speeds using an inverter. The inverter is controlled using an 8-bit AO (analog output) converter with special software developed with Visual Basic. The results of the analysis and various test runs with this new system for automated control of spindle rotation, showed that the required cutting speed can be achieved for any workpiece diameter. The deviation of cutting-speed of the upgraded system for any turning diameter is greatly reduced in comparison with the deviation of cutting-speed of a manual lathe. Finally, tests on this versatile system demonstrated a cost-effective method for modernizing the drive system of conventional lathe machines.

This paper presents an analysis of the impact of inertial forces of the electrolyte flow in an interelectrode gap on the effects of ECM process of curvilinear rotary surfaces. Considering a laminar flow in the interelectrode gap, the equations of the flow of the mixture of electrolyte and hydrogen in the curvilinear orthogonal coordinate system have been defined. Two classes of equations of motion have been formulated, which differ in the estimates referred to the components of velocity and pressure, and which were analytically solved using the method of perturbation. Using the machined surface shape evolution equation, the energy equation, and the analytical solutions for velocity and pressure, the ECM-characteristic distributions have been determined: of mean velocity, pressure, mean temperature, current density, gas phase concentration, the gap height after the set machining time for the case when there is no influence of inertial forces, the effect of centrifugal forces and, at the same time, centrifugal and longitudinal inertial forces.