Flow-jet-assisted electrochemical discharge machining for quartz glass based on machine vision

A vision-sensor-based system used for on-line characterization and monitoring of the effect of flow-jet-assisted electrochemical discharge micro-drilling on quartz glass is proposed. The feasibility of electrochemical discharge machining with an assisting flow jet on nonconductive quartz glass materials was explored in this work. Through in-situ image acquisition and analysis of the electrochemical discharge drilling processes, associations between the drilling performance and analyzed images could be obtained promptly. Hence, the penetration status of electrochemical discharge drilled holes could be estimated efficiently in real time using a vision sensing method for the on-line detection of sparks. The influence of the flow jet on material removal and crater depth formation is reported, and the influences of the assisted flow on the machining efficiency of the drilled holes are examined. The results showed that the machining efficiency of the electrochemical discharge-drilled holes were correlated to the drilling rate per accumulated pixels with a high degree of confidence. The penetration time and outlet diameter were adopted as the response parameters for controlling the drilling process. A novel machine-vision-based method for feedback control and for monitoring the status of electrochemical-discharge-drilled holes in real time is proposed in this research.