Fabrication of semi-circular micro-groove on titanium alloy surface by through-mask electrochemical micromachining

Titanium/silicon-carbide-fibre composites offer an excellent combination of weight-specific properties that make them ideal for many components in aeroengines. However, potential industrial applications are hampered by the need to fabricate semi-circular micro-grooves on the titanium alloy foils. Through-mask electrochemical micromachining (EMM) has been developed to fabricate micro-grooves on the surface of titanium alloy. The distribution of current density affects the micro-groove profile, and different mask aspect ratios can form different distributions of current density in through-mask EMM. Therefore, micro-grooves with semi-circular profiles can be fabricated by controlling the aspect ratio of the mask groove. In this paper, the effect of mask aspect ratio on the micro-groove profile during through-mask EMM is investigated by electric field simulation. From simulation results obtained in a series of experiments, the appropriate mask aspect ratio is found for fabricating semi-circular micro-grooves. Ultimately, a group of micro-grooves is fabricated successfully with the required accuracy by through-mask EMM.