preview

The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Chemical Machining

Decent Essays

Chemical machining
Chemical machining (CHM) process is a controlled chemical dissolution (CD) of a workpiece material by contact with strong reagent (etchant). Special coatings called maskants protect areas from which the metal is not to be machined. It is one of the non-conventional machining processes.
The advancement of technology causes to the development of many hard-to-machine materials: stainless steel, super alloys, ceramics, refractories and fiber-reinforced composites due to their high hardness, strength, brittleness, toughness and low machinability properties. Sometimes, the machined components require high surface finish and dimensional accuracy, complicated shape and special size, which cannot be achieved by the conventional machining …show more content…

The most important advantages are: weight reduction is possible on complex contours that are difficult to machine using conventional methods; decorative finishes and extensive thin-web areas are possible to be machined; CHM does have low scrap rates (3 percent); no burrs are formed; no stress is introduced to the workpiece, which minimizes the part distortion and makes machining of delicate parts possible; a continuous taper on contoured sections is achievable; the capital cost of equipment, used for machining large components, is relatively low; small thickness of metal can be removed; the good surface quality in addition to the absence of burrs eliminate the need for finishing …show more content…

There are different geometrically designed parts, such as deep internal cavities, miniaturized microelectronics and nontraditional machining processes may only produce fine quality components. All the common metals including aluminum, copper, zinc, steel, lead, and nickel can be chemically machined. Many exotic metals such as titanium, molybdenum, and zirconium, as well as nonmetallic materials including glass, ceramics, and some plastics, can also be used with the process. CHM applications range from large aluminum alloy airplane wing parts to minute integrated circuit chips. The practical depth of cut ranges between 2.54 to 12.27 mm. Shallow cuts in large thin sheets are of the most popular application especially for weight reduction of aerospace components. Multiple designs can be machined from the same sheet at the same time. CHM is used to thin out walls, webs, and ribs of parts that have been produced by forging, casting, or sheet metal

Get Access