A green and precision compound machining method for glass micro components – Ultrasonic assisted electrochemical discharge grinding with multi-hole tube electrode

Glass is a widely used material in key fields such as Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) due to its excellent properties. The existing non-traditional glass machining methods have problems such as high pollution, difficult operation, and poor sustainability, this article utilizes the effective combination of electrochemical discharge machining and grinding (named electrochemical discharge grinding, ECDG), by using NaHCO₃ solution as electrolyte to achieve green machining. Utilizing ultrasonic vibration and multi-hole tube electrode to achieve precise and stable machining. Modeling and simulation analysis were conducted on the material removal rate and grinding force during the machining process, which profoundly revealed the joint improvement mechanism of spark discharge and ultrasonic vibration on grinding quality. First, a single factor experiment was used to preliminarily determine the machining threshold. Second, the Plackett-Burman experiment was used to screen key machining parameters. Then, Box-Behnken experiment was conducted on key machining parameters, and multi-objective and multi-factor optimization was performed to obtain the optimal combination of machining parameters. Compared with normal ECDG with cylindrical grinding electrode, the overcut is reduced by 8.3 %, the edge damage is reduced by 17.5 % and the surface roughness value is reduced by 70.6 %. Finally, by using the optimized combination of machining parameters, high-quality and stable machining of typical microchannel structures was achieved. The milling depth of the microchannel is 400 µm. The machining width is 1175 ± 5 µm. The surface roughness of the measurement area is 0.375 µm. The green, high-quality and stable machining of micro glass micro components further demonstrates the potential application of this compound technology.