Machining of Metal Microcone Arrays Based on Through-Mask Electrochemical Micromachining with Circumferential Equivalent Etching

Microcone arrays on metal surfaces, which usually need to be made into precise shapes with high roundness accuracy and high structural consistency, are widely used in aerospace, energy, biology, and other fields. It is found that a metal workpiece covered with a circular mask can be used in traditional electrochemical etching with unidirectional lateral flushing, but the roundness and structure consistency of the microcones are poor due to flow field defects. Therefore, a machining method is developed in which the flushing direction circles the workpiece periodically to realize circumferential equivalent etching. The improvement of the flow field is verified by simulation and comparison experiments. In the experiments, the flushing velocity and rotation rate were further optimized, and the roundness, top area, and taper of the microcones prepared were 0.874 & mu;m, 30577.88 & mu;m(2), and 1.113, with standard deviations of 0.017 & mu;m, 5174.725 & mu;m(2), and 0.053, respectively. The roundness accuracy and structural consistency of the microcone arrays were improved by using TMEMM with circumferential equivalent etching, and a high-precision microcone array structure was manufactured.