Electrochemical machining of tungsten carbide alloy micro-pin with NaNO3 solution

In this study, the fabrication of micro-pins made of tungsten carbide (WC) alloy with the electrochemical machining (ECM) using a neutral electrolyte, NaNO3 aqueous solution, was proposed and the machining conditions were investigated. The micro-pin fabrication was carried out by changing the electrolyte concentration, the current value and the machining time. The effect of the by-product removal by means of ultrasonic washing was investigated experimentally. The micro-pin with the diameter about 20 µm, the length about 2 mm and the aspect ratio about 100 was obtained under the constant current 400 mA in a very short time of 2.5 min.