A preliminary account of electro-chemical machining of Ti-48Al-2Nb-2Cr produced by electron beam melting.

Electron beam melting (EBM) made feasible γ-titanium aluminide (TiAl) alloys. However, the surface roughness resulting from EBM is poor, and the high mechanical properties make γ-TiAl difficult to be machined. Electro-Chemical Machining (ECM) is gaining interest as a finishing process to achieve low surface roughness. Based on the anodic dissolution mechanism, ECM realises a contactless material removal and results particularly suitable for difficult-to-cut materials. The paper investigates the use of ECM for the finishing of Ti-48Al-2Nb-2Cr, a γ-TiAl alloy made by EBM. The effects of current, voltage, feed rate and duty ratio have been accounted for under pulsed machining conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]