Investigation on the effective factor calculation of electropolishing using full factorial design and mechanism model by microscopic analysis for super austenitic stainless steel

Abstract

This investigation is to calculate the effective factors of the electropolishing by using the full factorial design for UNS N08367. In addition, based on the calculated effective factors, the electropolishing mechanism model was researched on 3D microscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis. The parameters were selected as electrolyte composition ratio, electropolishing process time and applied current density. Calculation of effective factors was performed through analysis of variance (ANOVA). As a result of ANOVA, it was observed that the electrolyte composition ratio had the greatest effect on surface planarization. As a result of surface analysis after electropolishing, the maximum height difference is about 54 times. Also, the minimum value of surface roughness after electropolishing was 0.129 μm, which was improved by more than 70% compared to mechanical polishing. As a result of all analysis, it was most flat to perform electropolishing with a sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid ratio of 3:7, 300 mA/cm2 and 5 min.