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Combined rough and finish machining of Ti–6Al–4V

alloy by electrochemical mill-grinding

Shen Niu, Ningsong Qu, Xiaokang Yue, Gangqiang Liu & Hansong Li

To cite this article: Shen Niu, Ningsong Qu, Xiaokang Yue, Gangqiang Liu & Hansong Li
(2020): Combined rough and finish machining of Ti–6Al–4V alloy by electrochemical mill-grinding,
Machining Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/10910344.2020.1752236

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10910344.2020.1752236

Published online: 19 Apr 2020.

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MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
https://doi.org/10.1080/10910344.2020.1752236

Combined rough and finish machining of Ti–6Al–4V

alloy by electrochemical mill-grinding
Shen Niua, Ningsong Qua,b, Xiaokang Yuea, Gangqiang Liua, and
Hansong Lia,b
a
College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Nanjing, China; bJiangsu Key Laboratory of Precision and Micro-Manufacturing
Technology, Nanjing, China

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This study proposes a combined method for the electrochem- Electrochemical mill-
ical mill-grinding of Ti–6Al–4V alloy to achieve a high material grinding; flatness; material
removal rate, high machining accuracy and good surface qual- removal rate; surface
roughness; thin-walled
ity based on rough and finish machining. In the rough structure; Ti–6Al–4V alloy
machining stage, a maximum feed rate of 2.7 mm min
1 and
a material removal rate of 248.3 mm3 min
1 were achieved
experimentally at a 10 mm cut depth using an abrasive tool
with five rows of tool-sidewall outlet holes. In the finish
machining stage, there were almost no overcuts or stray cor-
rosions produced. The sidewall surface roughness and sidewall
flatness were Ra ¼ 1.06 and 76.8 lm after the finishing stage,
which represent a 68% and 79.2% improvement compared
with the rough machining stage, respectively. Finally, we fabri-
cated a 1-mm-thick thin-walled structure using the combined
machining operations, in which approximately 96% of the
total material removal volume was performed at the rough
machining stage.

Introduction
With the development and requirements of the modern aerospace industry,
difficult-to-cut titanium alloys have attracted considerable interest because
of their unique properties of a high strength-to-weight ratio, exceptional
corrosion resistance, and good fatigue strength (Xin et al., 2017). For
example, to simultaneously achieve both weight reduction and strength
enhancement, aircraft integral components with thin-walled structures and
complex shapes (e.g., blisks, beams, and bulkheads) have been fabricated
from titanium alloys (Yang et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2017). Manufacturing
these aircraft integral components usually includes both rough and finish
machining, with most of the initial material removed during the rough
machining stage (Xu et al., 2013; Huang et al., 2015). This poses a

CONTACT Ningsong Qu nsqu@nuaa.edu.cn College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing

University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
ß 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
2 S. NIU ET AL.

challenge and even an insurmountable obstacle for traditional cutting

processes because of significant tool wear, poor surface quality, large
residual stress, and deformation (Wang et al., 2014; Li et al., 2017b).
Electrochemical grinding (ECG) is a hybrid machining process based
on a combined system of electrochemical machining (ECM) and mechan-
ical grinding (MG) (Mohammad and Wang, 2016). In ECG, most of
material is removed from the workpiece through electrochemical dissol-
ution (90–95%), and the rest is removed with grinding (5–10%) (Puri
and Banerjee, 2013). Compared with MG, ECG has a high material-
removal efficiency, long tool life, and better surface properties and
machining accuracy, particularly when working with difficult-to-cut alloys
(Zaborski et al., 2004; Hascalik and Caydas, 2007). In addition, the major
problem of applying ECM to titanium alloys is the formation of a dense
oxide layer on the workpiece surface, which can hamper the current flow
and affect the stability of the dissolution process (Chen et al., 2017;
Deshmukh et al., 2017). ECG has the advantage of using mechanical
grinding to continuously remove any oxide layers, so there is less need to
apply harmful or harsh electrolytes (Kozak and Oczos, 2001; Curtis et al.,
2009). Thus, ECG is a candidate for hybrid manufacturing that includes
the machining of titanium alloys.
Conventional ECG typically involves large (150–250 mm diameter) grind-
ing wheels (Curtis et al., 2009). However, this ECG approach lacks machin-
ing flexibility, which makes it difficult to produce complex parts. To
enhance the machining flexibility, we propose using electrochemical mill-
grinding (ECMG), in which the rod-shaped abrasive tool replaces the
grinding wheel, and the processing is done with the milling motion.
Initially, the electrolyte supply still depended on an external nozzle arrange-
ment. Qu et al. (2015) presented an method to process the Inconel 718
alloy by applying a ball-end abrasive tool, which offers a material removal
rate (MRR) of 85.8 mg min
1 (10.41 mm3 min
1) at a depth of cut of
0.5 mm. Subsequently, an inner jetted electrolyte system was introduced
instead of the typical nozzle arrangement. Li et al. (2017a) proposed a flat-
ended abrasive tool with a single row of tool-sidewall outlet holes for
machining of the GH4169 alloy, which gave an MRR of 366.21 mg min
1
(44.44 mm3 min
1) for a 3 mm depth of cut. In their work, a sample with a
convex structure was fabricated along a preset milling path. Furthermore,
Li et al. (2018) later used an abrasive tool with multiple rows of tool-side-
wall outlet holes for processing of the GH4169 alloy and achieved a 10 mm
depth of cut. As a result, the MRR also increased to 25.883 mg s
1
(188.47 mm3 min
1) while machining the slot. Hence, efficient machining
with large stock removal for difficult-to-cut materials is possible in ECMG
by applying an inner jetted electrolyte system.
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 3

In ECMG, the workpiece material can be removed by the combined

actions of electrochemical dissolution and mechanical grinding. Thus, the
rough and finish machining operations in ECMG may be combined with-
out re-fixing the workpiece and replacing the tool. It is noted, however,
that previous studies mainly focused on improving the machining efficiency
and obtaining a higher MRR with ECMG. In fact, the rough machining
stage with ECMG suffers from the difficulty of controlling the localization
effects of electrochemical dissolution, which is affected by the stray current
attack. As a result, material removal inevitably continues on the machined
area, resulting in a large overcut, poor machining accuracy, and inferior
surface quality. However, there have been no previous reports that discuss
the finishing operation stage in ECMG. Additionally, there are few available
investigations into the ECMG of titanium alloys.
Therefore, the present study investigates both the rough and finish oper-
ations for the ECMG of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy. First, the principle of the
combined machining method is introduced for ECMG with an abrasive
tool using multiple rows of tool-sidewall outlet holes. A higher maximum
feed rate is then explored in the rough machining stage, and the results of
the experiments that involve machining a slot to achieve a higher MRR are
reported. Furthermore, finish machining is adopted to improve the flatness
and surface roughness of the slot sidewall manufactured by the rough
machining. Finally, to demonstrate the applicability of ECMG, we report
the results of using the combined machining operations on a Ti–6Al–4V
alloy sample to create a thin-walled structure.

Combined rough and finish machining with ECMG

Schematic of combined machining operations with ECMG
To achieve high-efficiency and high-accuracy machining that produces a
fine surface quality with a reduced preparation time, we propose combining
the rough and finish operations under the ECMG process. Figure 1 shows
a schematic illustration of the combined machining operations. The com-
bined machining consists of two stages: rough machining and finish
machining. During rough machining, the removal for most of the bulk
material depends on the conventional ECM. The abrasive tool with mul-
tiple rows of tool-sidewall outlet holes cuts into the workpiece at a large
depth of cut and a high MRR may be obtained by applying a high
feed rate.
Once rough machining is completed, finish machining follows immedi-
ately simply by changing the machining parameters. In the finishing stage,
the electrolytic action forms a dense oxide layer on the machining surface
of the workpiece sidewall fabricated by rough machining, and the abrasive
4 S. NIU ET AL.

Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the combined rough and finish operations with ECMG.

Figure 2. Abrasive tool used in this study with five rows of tool-sidewall outlet holes.

grit protruding from the tool sidewall act to remove the soft and non-
reactive oxide layer, thus exposing fresh metal for continue electrolytic
reaction. Finish machining provides small-allowance machining to improve
the flatness and surface roughness of the machined sidewall. It is
noted that the two machining operations may be done in ECMG without
re-fixing the workpiece or replacing the tool.
In a previous investigation involving a 10 mm depth of cut, it was
recommended to use five rows with a total of 30 tool-sidewall outlet holes
as the optimal structure for a tool substrate with an outer diameter of
10 mm (Li et al., 2018). The present study retains this tool design to obtain
a 10 mm depth of cut during the rough machining stage. As shown in
Figure 2, the outer diameter of the tool substrate and its wall thickness are
10 mm and 1 mm, respectively. The tool has five rows of 1-mm-diameter
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 5

Figure 3. Schematic diagram of electrodeposition of diamond particles on the tool substrate.

outlet holes in the tool sidewall, with each row (i.e., the center of the holes
in the given row) situated at 1.6, 3.3, 5, 6.7, and 8.4 mm from the bottom
of the tool. Each row has six outlet holes, and the rounded corner at the
tool’s bottom edge has a radius of 0.5 mm. Furthermore, 75–90 lm dia-
mond particles are fixed to the tool substrate by electrodeposition at
a concentration of about 8.8 carat cm
3, while the thickness and height
of the electrodeposit are approximately 0.1 and 15 mm, respectively.
A schematic diagram for electrodeposition process of diamond particles
on the tool substrate is illustrated in Figure 3.

Design of experimental system

As shown in Figure 4, the experimental setup developed for ECMG with
an inner jetted electrolyte consisted of a machining cell, a current-detection
unit, an electrolyte-circulation unit, a motion-control unit, and a power
supply. In the machining cell, the abrasive tool was clamped at the end of
the spindle using a through-hole structure, and both were synchronously
rotated using a servomotor. The rotary joint was installed at the top of the
spindle to transfer the electrolyte from a reservoir into the interior of the
rotating spindle. A slip ring was installed at the middle of the spindle to
transmit electrical current from the power supply to the rotating spindle.
The workpiece was fixed on a specially designed worktable that allowed
current transmission from the power supply to the workpiece. During
machining, the workpiece was fed along the desired machining path by the
motion-control unit, which allowed the feed rate to be changed and moni-
tored. The machining current was monitored and recorded using the cur-
rent-detection unit. Depending on the heater and thermostat used, the
6 S. NIU ET AL.

Figure 4. Experimental setup of the ECMG with an inner jetted electrolyte.

Table 1. Chemical composition of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy (wt.%).

Ti Al V Fe O C N H
89.36 6 4 0.3 0.2 0.08 0.05 0.01

filtered electrolyte at the required pressure and temperature was supplied

continuously and steadily to the machining zone.

Materials
Ti–6Al–4V is the most widely used commercial titanium alloy and is fre-
quently used as a material for aircraft airframes and engine components
(Shokrani et al., 2016). Ti–6Al–4V workpieces with dimensions of 10 cm 
8 cm  1.5 cm is used in this work. Table 1 shows the chemical compos-
ition of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy, which has a density of 4.5 g cm
3.
NaNO3 solutions are widely used in ECM processes as a nonlinear elec-
trolyte to reduce stray current attack of the non-processed surface of the
workpiece (Chen et al., 2017). In this investigation, the NaNO3 solution
was used as an electrolyte in the ECMG of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy. The mass
fraction and temperature of the NaNO3 solution was 10% and 30  C,
respectively.

Rough machining with ECMG

Maximum feed rate
The relative parameters selected for the rough machining using ECMG
were taken from previous reports and are listed in Table 2 (Li et al., 2018).
For each set of experimental conditions, the maximum feed rate is to be
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 7

Table 2. Relative parameters for the rough machining stage with ECMG.
Parameter Value
Spindle speed 1000 rpm
Applied voltage 15, 20, 25, 30 V
Electrolyte pressure 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 MPa
Depth of cut 10 mm
Electrolyte concentration 10 wt.%
Electrolyte temperature 30  C

Figure 5. Maximum feed rate as a function of the electrolyte pressure for several
applied voltages.

first tested and is defined as the maximum value of the feed rate at which
no spark or short circuit occurs during the machining process for 5 min (Li
et al., 2018). Each test begins with a low feed rate, which is then gradually
increased in increments of 0.1 mm min
1 until reaching the maximum feed
rate (Li et al., 2018). Each test is repeated three times to ensure the repro-
ducibility of the results of the maximum feed rate.
Figure 5 shows the maximum feed rate as a function of the electrolyte
pressure for several applied voltages. For alloys with high titanium content,
the compact oxide layer that forms is difficult to dissolve when using the
NaNO3 electrolyte (Chen et al., 2017). Applying a high voltage accelerates
the destruction of the oxide layer and enhances the ECM dissolution.
However, increasing the applied voltage also produces more machining by-
products to appear in the machining gap, which adversely affects the elec-
trolyte conductivity. Applying a large electrolyte pressure helps to accelerate
the transport of these machining by-products. Clearly, a high applied volt-
age combined with a large electrolyte pressure is favorable to maximize the
feed rate in ECMG. In the present work, applying this strategy improved
the maximum feed rate from 1.2 to 2.7 mm min
1.
8 S. NIU ET AL.

Figure 6. Material removal rate under various experimental conditions.

Machining a deep slot

Based on the results for the maximum feed rate, we machined a slot under
several sets of experimental conditions. For each set, the slot was first
machined for 5 mm at an initial feed rate of 1 mm min
1, after which the
maximum feed rate was used for the next 25 mm. The volumetric MRR
was calculated based on the differential mass measurements and the proc-
essing time. Figure 6 shows the MRR under various machining conditions.
As the applied voltage and electrolyte pressure increased, a higher max-
imum feed rate could be used to machine the slot, which led to a shorter
processing time. Therefore, the MRR increased from 133.3 to 248.3 mm3
min
1 after increasing the maximum feed rate from 1.2 to 2.7 mm min
1.
This work achieved an MRR of 248.3 mm3 min
1 when fabricating a slot
at an applied voltage of 30 V and an electrolyte pressure of 0.6 MPa.
Figure 7a shows the machining current obtained for this experiment. The
current increased slowly when the abrasive tool began to advance into the
workpiece at an initial feed rate of 1 mm min
1. And then the feed rate
reached 2.7 mm min
1, the current surged to approximately 190 A, which
was caused by the sharp decrease of the machining gap. No sparks or short
circuits occurred during the high-feed-rate machining, which indicates
good process stability. In addition, the cross-section of the machined slot at
a distance of 15 mm from the slot entrance was captured by an optical
microscope (DVM5000, Leica, Germany). Figure 7b exhibits the cross-
section profile of the slot for this experiment. It can be observed that the
right and left sidewalls of the slot obtained by the rough machining are not
straight. The reason behind the phenomenon is that the material removal
inevitably continues on the machined areas of the slot due to fact
that strong stray current during the rough machining, resulting in
undesired dissolution and poor dimensional accuracy.
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 9

Figure 7. Results of the machined slot using an applied voltage of 30 V and an electrolyte pres-
sure of 0.6 MPa: (a) machining current and (b) cross-sectional photograph.

Figure 8. Schematic diagram showing the measurements of the machined sidewall.

The average slot width and sidewall flatness of the slot profile were
measured with a coordinate measuring instrument (ZEISS CONTURA,
Germany) using the detection scheme shown in Figure 8. The slot width
was determined as the average of the horizontal distances for all the meas-
ured points of the two sidewalls between lines 1 and 3. The average width
of the machined slot was approximately 11.5 mm, which is greater than the
external diameter of the abrasive tool (about 10.2 mm). The oversized cut-
ting of the slot sidewall profile is 1.3 mm, which is defined as the difference
between the average slot width and the tool external diameter. Thus, the
proportion of the oversized cutting of the slot sidewall profile to the tool
external diameter was 12.75% after the rough machining. This result indi-
cates that using a high applied voltage and large electrolyte pressure cause
severe stray corrosion, which gives rise to a large overcut. Moreover, the
flatness of each sidewall was taken as the difference between the maximum
10 S. NIU ET AL.

Figure 9. Surface topography of the slot sidewall produced from the rough operation.

Figure 10. Surface composition of the slot sidewall produced from the rough operation.

and minimum horizontal distances between all the measured points of the
sidewall between lines 1 and 2. The sidewall flatness of the machined slot
was then taken as the average flatness of the left and right sidewalls, which
was 368.45 lm. Specifically,
ðL1M
L1 Þ þ ðL2M
L2 Þ
F¼ (1)
2
where L1M and L1 are, respectively, the maximum and minimum horizontal
distances from the left-side measurements, and L2M and L2 are those from
the right-side measurements (see Figure 8).
Figure 9 shows the surface topography of the rough-machined slot side-
wall as captured by a scanning electron microscope (SEM, S-3400, Hitachi,
Japan). Due to the severe stray corrosion, noticeable localized material
removal and uneven dissolution were detected on the sidewall surface.
Furthermore, the surface composition of the machined slot sidewall was
analyzed using energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), (see Figure 10). The
sidewall surface contained significant oxygen and carbon contents com-
pared with the composition of the as-received Ti–6Al–4V alloy, which indi-
cates that the oxide layer indeed re-formed and that some electrolytic
products, especially carbides, may have re-deposited onto the machined
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 11

Figure 11. Surface roughness of the slot sidewall produced from the rough operation.

surface. In addition, Figure 11 shows the surface roughness of the rough-

machined slot sidewall as obtained using a three-dimensional scanning laser
microscope (OLS4100, Olympus, Japan). The three-dimensional profile
shows clear bulges and depressions, and the measurements gave a surface
roughness of Ra ¼ 3.315 lm.
The rough machining stage thus provides a high MRR, but the profile of
the machined sidewall is quite uneven and has a bumpy surface. Therefore,
after the rough machining, the sidewall needs to be further refined by the
finish operation stage.

Finish machining with ECMG

It is known that there is a baseline dissolution potential for nonlinear
electrolytes, which represents a threshold required to dissolve anodic
materials. Previous work has shown that the dissolution potential of
Ti–6Al–4V in a 10% NaNO3 electrolyte solution is approximately 5.24 V
(Li et al., 2016). When the anode potential is above this threshold, a steep
rise in the current density occurs because of the break of the oxide layer
on the anode surface (Li et al., 2016). Therefore, a small applied voltage,
low electrolyte pressure, large feed rate and shallow depth of cut all need
to be used during the finish operation to decrease stray current attack and
tool wear as much as possible.
In this stage, the two sidewalls of the slot processed with an applied
voltage of 30 V and an electrolyte pressure of 0.6 MPa were further refined
during the finish machining, which does not require replacing the tool or
re-fixing the workpiece. Table 3 provides the relative parameters used
in the finish machining. An allowance of 0.9 mm for each sidewall of the
slot can be attained after the finish machining by using multiple passes.
Figure 12 shows the cross-sectional image of the slot after the finish
machining. Figure 13 further compares the cross-sectional profiles of the
12 S. NIU ET AL.

Table 3. Relative parameters for the finish machining stage with ECMG.
Parameter Value
Spindle speed 1000 rpm
Applied voltage 3V
Electrolyte pressure 0.2 MPa
Depth of cut 0.025 mm
Feed rate 30 mm/min
Electrolyte concentration 10 wt.%
Electrolyte temperature 30  C

Figure 12. Cross-sectional photograph of the slot machined from the finish operation.

Figure 13. Comparison of the cross-sectional profiles for the slot after the rough and fin-
ish operations.

slots obtained after the rough and finish operations. The average slot width
of the refined slot is approximately 12 mm, which is the sum of the tool
external diameter (about 10.2 mm) and the total finish-machining allow-
ance (1.8 mm). Obviously, the oversized cutting of the slot sidewall profile
is 0 mm after the finish machining. Compared with the rough machining,
the proportion of the oversized cutting of the slot sidewall profile to the
tool external diameter reduces from 12.75% to 0%. A reasonable
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 13

Figure 14. Surface topography of the slot sidewall after the finish operation.

Figure 15. Surface composition of the slot sidewall after the finish operation.

explanation is that there was no stray corrosion on the refined surface due
to the applied voltage being lower than the dissolution potential, which
resulted in no overcut during the finish machining. In addition, the profiles
of the two sidewalls for the final slot were both flat and straight. The side-
wall flatness was found to be 76.8 lm, which is an improvement of 79.2%
compared to the rough machining. This result indicates that the profile of
the slot sidewall after finish machining depends on the movement locus of
the tool sidewall. Thus, the finish operation stage has shown the capability
to achieve a much higher machining accuracy than the rough oper-
ation stage.
Figure 14 shows the surface topography of the slot sidewall after the fin-
ish operation. Apart from grinding striations, two main microstructure fea-
tures from the grinding surface appear on the refined sidewall; namely,
smeared and redeposited materials (Xi et al., 2018). This is primarily
because the electrolytic reaction during finish machining forms the oxide
layer on the machining surface, while the material removal is performed by
the actual grinding action. Figure 15 further shows the surface composition
of the slot sidewall after finish machining. Compared with the rough
machining stage, the percentage of oxygen and carbon on the refined side-
wall is significantly reduced and the titanium content becomes notably
14 S. NIU ET AL.

Figure 16. Surface roughness of the slot sidewall after the finish operation.

Table 4. Machining performances of slot sidewall obtained by roughing operation and finish-
ing operation.
Stage Oversized cutting Flatness Surface roughness
Rough operation 1.3 mm 368.45 lm 3.315 lm
Finish operation 0 mm 76.8 lm 1.06 lm

high. The reason for this is that there is only a minor extent of surface oxi-
dation on the machined surface due to a very weak stray current during
finish machining. This demonstrates that the stray-corrosion effects pro-
duced by the rough operation can be effectively eliminated during the fin-
ish operation stage.
In addition, Figure 16 shows the surface roughness of the refined side-
wall. The figure shows that the finish machining results in a significantly
reduced peak-valley distance compared to the same measurement after
rough machining. The roughness of the refined sidewall surface is Ra ¼
1.06 lm, which represents an improvement of 68% as compared to the
rough machining. Thus, the finish operation stage can also give a much
better surface quality than the rough operation stage. In addition, the
machining performances of slot sidewall obtained by roughing operation
and finishing operation are listed in Table 4, with the purpose of finding
information in an easy way.

Fabrication of thin-walled structures

A thin-walled structure made from the Ti–6Al–4V alloy was fabricated
using ECMG by combining the rough and finish machining. Most of the
bulk material removal was accomplished by the rough machining, whereas
the finish machining served to refine the two sidewalls of the thin-walled
structure manufactured by the rough machining. Figure 17 shows the
results of the rough and finish machining for the thin-walled structure. The
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 15

Figure 17. Ti–6Al–4V sample with thin-walled structure fabricated by the (a) rough and (b) fin-
ish operations implemented with ECMG.

rough machining removed approximately 9051.1 mm3 of material, which

accounts for 96% of the total material removal required to fabricate the
thin-walled structure. After finish machining, the thickness of the final
thin-walled structure was only about 1 mm. These results show the poten-
tial of the proposed machining method for the manufacturing of titanium
alloy components for the aerospace industry. Future work will consider
parameter optimization for the finish machining to further enhance the
machining performance.

Conclusions
This work proposes a machining method using ECMG on Ti–6Al–4V alloy
based on the combination of rough and finish operation stages and
16 S. NIU ET AL.

investigates the processing performance of this approach. The results led to

the following conclusions:

1. The results of the rough operation stage using an abrasive tool with five
rows of tool-sidewall outlet holes show that increases in the applied voltage
and electrolyte pressure respectively improved the processing efficiency. A
maximum feed rate of 2.7 mm min
1 and an MRR of 248.3 mm3 min
1
were obtained for a 10 mm depth of cut when machining a slot.
2. The results of the finish operation show that the overcut was reduced to
zero after suitable adjustments to the operational parameters. There was
also virtually no stray corrosion effects on the refined surface. After the fin-
ish operation stage, the sidewall flatness decreased from 368.45 to 76.8 lm
and the sidewall surface roughness reduced from 3.315 to 1.06 lm.
3. A Ti–6Al–4V sample with a thin-walled structure was fabricated by
combining the rough and finish operation stages with ECMG. The
rough operation removed about 9051.1 mm3 of material, which accounts
for 96% of the total material removal. After the finish operation, the
final thin-walled structure was only about 1 mm thick.

Funding
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of
China (Grant No. 2018YFB1105902) and the Jiangsu Innovation Program for Graduate
Education (Grant No. KYLX16_0316).

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