Study of Electrochemical Behavior and a Material Removal Mechanism During Electrolytic Plasma Polishing of 316L Stainless Steel

作者：Gangqiang Ji, Longfei Ma, Sunan Zhang, Juan Zhang, Liyun Wu · 发表于：Materials · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/ma18061307 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Metal and Thin Film Mechanics、High-Temperature Coating Behaviors、Advanced Machining and Optimization Techniques

Electrolytic plasma polishing technology is widely used in medical devices, aerospace, nuclear industry, marine engineering, and other equipment manufacturing fields, owing to its advantages of shape adaptability, high efficiency, good precision, environmental protection, and non-contact polishing. However, the lack of in-depth research on the material removal mechanism of the electrolytic plasma polishing process severely restricts the regulation of the process parameters and polishing effect, leading to optimization and improvement by experimental methods. Firstly, the formation mechanism of passivation film was revealed based on an analysis of the surface morphology and chemical composition of stainless steel. Subsequently, the dissolution mechanism of the passivation film was proposed by analyzing the change in the valence state of the main metal elements on the surface. In addition, the surface enclosure leveling mechanism of electrolytic plasma polishing (EPP) for stainless steel was proposed based on a material removal mechanism model combined with experimental test methods. The results show that EPP significantly reduces the surface roughness of stainless steel, with Ra being reduced from 0.445 µm to 0.070 µm. Metal elements on the anode surface undergo electrochemical oxidation reactions with reactive substances generated by the gas layer discharge, resulting in the formation of passivation layers of metal oxides and hydroxides. The passivation layer complexes with s...