Wettability of mold materials finished by a new surface finishing/modifying technique

Abstract

In the present study, Electrolytic in-process Dressing (ELID) grinding was performed on mold materials (type 420J2 stainless steel), and the processing characteristics and resulting surface properties were evaluated. We used different grinding abrasives to investigate the effects of grinding parameters on the surface hydrophilicity of the processed workpieces. The results confirmed that surfaces processed with alumina abrasives had the highest hydrophilicities. This was suggested to be because the strong Coulomb force between the diffusion layers of abrasive elements (Al) and the droplets enhance the hydrophilicity relative to the other series.