Abstract
As a substitute method for conventional chemical or mechanical oxide layer removal of metal surface, an application of vacuum arc has been studied. In this method, the oxide layer of metal surface is removed by cathode spots which appear on the cathode surface in low pressure arc. It has been confirmed that flat surface oxide layer on a metal plate can be successfully stripped. Our previous study shows that this method also can be applied to different type metal surface such as cylindrical pipe inside. However, a problem of non-uniform removal is still remained. In this research, an additional anode current path is set to the arc electric circuit and its influence on oxide layer removal is investigated.
