In general, the surface of an aluminum plate machined chemically by the use of caustic soda solution is very rough. The roughness is increased with the concentration and the temperature of working solution as well as with the working time. At lower solution temperature the roughness decreased, but the machining speed decreased too. Accordingly, from the practical point of view, some means must be found to decrease only the roughness without decreasing the machining speed.
In a series of experiments, various factors affecting the roughness of the machined surface were examined. As a result, it was assumed that the most predominant factor of increasing roughness was the adhesion of dregs produced by impuritis in the material on the machined surface. therefore, the addition of chemicals which dissolve these impurities were found to promote the smoothness on the machined surface.
Incidentally, it was shown that the addition of a wetting agent and a seqestering agent was also effective to smooth the machined surface.
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