An experimental study of electrochemical polishing for micro-electro-discharge-machined stainless-steel stents.

This paper reports electrochemical polishing (EP) of 316L stainless-steel structures patterned using micro-electro-discharge machining (μEDM) for application to stents including intelligent stents based on micro-electro-mechanical-systems technologies. For the process optimization, 10 μm deep cavities μEDMed on the planar material were polished in a phosphoric acid-based electrolyte with varying current densities and polishing times. The EP condition with a current density of 1.5 A/cm(2) for an EP time of 180 s exhibited the highest surface quality with an average roughness of 28 nm improved from~400 nm produced with high-energy μEDM. The EP of μEDMed surfaces was observed to produce almost constant smoothness regardless of the initial roughness determined by varying discharge energies. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was performed on the μEDMed surfaces before and after EP. A custom rotational apparatus was used to polish tubular test samples including stent-like structures created using μEDM, demonstrating uniform removal of surface roughness and sharp edges from the structures.