Titanium and niobium alloys are widely used at present in aircraft, nuclear energy, microwave technology, space and ultrasonic technology, as well as in manufacture of medical products. In most cases production technology of such products involves an implementation of a quality polishing surface. Mechanical and electrochemical methods are conventionally used for polishing products made of titanium and niobium alloys. Disadvantages of mechanical methods are low productivity, susceptibility to introduction of foreign particles, difficulties in processing complex geometric shapes. These materials are hard-to-machine for electrochemical technologies and processes of their polishing require the use of toxic electrolytes. Traditionally, electrochemical polishing of titanium and niobium alloys is carried out in acid electrolytes consisting of toxic hydrofluoric (20–25 %), sulfuric nitric and perchloric acids. The disadvantage of such solutions is their high aggressiveness and harmful effects for production personnel and environment. This paper proposes to use fundamentally new developed modes of electrolytic-plasma treatment for electrolyte-plasma polishing and cleaning products of titanium and niobium alloys while using simple electrolyte composition based on an aqueous ammonium fluoride solution providing a significant increase in surface quality that ensures high reflectivity. Due to the use of aqueous electrolyte the technology has a high ecological safety in comparison with traditional electrochemical polishing. The paper presents results of the study pertaining to the effect of titanium and niobium electrolytic-plasma polishing characteristics using the developed mode for productivity, processing efficiency, surface quality, and structure and properties of the surface to be treated. Based on the obtained results, processes of electrolytic-plasma polishing of a number of products made of titanium alloys BT6 (Grade 5), used in medicine and aircraft construction, have been worked out in the paper.

A great attention has been recently paid to development of ultrasound technologies for treatment of blood vessels throughout the world. Authors of the paper have developed a new effective treatment method and ultrasound equipment that allow to carry out destruction of intravascular formations with simultaneous increase in elasticity of a vascular wall together with cardiologists from Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education and Republican Scientific and Practical Center “Cardiology”. Advantages of the method are absence of necessity in surgical intervention, low probability of complications, low cost of treatment. The main component of the developed ultrasonic equipment is a tube-type stepped concentrator-waveguide having a spherical tip at a distal end with a single axial hole of 0.5 mm-diameter and three radial holes of 0.3 mmdiameter located at an angle of 120° relative to each other. The main effect for application of the concentratorwaveguide is achieved by ultrasonic vibromechanical action of a spherical tip on intravascular formation with subsequent removal of destruction products by their aspiration from a vascular bed. An additional effect is provided due to cavitation action on vascular formation and vessel walls by flow of fluid supplied via an internal cavity of the stepped concentratorwaveguide through the holes in the spherical tip. This contributes to a significant improvement in elastic properties of a vascular wall in atherosclerosis and diabetes. It is necessary to ensure high accuracy and quality of surfaces for the formed microholes in order to achieve maximum efficiency of the cavitation jet impact on intravascular formations and on the vascular wall. According to the analysis results on specific features of existing methods for small-diameter hole shaping, an electrochemical hole cutting method has been proposed which allows to obtain accurate micro-holes with a diameter of 0.3 mm and high surface quality in parts of small cross section and rigidity. The paper presents results of study on effect of electrochemical holes cutting parameters (voltage, concentration and consumption of electrolyte) on size and shape of the formed microholes. Main modes of electrochemical holes cutting process have been developed which allow to form micro-holes in a spherical tip of a tubular concentrator-waveguide with required accuracy, dimensions and shape.

However, the ECP in its classical form has a number of significant drawbacks. One of them is a dependence of treatment modes and electrolyte compositions on the processed material. In addition, aggressive expensive electrolytes that require special technologies for disposal are used for ECP. Electrolytes in ECP often require heating to a temperature of 60–90 °C. Processing at such temperatures causes significant harm to the environment and production personnel. To eliminate the existing disadvantages of the ECP and expand its technological capabilities, a processing method with application of pulsed unipolar and bipolar modes has been proposed. As a result, fundamentally new processes of pulse ECP with a pulse duration of 0.05–20.00 ms have been developed. They provide a reduction of energy costs for the process and high efficiency of polishing in comparison with traditional DC polishing. The rate of smoothing micro-roughness of the treated surface related to the total metal removal is significantly increased. The use of pulse modes in comparison with traditional ECP allows processing in universal electrolytes of simple compositions based on sulfuric and orthophosphoric acids without addition of chromium anhydride. Application of the developed pulse modes, which will provide at low metal removal a significant change in surface roughness, is the most appropriate for the ECP of precise parts, products or parts of small cross-section and rigidity, such as medical devices for minimally invasive surgery, precision engineering parts, etc. The paper presents results of a study for influence of pulsed unipolar and bipolar ECP modes on the surface quality of stainless steel specimens, as well as a comparative analysis of the efficiency of using pulsed ECP modes instead of DC polishing. The technological parameters of ECP using pulsed modes, providing the highest quality surface polishing with high efficiency of micro-roughness smoothing and low energy consumption have been established in the paper.

Пластическое деформирование и электрофизикохимическая обработка трубчатых медицинских концентраторов-волноводов Асп. Дай Вэньци 1) , кандидаты техн. наук, доценты Ю. Г. Алексеев 1) , А. Ю. Королёв 1) , асп. А. С. Будницкий 1) 1) Белорусский национальный технический университет (Минск, Республика Беларусь)