Abstract
Electrochemical machining is a relatively new technique, only being introduced as a commercial technique within the last 70 years. A lot of research was conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, but research on electrical discharge machining around the same time slowed electrochemical machining research. The main influence for the development of electrochemical machining came from the aerospace industry where very hard alloys were required to be machined without leaving a defective layer in order to produce a component which would behave reliably. Electrochemical machining was primarily used for the production of gas turbine blades or to machine materials into complex shapes that would be difficult to machine using conventional machining methods. Tool wear is high and the metal removal rate is slow when machining hard materials with conventional machining methods such as milling. This increases the cost of the machining process overall and this method creates a defective layer on the machined surface. Whereas with electrochemical machining there is virtually no tool wear even when machining hard materials and it does not leave a defective layer on the machined surface. This article reviews the application of electrochemical machining with regards to micro manufacturing and the present state of the art micro electrochemical machining considering different machined materials, electrolytes and conditions used.
Highlights
Electrochemical machining (ECM) is a nonconventional manufacturing process which relies on duplicating the shape of the tool electrode into the workpiece via the anodic dissolution of the workpiece.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
The electrolyte has three main roles in the ECM process; it carries the current between the tool and the workpiece,[4,25,31] it removes the products of the reaction from the IEG2,5,9,10,29,31–33 and it removes the heat produced from the passage of the current.[2,4,5,9,10,31,34]
From the review process described above, it was shown that already many researchers have successfully demonstrated the use of ECM in manufacturing micro features on surfaces through the use of a pulsed potential in combination with a small inter-electrode gap (IEG)
Summary
Electrochemical machining (ECM) is a nonconventional manufacturing process which relies on duplicating the shape of the tool electrode into the workpiece via the anodic dissolution of the workpiece.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7] In ECM, both the tool electrode and the workpiece are submerged in an electrically conductive electrolyte, usually an aqueous salt solution such as sodium chloride (NaCl) or sodium nitrate (NaNO3).[4,5,8,9,10] A constant potential is applied between the two electrodes ensuring the workpiece becomes the anode (positive electrode). The electrolyte has three main roles in the ECM process; it carries the current between the tool and the workpiece,[4,25,31] it removes the products of the reaction from the IEG2,5,9,10,29,31–33 and it removes the heat produced from the passage of the current.[2,4,5,9,10,31,34]
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