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Effect of electrolyte flow mode on the performance of micro-electrochemical additive manufacturing (μECAM) process

Book Contribution - Book Chapter Conference Contribution

Micro-electrochemical additive manufacturing (μECAM) is a variant of 3D printing technology which can locally deposit material on a substrate to form 2D coatings and even 2.5D to 3D shapes. Besides manufacturing microparts, μECAM can also be used to fill microcracks and for metallic surface coatings. Unlike laser-based additive manufacturing (AM), material deposited by μECAM is free of heat affected zones and internal stresses. However, it is a challenge to control the electrolyte flow in μECAM to achieve confined deposition, maintain accurate deposition over entire trajectory and avoid intermittent deposition. The issue is further complicated in surface tension driven meniscus based μECAM (MECAM) which is influenced by the substrate initial roughness, deposit shape and environmental conditions (e.g. humidity). This research presents a comparative study of two different electrolyte flow modes for μECAM namely, free-flow jet based μECAM (FJECAM) and MECAM. Micro-features of copper (Cu) were deposited on a stainless steel (S.S.) substrate with FJECAM and MECAM using a modified desktop 3D printer at different scan rates. The performance of the electrolyte flow modes in μECAM processes was evaluated through analysis of deposit microstructure and heights. For the same set of parameters, FJECAM performed better due to flow induced improvement in availability of electrolyte.
Book: Proceedings of 17th International Symposium on Electrochemical Machining Technology (INSECT 2021)
Pages: 269 - 274
ISBN:978-9-08289-313-7
Publication year:2021
Accessibility:Embargoed