Electrochemical machining and allied processes: a comprehensive review

Electrochemical machining (ECM) is a contemporary electrochemical energy-based machining practice that has widely been attempted for the productive processing of a vast range of typical engineering materials, namely, composites and difficult-to-process advanced materials. In the present work, an attempt has been made to critically review and report the previously investigated studies and research in the domain of machining numerous materials with electrochemical machining and its other allied methods. This work also deeply explores the various theoretical, experimental, modeling-based, and optimization-related research studies carried out in the broad domain of ECM for finding out the most effective and conclusive outcomes with the overall process improvement with the support and quality selection of machine, tool materials, electrolyte flow, and some other operating parameters. While shifting from macro- to micro-electrochemical machining, numerous investigations have been reported in the literature that have been targeted to enhance the overall machining performance and the measures. Among the numerous acquirable modifications in assisted ECM as employed in research and developments and industries, vibration-assisted ECM has been revealed as a more sturdily established ECM variation as compared to other explored versions such as abrasive Jet-ECM, magnetic-assisted ECM, and laser-assisted ECM. Furthermore, the in-depth discussion about jet-assisted ECM and wire ECM has also been reported, along with the considerations of several impactful process inputs. The concluding section of this article explores the several developments made in wire and micro-ECM processes and layouts the issues and directions for further research.