Recent developments and research challenges in electrochemical micromachining (AμECM)

Electrochemical machining (ECM) and especially electrochemical micromachining (mu ECM) became an attractive area of research due to the fact that this process does not create any defective layer after machining and that there is a growing demand for better surface integrity on different micro-applications such as microfluidics systems and stress free drilled holes in automotive and aerospace manufacturing with complex shapes. Electrochemical machining is a non-conventional machining process based on the phenomenon of electrolysis. This process requires maintaining a small gap (size of a few mu m)-the inter-electrode gap-between the anode (workpiece) and the cathode (tool electrode) in order to achieve acceptable machining results (i.e. accuracy, high aspect ratio with appropriate material removal rate and efficiency). This paper presents different problematic areas of electrochemical micromachining (often referred to as electrochemical micromachining or mu ECM). The aim of this paper is to address the problems met by the mu ECM technology developers and to present the current state-of-the-art solutions.