The state of the art in electrochemical machining process modeling and applications

The Electrochemical Machining process (ECM) can be applied for shaping advanced conductive materials which are difficult or impossible for machining using conventional methods. In electrochemical machining the workpiece is an anode and material is removed as a result of electrochemical reactions. This mechanism of material removal makes it possible to obtain high metal removal rate and good surface layer quality when machining parts made of super-alloys, alloys, steels and some composite materials on metallic base. The very important but difficult problem is ECM process mathematical modeling because the phenomena occurring into interelectrode gap are very complicated. In order to simplify the mathematical modeling it is necessary to introduce some modification of the ECM sinking process by: application of pulse voltage (Pulse ECM) often correlated with electrodes vibration, ECM machining with universal electrodes. The other important directions of ECM process development are: manufacturing processes by electrochemical deposition and some hybrid processes as electrochemical-electrodischare or electrochemical grinding machining.