Advancing electrochemical machining by the use of additive manufacturing for cathode production

The emergence of additive manufacturing (AM) technology creates promising new possibilities for the tool design in established manufacturing technologies. In electrochemical machining (ECM) it enables the integration of complex flow channels into the cathode whereby new electrolyte flushing concepts can be realized. Therefore, cathodes with three different flow channel geometries where manufactured by AM and applied in ECM. It was found, that the different designs have a significant influence on the accuracy of the machined workpieces. Finally, CFD simulations of the electrolyte flow could identify the underlying mechanism for the formation of the observed deviations.