Selected Aspects of Electrochemical Micromachining Technology Development

The paper focuses on the fundamentals of electrochemical machining technology de-elopement with special attention to applications for micromachining. In this method, a material is removed during an anodic electrochemical dissolution. The method has a number of features which make it attractive technology for shaping parts with geometrical features in range of micrometres. The paper is divided into two parts. The first one covers discussion on: general characteristics of electrochemical machining, phenomena in the gap, problems resulting from scaling down the process and electrochemical micromachining processes and variants. The second part consists of synthetic overview of the authors' research on localization of pulse electrochemical micromachining process and case studies connected with application of this method with use of universal cylindrical electrode-tool for shaping cavities in 1.4301 stainless steel. The latter application was conducted in two following variants: electrochemical contour milling and shaping carried out with sidewall surface of rotating tool. In both cases, the obtained shape is a function of electrode tool trajectory. Selection of adequate machining strategy allows to obtain desired shape and quality.