euspen’s 18th International Conference &

Exhibition, Venice, IT, June 2018

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High precision electrochemical manufacturing processes to meet the demand of

Industry 4.0

Lucas A. Hof1, Deependra Singh1, Panteha Fallah1, Rolf Wüthrich1

1
Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal H3G 1M8, Canada

[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract
Manufacturing industry is facing new challenges as there is a growing demand for mass-personalized products. A new kind of
processes need to be developed. A major hurdle to overcome for successful production of mass personalized products are setup and
tooling costs. Suitable manufacturing processes for personalized batch-size-1 production must be highly flexible and have little
overhead. Hybrid technologies are very promising as these processes require little to no specialized tooling and can handle virtually
any shape, including inner surfaces.
In the present communication, it is shown how electrochemical processes can be used to design high precision manufacturing
processes for Industry 4.0. Examples are discussed in the field of hard to machine materials like glass, post-processing technologies
for metal AM parts and fabrication of high-precision complex metal structures based on 3D printed high resolution polymer models.

Industry 4.0; mass-personalization; batch-size-1; electrochemical manufacturing; electro-polishing; micro-machining; post-processing;

electroforming; additive manufacturing;

AM will likely not be the sole manufacturing technology on

1. Introduction which industry will rely. Other technologies able to work
together or independently to AM (e.g. for materials that cannot
Manufacturing industry has to face a new trend: mass be printed well such as glass) will be needed.
personalisation. Market pull driven by shorter life-time cycles, Academia and industry just started to develop such
increased complexity and the demand for individualized technologies [7], but main research focus remain on AM and
products are main drivers. Mass personalization presents new comparatively little work is conducted on alternate
challenges: economical production of small batch sizes is technologies. As highlighted in a recent case study made by the
incompatible with established manufacturing systems designed Universities of Michigan and Cincinnati for the World Economic
to produce large quantities of identical parts. Recently a new Forum, hybrid technologies, in particular electrochemical
paradigm appeared as answer and was termed in Germany in technologies, would have a great potential towards this aim [8].
2011 as Industry 4.0 [1]. The key idea is a new type of In the present study, it is shown how hybrid electrochemical
manufacturing systems, smart factories, in which manufacturing processes can be used to design new high precision
entities communicate via the Internet of Things allowing higher manufacturing processes for industry 4.0. Some examples are
flexibility, quicker adaption to new designs and increased discussed in the field of hard to machine materials like glass,
productivity [2,3]. post-processing technologies for metal AM parts and fabrication
A first step towards mass personalisation is mass of high-precision complex metal structures based on 3D printed
customisation [4]. For such situations, smart factories are an high resolution polymer models.
excellent answer. In these cases, the shape of the sub-parts is
essentially fixed and the final product is built out of individual 2. High precision glass machining
modules. On the long run manufacturing industry will have to
deal with situations where shapes of parts change too where the The feasibility of a novel approach, using Spark Assisted
customer will not only choose from existing options but actively Chemical Engraving (SACE), to manufacture personalized parts
be involved in the design. In such cases (refered as mass in glass, is presented. Key in this methodology is the use of low-
personalization [5]) manufacturing processes of a new kind are cost rapid prototyping technology and an in-situ fabrication
needed which are able to keep manufacturing overhead related method for the needed tooling, eliminating indirect costs and
to change of part shapes low. In particular they have to be able reducing lead times. This approach can be used for on-demand
to address the issues of tooling costs (avoid part specific tooling), manufacturing of personalized high precision applications of
able to handle complex parts and reduce production steps (as in glass such as smart phone covers, Lab-on-Chip, green energy
each step parts will have to be transferred from one system to devices or fiber optic telecommunications.
another resulting in overhead due to e.g. alignment or tooling). 2.1. Experimental setup and SACE principles
Additive manufacturing (AM) appears to be one of such In SACE process (figure 1.A.), a voltage is applied between tool-
technologies and is cited in literature as the solution to mass and counter-electrode dipped in an alkaline solution [9]. At high
personalization [6]. Tooling costs are small (the machine builds voltages (around 30 V), the bubbles evolving around the tool
tooling during manufacturing) and complex shapes can be electrode coalesce into a gas film and discharges occur from the
produced. As such, AM appears as one of the corner stones of tool to the electrolyte through it. Glass is machined by thermally
Industry 4.0. However, besides presenting its own challenges, promoted etching [9].
 SACE has recently reached industrial maturity for mass- approach are biomedical implants, cooling channels inside
fabrication (figure 1.B.) [10]. Breakthrough was the molds for casting and lightweight parts for the aerospace
implementation of a force-sensitive machining head allowing industry.
the use of ultra-thin machining tools (diameter down to 30 µm), However, major issues are the limited materials available for
applying force-feedback algorithms and usage of the head as metal printing, limited quality in surface finish and the challenge
profilometer to measure machined features within the same of printing thin features (typically < 200 µm).
setup [11]. 3.1. Post-processing Additive Manufactured parts
A. Power supply
Force Set-point +
B.
Post-processing metal AM parts with processes requiring low
-
Force Sensor Feedback
Controller
tooling and ability to reach inner surfaces is a challenge. Here,
Voice coil
Actuator
electrochemical technologies are a good candidate.
Counter-
electrode (+)
Tool-
electrode (-)
Electro-polishing (EP) is an effective way to eliminate surface
asperities. A significant decrease in surface roughness could be
obtained after EP of various materials (Ti6Al4V, AlSi10Mg and
EOS PH1), as presented in figure 2. The team works as well to
Glass workpiece
Alkaline electrolyte

C. apply this post-process on metal AM parts with hard-to-reach

and small inner surfaces.
3.2. Fabricating complex metal structures
Design tooling Print tooling Metal AM is not capable of printing ultra-thin features
(typically < 200 µm) due to powder size. To address this issue,
we propose a novel approach able to produce ultra-thin (down
Design part to few microns) and light metal parts of complex shapes. The
Tool calibration Machine glass
process starts by printing a plastic part which is subsequently
made conductive by electroless plating. In a next step, a part of
controlled thickness and surface roughness can be created by
Figure 1. A. SACE process principle B. Developed industrial SACE
electroforming. Dissolving the plastic part in a last step allows
machine [10]. C. Process steps for fabrication of a client-specific
workpiece in glass by SACE technology.
the creation of self-standing ultra-light metal parts with high
surface finish and high complexity (figure 3).
2.2. Fabrication Process Cycle
An integrated approach is developed for fabrication of
personalized glass devices by SACE (figure 1.C.).
The tooling, tool-electrodes (Ø=100µm) and adequate sample
holders, is manufactured on demand by flexible processes to
meet requirements of low-cost personalization. An advantage of
SACE is the absence of high forces exerted on the tool and Figure 3. Process flow from design to metal part by electroforming
consequently the work-piece. Therefore, the tool-electrode can A second approach, currently under development in the team,
be fabricated on the same setup as used for machining the is the fabrication of 3D metal structures (aspect ratios > 10) by
workpiece and the sample holder can be manufactured by low- localized electrochemical electrodepostion (figure 4).
cost AM, like Fused Deposition Modeling. The digital design file
is used for programming the machining trajectory and for
designing a 3D model of the sample holder. The proposed tool
fabrication method calibrates the machine center as well, i.e.
the tool is aligned relatively to the workpiece and run-out is
reduced, eliminating the need of a costly high precision spindle
or subsequent alignment after each tool change. This
methodology allows significant reduction of setup times (about
Figure 4. Copper pillar (hight = 1100µm, Ø < 100 µm) fabricated by
60% compared to the conventional approach).
localised electrochemical deposition.

3. Additive Manufacturing
4. Conclusions

It is shown that hybrid electrochemical processes can be used

to design new high precision manufacturing processes for
industry 4.0 requiring low manufacturing overhead.
References
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Figure 2. A. Roughness profile of a Ti-alloy workpiece before EP (red) [8] J. Ni, J. Lee Cast study no7 World Economic Forum Global Agenda
and after EP (blue). B. Electron microscopy images of workpiece surface Council on the Future of Manufacturing
before EP (left) and after EP (right). [9] Wüthrich R, Abou Ziki JD. (Elsevier) 2015
[10] https://www.posalux.ch/site/en/products/microfor_sace/sace
Advances in AM allow for high resolution fabrication of complex [11] Wuthrich R, Hof LA, Abou Ziki JD, Cusanelli G, Thibaut P 2017 WO
three-dimensional structures. Promising applications for this 2017/064583 A1