Selective-Jet Electrochemical Processing for Low-Cost Additive Manufacturing of Metallic Components at Room-Temperature.

Selective-Jet Electrochemical (SJE) processing has emerged as a novel approach for manufacturing metallic components with a lower cost in comparison with other conventional techniques. In addition, this technique allows metal processing at room temperature, which is considered a benefit as it reduces the need for expensive vacuums and temperature-regulating setups. Basically, SJE performs reduction of metal ions from one electrode and gives it back at the other electrode which is oppositely charged. One of the key characteristics is the capability of adding or subtracting material simply by reversing the polarity applied during the process, which helps in optimizing the AM process. One of the remaining drawbacks of this technique is the slow deposition rate that needs to be enhanced to achieve fully the promises of SJE. In this work, both deposition and etching of copper were monitored by using various polymer-printed nozzles diameters, along with varying current densities and process time. More specifically, relations of the dimensions, density and electrical conductivity of the deposited/etched materials to the mentioned parameters are reported that provide the critical parameter space to be optimized in order to achieve a speedy deposition and obtain the desired density.