Finite Element Simulation of Localized Electrochemical Deposition for Maskless Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Localized electrodeposition (LED) was explored as an additive manufacturing technique with high control over process parameters and output geometry. The effect of variation o f process parameters and changing boundary conditions during the deposition process on the output geometry was observed through simulation and experimentation. Trends were found between specific process parameters and output geometries in the simula tions; trends varied between linear and nonlinear, and certain process parameters such as voltage and interelectrode gap were found to have a greater influence on the output than others. The simulations were able to predict the output width of deposition of experiments in an error of 8-30%. The information gained from this research allows for greater understanding of LED output, so that it can potentially be applied as an additive manufacturing technique of complex three-dimensional (3D) parts on the microscale.

A novel system for cloud-based micro additive manufacturing of metal structures

“…Future work is required to optimize the techniques, or try a new technique entirely. Additionally, the alteration of tool size needs to be explored experimentally; this has been shown in simulations to have an impact on the electrical behavior and deposition geometry (Brant et al, 2015).…”

“…An in-house electrochemical setup developed in prior work (Brant, Sundaram, & Kamaraj, 2015;Sundaram, Kamaraj, & Kumar, 2015) was used to perform micro additive manufacturing. The setup is illustrated in Figure 1(a).…”

“…The deposition times vary based upon geometrical and electrical parameters (Brant et al, 2015), which can be varied infinitely. A cloud database that can store the ideal point deposition time for a given set of process parameters is an extremely useful tool that can save the time, effort, and cost required to figure it out on the spot by individual users.…”

Challenges of additive manufacturing technologies from an optimisation perspective

“…If numerical models are able to handle technological, physical, and geometrical constrains, design guidelines can be adopted by coupling the optimisation tool to decision making paradigms. Some studies show that AM process simulation is possible [125,126] but the ultimate goal would be to bridge such realistic tools with the optimisation paradigm. Recent works prove unfortunately that we are far from such ideal situation [127].…”

Mask-Less Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing: A Feasibility Study

“…Very few studies have reported the use of pulse power for localized electrochemical deposition. A finite element based study of the localized deposition lists the effects of voltage, concentration of electrolyte, and interelectrode gap during the deposition [36]. Lower duty cycles result in lesser pores and a smoother finish.…”