Modelling the electroforming process: significance and challenges

Abstract

Electrochemical forming (or electroforming), is gaining recognition as an additive and sustainable manufacturing process. Electroforming could shape part of the fourth industrial revolution through thoughtful and systematic modelling. For this to be useful, efficient simulation of the electroforming process in 4.0 era should be used as a tool to design, test and propose optimised processes. Emphasis should be put on building models that provide new information about the electrochemical systems under investigation or lay the groundwork for innovative applications and provide the industry with options to update obsolete process models currently in use. This will lead to a decrease in process waste, lower inventory needs, perhaps meet environmental regulations and optimise supply chains. In this review article, key studies on modelling electroforming processes are critically reviewed against this framework. The authors suggest some useful modelling approaches using commercial software.

Modelling the Scaling-Up of the Nickel Electroforming Process

“…Moving forward, Figure 4 presents the deposit thickness profiles (reflecting the current distribution) predicted for the two different reactors. In general, the current is predicted to be higher at the edges than at the centre of the disk as would be expected (Andreou and Roy, 2021). Consequently, increase in thickness profiles was predicted at the edges.…”

“…Based on such information, certifiable models and new methodologies for controlling the thickness of an electroform, its uniformity and shape evolution could be developed. The authors have already discussed the state-of-the-art studies of modelling the electroforming process in a previous review paper (Andreou and Roy, 2021). However, it is important to briefly present here some of the most influential works-to the authors' opinion-on modelling other metal electrodeposition processes, which have reported findings that are proven to be a potent starting point for the studies focusing on modelling the electroforming process itself.…”

“…The software has been popular with electrochemists (Mahapatro and Suggu, 2018) (Heydari et al, 2020) and uses FEM for calculations. The authors have discussed the potential and limitations of the software in an earlier review (Andreou and Roy, 2021). In particular, it needs to be mentioned that our model used the "Electrodeposition" interface in COMSOL Multiphysics ® .…”

Review—Electroforming Process for Microsystems Fabrication

“…It will lead in less process waste, decreased inventory demand, potential compliance with environmental requirements, and supply chain optimization. 118 The most competitive industrial manufacturers have been working to make industrial manufacturing large volume, low cost, while maintaining high quality, and sustainable. Being an additive manufacturing process electroforming generates a limited amount of waste during manufacturing, aligning with sustainability goals by minimizing resource consumption and environmental effect.…”