High precision electrochemical manufacturing processes to meet the demand of Industry 4.0

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;