Preliminary assessment of electro-chemical machining for aluminum parts produced by laser-based powder bed fusion

Electro-chemical machining (ECM) is a nonconventional machining process based on the anodic dissolution of the workpiece. The peculiar features of this process make it suitable for application in the aerospace, automotive, or medical fields where laser-based powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is consolidating as a manufacturing solution for high-performance components. The roughness of as-built L-PBF parts often requires surface finishing before usage in order to enable a correct operation as well as to prevent early fatigue failure. The viability of ECM on L-PBF components is still scarcely investigated in the literature. In this article, the process was applied to AlSi10Mg parts produced by L-PBF. An experimental plan was designed to select the process parameters and to study their effect on the surface roughness and morphology. Process variables including feed rate, time, voltage, and water pressure were investigated. As a result, it was observed that the ECM performance was different for parts produced by traditional processes or by L-PBF, even for comparable composition. Owing to the presence of satellite particles on L-PBF surfaces, ECM was only effective in the pulsed mode.