Electrochemical machining (ECM) is an electrochemical erosion process with a vibrating electrode in which a direct current is applied between an electrode and the workpiece. The workpiece dissolves and follows the geometry of the electrode. With this, very complex structures can be made, such as the bladed disk of the image.
In this project, PBF wanted to lay the technological foundation for APEM, an advanced ECM technique. This allows hard metals and alloys to be processed electrochemically. With the current technology the processing of these materials is impossible or very difficult. The project was a partnership between PBF Group BV from Almelo and PEMTec from Forbach, France.