A virtuous cycle in materials engineering and surface finishing: design-print-image

Abstract

Electrochemical cells continue to be important in synthesis and processing of commodity and speciality chemicals, environmental remediation, energy conversion and electrodeposition. A current challenge is the increasing need to achieve a high performance from cells which can be easily designed, manufactured or modified. Conventional manufacturing has involved machining of cast and extruded materials in a mechanical engineering workshop, which can involve delays, the need for skilled specialists and considerable costs. Increasingly, the benefits of fast prototyping as a route to manufacture are being realised. Modern approaches to detailed imaging of structures (e.g., by computed tomography) can be combined with on-screen, digital design (via computer software suites), followed by modification then data export to a 3D printer. In this fashion, a fast, flexible, cost effective and attractive route to manufacture of prototype electrodes and cell bodies can be realised. This paper demonstrates the success of a design-image-manufacture cycle to realise polymeric electrochemical flow cell compartments and electrodes. Future developments are suggested.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Luis Arenas Martinez: orcid.org/0000-0002-9579-5082

ORCID for Carlos Ponce De Leon Albarran: orcid.org/0000-0002-1907-5913

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