Electrochemical additive manufacturing of copper parts: printed material properties vs. traditionally deposited

The present work investigates the properties of copper, being obtained by electrochemical 3D printing. The square copper object of 200 µm thickness was obtained from copper sulphate electrolyte. The mechanical and corrosion properties of the copper were investigated and compared to the galvanic and metallurgical copper. The Meier microhardness, Young’s modulus, and plasticity coefficients of electrochemically deposited copper correspond to the properties of 3D-printed copper within 5% accuracy. The linear polarization resistance technique, used in 3.5% NaCl solution, showed that the corrosion rate of printed copper (7.4 mA/cm²) lies in between the corrosion rate of metallurgical copper (11.1 mA/cm²) and the corrosion rate of galvanic copper (6.9 mA/cm²). Thus, the quality of the copper metal, obtained by 3D printing, remains the same as for traditional manufacturing making electrochemical printing a promising technology for copper parts production.