Materials Technology

The molecular decomposition process (MDP) is characterized as a form of electrochemical machining, dating back to the pioneering work of 19th-Century English physicist Michael Faraday. Faraday discovered quantitative relationships between electrical charges and the weights of substances consumed and produced by anodic metal machining.

In 1929, Russian researcher W. Gussef developed a process to machine metal anodically, and 30 years later, the technology became commercially suitable. From the 1960s through the 1990s, electrochemical machining techniques were applied in the turbine industry and garnered positive results due to superior stock-removal rates. However, the necessary abrasives and electrolytic fluids were proving harmful to the environment over the same period, thus limiting the implementation of the process until recently.