Electrochemical machining, i.e. removing metal by passing current between an electrode and a workpiece in the presence of an electrolyte

Introduced: January 1985

Last revised: January 2006

Classification Context

Section:: PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
Class:: MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
Subclass:: WORKING OF METAL BY THE ACTION OF A HIGH CONCENTRATION OF ELECTRIC CURRENT ON A WORKPIECE USING AN ELECTRODE WHICH TAKES THE PLACE OF A TOOL; SUCH WORKING COMBINED WITH OTHER FORMS OF WORKING OF METAL

Filing statistics

IPC B23H 3/00 belongs to the parent subclass B23H, which recorded 21,842 patent applications worldwide between 2013 and 2023. Annual filings grew from 1,250 in 2013 to 2,351 in 2023 (+88%), peaking at 2,700 applications in 2020. The most active applicants in class B23 are ITW (ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS) (3,407 applications), FANUC (3,120 applications) and DISCO ABRASIVE SYSTEM (2,777 applications).

Source: EPO PATSTAT, worldwide filings

Related Keywords

ELECTRO-CHEMICAL machining

4 direct subcodes

Child Classifications

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B23H 3/02 Electric circuits specially adapted therefor, e.g. power supply, control, preventing short circuits
B23H 3/04 Electrodes specially adapted therefor or their manufacture
B23H 3/08 Working media
B23H 3/1 Supply or regeneration of working media

Top Applicants

Top 10 applicants by patent filingsfor class B23, 2013–2023, worldwide · Source: EPO PATSTAT

ITW (ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS) US 3,407
FANUC JP 3,120
DISCO ABRASIVE SYSTEM 2,777
HAN'S LASER TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY GROUP COMPANY 2,629
ROBERT BOSCH DE 2,468
FANUC 2,273
DISCO CORPORATION JP 2,267
GE (GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY) US 1,611
CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 1,534
ISCAR IL 1,499