AMEGOS (EU)
This acronym stands for Automatic Mesh Generation and Optimisation for Industrial Flow Simulations. The objective of the AMEGOS project was to develop a generally applicable grid generation toolkit for unstructured grids, suitable for the simulation of industrial devices and processes in a wide range of critical industrial applications. These applications are characterised by strong convective-diffusive effects, complex internal geometries, moving boundaries and extremely thin diffusion layers near wetted surfaces.
Elsyca has integrated the mesh generation tools developed within this project in the Elsyca software solutions. Elsyca needs for the proper modelling of electrochemical processes a very accurate discretisation of the boundary layer near electrodes. Generally speaking, this layer is 10 times smaller than the hydrodynamic boundary layer. In this layer the concentration of reacting ions can vary over several decades. Further, the proper description of electrodeposition or dissolution processes, as well as electrochemical machining and electroforming requires flexible and automated grid adaptation algorithms based on remeshing: Extremely strong changes of electrode shape may occur locally (e.g. growing out of a singularity at electrode edge), which makes deformation algorithms impractical.
SPECTRUM (EU)
This acronym stands for Super Precision Electro-Chemical machining Technology including Recycling of Usable Materials. The proposed Spectrum project addressed a new, highly innovative and ecological clean bipolar Electro-Chemical Machining (ECM) production process, suitable for mass production of metal precision parts in a problem solving approach. The new production process enabled not only efficient mass production present products; it will enable the design and production of new classes of miniaturised products.
Elsyca was responsible for the development of an expert system being an integrated solution of ECM simulation (fluid flow, mass, charge and heat transport) including electrode shape optimisation. The software tools were CAD integrated and were in fact the predecessor of the Elsyca ECMMaster solution. The aim was that the electrode shapes, needed for the new ECM-tools, are modelled instead of optimised by a trial and error approach.
DESINER (EU)
Desiner stands for Development and Evaluation of Industrial Electrochemical Reactors. The objective of this project was to develop reliable and generally applicable design and test methods for electrochemical reactors of various natures and industrial relevance: plating (leadframes, PCB’s, wafers, ...) where it is a major problem to obtain uniformly deposited layers on well defined spots on a part, etching (e.g. for micro-mechanical parts), anodizing (for complex shapes in aviation and aeronautics, for high quality offset printing), etc.
Within this project, Elsyca developed a software tool which computes current density and layer thickness distributions over electrodes in a reactor, based on an advanced model which incorporates mass transport phenomena of charged species (due to diffusion, convection and migration by electrical forces) and electrochemical reaction(s) at the electrodes. This software tool was brought to a pre-competitive level, required to perform the reactor designs. Two major manufacturers and a research centre applied the design tool and built several industrially relevant reactors in order to evaluate the methodology, by measuring the reactor performances. In this way an evaluation of several design options became possible, hence providing the data needed for general application of integrated and optimal design combining know-how with numerical and statistical tools.