Igor Danilov is an Early Stage Researcher of the European project MICROMAN from September 2017. Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Andreas Schubert and PD Dr. Matthias Hackert‑Oschätzchen he is working on Plasma electrolytic Polishing (PeP).
Plasma electrolytic Polishing allows to polish metallic parts and can decrease roughness down to 0.02 μm Ra. Although it is known from the middle of 70s, there is lack of understanding the polishing processes and the phenomena, taking part in it.
“PeP is really fascinating phenomenon, that combines plasma, electrochemical and thermal processes. And it has a large demand for investigations, research and development,” says Igor, “It is still not clear, how this process really works. I think, that monitoring of the most important process parameters and simulations will help me to answer this question.”
The creation of in-line monitoring systems as well as an improved understanding of the PeP process are the scientific goals of the researcher. To achieve this goals, he is working on several simulations and a series of experiments. Currently he is focused on multiphysics models, which simulate the removal process. Selected results of these simulations will be presented and published at the COMSOL conference in October 2018 in Lausanne.
Industrial research partners are different SMEs and the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU in Chemnitz. Fraunhofer is the biggest organization for applied research and development in Europe. Igor benefits of excellent equipment and experienced supervisors like Dr. Jan Edelmann and Dr. Gunnar Meichsner during his secondments at Fraunhofer IWU.