The demands on production processes vastly increased in the last decade. Beside the fulfillment of the fabrication task, a process has to be energy efficient and resource saving to be in line for mass production. For the evaluation of competing technologies or for the optimization of a process regarding these requests the knowledge about the specific process efficiency is crucial. However, the value strongly depends on the chosen process parameters and the environmental conditions, wherefore documented values in literature are inapplicable. Hence, an experimental determination for each individual case is inevitable. Existing methods for the estimation of the process efficiency are either inaccurate or time and cost intensive. Therefore a new method for determining process efficiencies for almost arbitrary materials and process conditions is presented. The method bases on process observation using thermographic imaging and a subsequent adjusted numerical computation of temperature fields. The result of the numerical calculation in combination with the evaluation of the weld seam cross section is the value for the energy coupling efficiency, melting efficiency as well as the overall thermal efficiency. The features of the proposed method are evaluated with a Design of Experiments (DoE) approach. The technique is applied to a conventional laser and plasma welding process as well as to laser-assisted plasma arc welding. In comparison to the individual processes, the laser-assisted plasma arc welding shows a more than doubled overall thermal efficiency, which can be ascribed to a drastic increase in melting efficiency and a moderate increase in energy coupling efficiency.

Bone drill chips that are collected during implant site preparation can be reused as autologous bone-grafting material for alveolar ridge augmentation. This study characterized five market-leading implant drill sets regarding their geometric properties and ability to produce vital bone chips. The drill geometry of each tool of five commercial implant drill sets was characterized while using optical profile projector devices and SEM. Bone chips were collected during the in vitro preparation of porcine jaw bone with the various drill sets. Produced bone chip masses were measured. The bone chips were cultured in vitro and the number of outgrown cells was determined and measurand for vitality. Furthermore, the thrust force and cutting torque were recorded to examine the mechanical loads of the manual drilling process. The tool geometry and set configuration of one out of five implant drill sets appears to be superior regarding chip mass, vitality, and thrust force. It could be proven that there is a correlation between vitality and thrust force. The thrust force is influenced by the cutting behavior of the tool, which in turn depends on the geometry of the tool. The tool geometry has an influence on the vitality of the augmentation material due to this relationship.

The development of appropriate processes aims to shorten the cycle time of the production of parts, based on fiber reinforced polymers. Here, the laser can be a tool for the future, because the wear‐ and tool free processing expands the area of treatment processes. But laser processing is a challenging process due to the strong differing thermo‐optical properties of fiber‐ and matrix material. The present paper shows a solution to take these limitations into account. An experimental setup is applied to combine radiation with 1 and 10 μm. Thereby, the parameter and application window is expanded by the mixing ratio of radiation with both wavelengths. The present paper will show optimized parameters for different kind of materials as a result of this novel type of processing.

Tailored processes are required to increase the acceptance of fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) in industry. For this purpose, the application of hybrid yarn facilitates short flow paths of the matrix systems and thus comparatively low consolidation pressures. This should be accompanied by appropriate fast processes. The remote-laser-ablation expands the area of processing strategies, so that the laser has the potential to be a tool for the future. Laser cutting of FRP is an ambitious process because of the inhomogeneity of the reinforcement material and the polymer matrix material. The present paper shows an experimental set up for combining beam radiation with wavelengths of 1.09 and 10.6 mm.