Process Signatures – an Alternative Approach to Predicting Functional Workpiece Properties

The prediction of functional workpiece properties has attracted much interest in academia, as well as in industry over the last 50 years. Although considerable progress has been made for single, well-understood processes it is basically still not possible to predict surface and subsurface properties from known workpiece and machining parameters. This keynote paper aims at suggesting a solution to this problem by describing machining processes by their converted and dissipated energy in the workpiece material, significant process state variables and their generation dynamics. For this new approach the introduction of the term process signature is suggested.