Many manufacturing sectors require high surface finishing. After machining operations such as milling or drilling, undesirable burrs or insufficient edge finishing may be generated. For decades, many finishing processes have been handmade-basis; this fact is accentuated when dealing with complex geometries especially for high value-added parts. In recent years, it’s a tendency of trying to automate as far as possible this kind of processes, repeatability and time/money savings are main purposes. Based on that idea, the aim of this work is to check new tools and strategies for finishing aeronautical parts, especially critical engine parts made on Inconel 718, a very ductile nickel alloy. Automating edge finishing of chamfered holes is a complicated but really important goal. In this paper, flexible abrasive tools were used for this purpose. A complete study of different abrasive possibilities was carried out, mainly focusing on roughness analysis and final edge results obtained.

Anatomical airways parameters as length, diameter and angles have a strong effect on the flow dynamics. Aiming to explore the effect of variations of the bifurcation angle (BA) and carina rounding radius (CRR) of lower human airways on the respiratory processes, numerical simulations of airflow during inhalation and exhalation were performed using a synthetic bifurcation models. Geometries for the airways models were parameterized based on a set of different BA's and several CRR's. A range of Reynolds numbers (\Reyn) relevant to the human breathing process were selected to analyzed the airflow behaviour. The numerical results show a significant influence of BA and the CRR on the development of the airflow within the airways, and therefore affecting some relevant features of the flow, namely the deformation of velocity profiles, alterations of pressure drop, the flow patterns, and finally enhance or attenuation of wall shear stresses (WSS) appearing during the regular respiratory process. Numerical results show that increases in the bifurcation angle value are accompanied by pressure increases of about 20\%, especially in the regions close to the bifurcation. Similarly, increases in the BA value lead to a reduction in peak shear stresses of up to 70\%. For the ranges of angles and radii explored, an increase in pressure of about 20\% and a reduction in wall shear stress of more than 400\% were obtained by increasing the carina rounding radius. Analysis of the coherent structures and secondary flow patterns also revealed a direct relationship between the location of the vortical structures, the local maxima of the velocity profiles and the local vorticity minima. This relationship was observed for all branches analysed, for both the inhalation and exhalation processes of the respiratory cycle.

Infectivity assays are the key analytical technology for development of manufacturing processes for virus-based therapeutics. Here, we introduce a novel assay format that utilizes label-free bright field images to determine the kinetics of infection-dependent changes in cell morphology. In particular, cell rounding is directly proportional to the amount of infectious virus applied, enabling rapid determination of viral titers in relation to a standard curve. Our kinetic infectious virus titer (KIT) assay is stability-indicating and, due to its sensitive readout method, provides results within 24 hours post-infection. Compared to traditional infectivity assays, which depend on a single readout of an infection endpoint, cumulated analysis of kinetic data by a fit model results in precise results (CV < 20%) based on only three wells per sample. This approach allows for a high throughput with ~400 samples processed by a single operator per week. We demonstrate the applicability of the KIT assay for VSV-GP and NDV, but it can potentially be extended to a wide range of viruses that induce morphological changes upon infection. The versatility of this assay, combined with its independence from specific instruments or software, makes it a promising solution to overcome the analytical bottleneck in infectivity assays within the pharmaceutical industry and as a routine method in academic research.