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Composite materials with carbon and glass fibers in an epoxy matrix are widely used systems due to their excellent mechanical parameters, and machining is a standard finishing operation in their manufacture. Previous studies focused exclusively on the characteristics of the fibers released into the air. This work aimed to analyze the nature of the material waste that remains on the work surface after machining. The dust on the work surface is made up of fibers and a polymer matrix, and due to its dimensions and chemical stability, it is a potentially dangerous inhalable material currently treated as regular waste. The smallest sizes of destroyed carbon fibers were generated during drilling and grinding (0.1 μm), and the smallest glass fiber particles were generated during milling (0.05 μm). Due to their nature, carbon fibers break by a tough fracture, and glass fibers by a brittle fracture. In both cases, the rupture of the fibers was perpendicular to or at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the fibers. The average lengths of destroyed carbon fibers from the tested processes ranged from 15 to 20 µm and 30 to 60 µm for glass fibers.

Rice husks are among the world's most significant agricultural waste. On the one hand, their use is related to solving an environmental problem; on the other hand, they use this material as a potential advanced material for many applications. Due to their chemical composition, rice husks can be a source of cellulose fibers and silica nanoparticles. The present text presents the essential characteristics of fibers and nanoparticles that were obtained from the treated shells at the same time. The fibers released from the rice husks have diameters ranging from 5 to 10 μm, the length being in the hundreds of micrometers. The surface of the fibers is not smooth, a sub-micrometer structure is visible, which indicates the potential possibility of further pulping into nanofiber formations. Silica nanoparticles are found on the surface of fibers released from rice husks and beyond. Nanoparticles form clusters of tens of nanometers; the sizes of individual particles are at the level of nanometer units. In the modified hulls, the accompanying technique did not identify the accompanying elements found in the original rice hulls.

The experiments aimed to verify the use of a focused ion beam (FIB) to create structures analogous to the natural surface and then use the two-step imprinting method to prepare replicas of the surface creat-ed by FIB. The surface of the petal leaves of pansy (Viola x wittrockiana) was selected as a natural sur-face pattern. The TESCAN AMBER FIB-SEM microscope was used for the preparation of an analo-gous surface. The molds for the replication process were made of President Light Body elastomer. PVB, PVA, CMC, PCL, EP were used for the preparation of polymer replicas. Scanning electron micro-scope was used to evaluate the quality of the prepared polymer replicas. The dimensions of the replicat-ed convex and concave structures were 25 x 20 µm. The polymers showed a different ability to copy the structure in detail. For PVA, CMC, and PCL, surface structuring at the nanometer level was described in this study. Due to the dimensions of the cones of convex and concave structures, the color was ob-served on all samples.

This experimental study deals with the problematics of thermal expansion α [10-6/K] of the composite systems based on recycled carbon fibres reinforced epoxy resin. The epoxy resin CHS – EPOXY 520 (EPOXY 15), cured with the hardener P11 (Districhem, s.r.o.), was chosen as a sample matrix. Recycled carbon fibres with a diameter of 7 μm and a length of 100 μm (Easy Composites Ltd.) were the filler. In the experiment, samples with the fulfilment of 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 90 and 100 phr were prepared. The samples were being poured into silicone molds, cured at an overpressure of 0.7 MPa and a temperature of 23 ± 2 °C for 24 hours. A thermomechanical analyzer was used to determine the thermal expansion of composite systems. The addition of recycled carbon fibers to epoxy resin can reduce the coefficient of linear thermal expansion at 20°C in half, from the original α = 45 to 55 × 10-6/K for non-filled epoxy resin to α = 25 to 27 × 10-6/K for filled epoxy resin. Optimal filling is at the level of 40 phr, with higher filling there is no further reduction of the linear thermal expansion coefficient.

Calcium carbonate is one of the most widespread natural material. Biogenic calcium carbonate nanoparticles are biocompatible. Currently, they are of great interest for their possible applications, especially in medicine. The aim of this introductory experimental study is to present a simple preparation of biogenic nanoparticles of calcium carbonate from natural resources with a subsequent specific behaviour of nanoparticles in aquatic environment. Different type of shells were used for the preparation of nanoparticles. All structures were burned at 850°C and then grounded to powder. The obtained powders were left in normal laboratory environment for 2 weeks and then placed in beakers with distilled water. Subsequently, two homogenization routes were used - stirring at 1000 rpm for 5 minutes and ultrasonic stirring for 5 minutes. One part of the particles was separated at the bottom of the beaker, but small formations started to create a fractal structure on the surface of water. These formations gradually increased. Crystalline interconnected structures built up with nanoparticles were confirmed by a subsequent analysis by a scanning electron microscope. EDX analysis confirmed the presence of calcium carbonate.

Plant and animal surfaces have become a model for preparing special synthetic surfaces with low wettability, reflectivity, or antibacterial properties. Processes that lead to the creation of replicas of natural character use two-step imprinting methods. This article describes a technique of synthetic polymer surface preparation by the process of two-stage imprinting. The laboratory-prepared structure copies the original natural pattern at the micrometer and sub-micrometer levels, supplemented by a new substructure. The new substructure identified by the scanning electron microscope is created at the nanometer level during the technological process. The nanostructure is formed only under the conditions that a hierarchical structure forms the surface of the natural replicated pattern, the replication mold is from a soft elastomeric material, and the material for producing the synthetic surface is a polymer capable of crystallizing. A new nanometer substructure formation occurs when the polymer cools to standard laboratory temperature and atmospheric pressure.

Composite materials made of fiber-reinforced plastic laminates are highly susceptible to surface damage caused by wear during contour milling, especially with inappropriate tool and cutting material properties. Improper choice of tools and cutting conditions lead to delamination between applied layers, thermal damage of materials in the polymer matrix, and reduction of the edge quality of cutting tools. The study was devoted to circumferential milling of twill-bonded CFRP (carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer) sheets with a focus on cutting forces and tool flank face wear, including their effect on the machined surface structure, roughness, and topography of the laminate. The main objective of the study is to investigate the feasibility of applying conventional coated tools, which are not primarily designed for milling CFRP, in comparison to a dedicated DLC (diamond-like carbon) coated tool, due to economic and distribution availability and the possibility of providing suitable cutting conditions during milling. The study provides results confirming the possibility of using conventional tools for machining CFRP and provides relevant experimental results that can be implemented for optimal tool selection, tool life criteria, cutting conditions, and machining strategies including low energy consumption. The best values of the investigated parameters were obtained when using the ECSSF (instrument designation) tool with DLC coating.

Glass fibers are often used as reinforcing fibers in reinforced polymers. Composites reinforced with glass fibers (GFRP) stand out with excellent mechanical and physical properties applicable to industrial practice. Machining these composites requires the correct choice of tools and cutting conditions so that the machined surface shows good properties, there is no fiber delamination, thermal stress on the workpiece and the tool, or excessive tool wear. The study was devoted to circumferential milling of fabric-bonded GFRP plates, in which attention was paid to the influence of the abrasive effect of glass fibers on wear and tool life. Attention was also paid to surface roughness after machining, material delamination, and forces during machining were measured. Three end mills of the same diameter with different coatings, number of teeth, and geometry were selected for the study. This choice of tools was intended to achieve various accompanying and subsequent phenomena that were investigated. Milling was performed on a CNC milling center under preselected cutting conditions. The paper summarizes information on fiber delamination and machined laminate damage after milling, tool wear, and surface roughness parameters as a function of tool wear. This paper provides an opportunity for researchers to increase their knowledge of specific aspects of milling GFRP composites, whether with a tool specifically designed for this or not.

In this study, the effects of occupational exposure to nanoparticles (NPs) were studied by NMR metabolomics. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and blood plasma samples were obtained from a research nanoparticles-processing unit at a national research university. The samples were taken from three groups of subjects: samples from workers exposed to nanoparticles collected before and after shift, and from controls not exposed to NPs. Altogether, 60 1H NMR spectra of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) samples and 60 1H NMR spectra of blood plasma samples were analysed, 20 in each group. The metabolites identified together with binning data were subjected to multivariate statistical analysis, which provided clear discrimination of the groups studied. Statistically significant metabolites responsible for group separation served as a foundation for analysis of impaired metabolic pathways. It was found that the acute effect of NPs exposure is mainly reflected in the pathways related to the production of antioxidants and other protective species, while the chronic effect is manifested mainly in the alteration of glutamine and glutamate metabolism, and the purine metabolism pathway.

This paper presents a contactless system for automatic gauge blocks calibration based on combination of laser interferometry and low-coherence interferometry. In the presented system, the contactless measurement of the absolute gauge block length is done as a single-step operation without any change in optical setup during the measurement. The optical setup is combined with compact gauge block changer with a capacity of 126-ga blocks, which makes the resulting system fully automatic. The paper also presents in detail a set of optimization steps which have been done in order to transform the original experimental setup into the automatic system which meets secondary length metrology requirements. To prove the measurement traceability, we conducted a set of gauge block length measurement comparing data from the optimized system and the established reference systems TESA NPL A.G.I. 300 and TESA–UPC operated in Czech Metrology Institute Laboratory.

Absolute length calibration of gauge blocks traceable to the definition of meter is an important task of the national metrology institutes responsible for providing reliable length artifacts for industrial use. The length of a gauge block (henceforth, represented as GB) is defined in ISO 3650 as the distance between its one measuring face and the surface of an auxiliary platen on which the other measuring face has been wrung. Accordingly, in central length calibration of K-grade GBs using interferometry, it is required that they be wrung onto an auxiliary platen whose characteristics are the same as the measuring face of the GBs. According to this definition, the length of a GB consists of its mechanical length between two faces and the wringing film thickness. This definition is practical and reasonable in many cases because GBs are used as length standards with wringing. Also this calibration method has the advantage that the thickness of the wringing film is propagated appropriately when lower grade GBs are calibrated by comparison to higher grade GBs via a mechanical comparator. In terms of this paper is briefly described interferometry method of gauge blocks calibration. The paper was written in conjunction with Czech Metrology Institute.

This paper deals with the assessment of the procedural gases progressive cooling methods and cooling by procedural liquids at turning technology on the final workpiece surface quality. Turning by using liquefied CO2, liquefied nitrogen and subcooled air supplied through the vortex tube was compared with the turning without process medium (taken as reference conditions) and with two procedural liquids EOPS 1030 and HOCUT 795 B. At evaluation effect of procedural gases there were monitored acting forces, cutting tool cooling rate and the machined layer of the material, cutting tool durability and cut surface quality which was characterized by surface roughness and dimensional accuracy. During the experimental part there were used devices as lathe SU50, piezoelectric dynamometer, the evaluation unit and profilometer. This issue was solved within solving the project TACR - TA03010492.

This paper presents a contactless method for gauge blocks calibration combining laser interferometry and low-coherence interferometry. In the presented system, the contactless measurement of the absolute gauge block length is done as a single-step operation without any change in optical setup during measurement, giving complete information about the gauge block length. The paper also presents a set of optimization steps which have been done in order to transform the original experimental setup into the automatic system which meets legal length metrology requirements. To prove the measurement traceability, we conducted a set of gauge block length measurement comparing data from the optimized system and the established reference systems TESA NPL A.G.I. 300 and TESA–UPC operated in Czech Metrology Institute laboratory.

Demands on a surface layer quality of machined components are still increasing with increasing of machining productivity. Changes of mechanical properties in the thin surface layer of a workpiece occur due to thermal and deformation effects of the cutting tool during machining. The aim of the present paper is a study of the surface layer of samples from hardened steel (14th grade of steel), which were milled using machines produced by TOS Varnsdorf a.s. The samples were milled with different tools from five manufacturers. Parameters of surface integrity, which comprehensively reflect the quality of surface layer after milling, were evaluated after the machining.