Surface treatments factors influencing performance

Abstract The chapter describes procedures and materials used and results obtained from several important studies of the mechanical performance of surgical sutures and the chnical factors that influence their behavior. Key features of successful suture assembly are the material used, structure of the thread, surface treatment, knot strength, and security, the in vivo environment and compatibihty of the tensile properties of the thread with those of the tissues approximated during and after surgery. To improve suture success in terms, particularly, of knot performance, couphng of thermal and chemical energies in conjunction with mechanical interlacing have been experimented with. 

In order to improve adhesion of ceramics for practical applications in esthetic restoration, surface treatment with silane couplers has been performed most commonly. Similar attempts are being made for crystalline ceramics recently developed [1]. Although these treatments are somewhat effective in some cases, it is still difficult to achieve high adhesion. In our studies on the structural factor of monomers influencing the adhesiveness to tooth enamel [5,6,8-10], a series of 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate derivatives were found to show high performance [5,9], and, thus, they were evaluated in the adhesion of ceramics. 

In reference 20, a typical robustness test is not performed, but a study on the influence of peak measurement parameters is reported on the outcome. The study is special in the sense that no physicochemical parameter in the experimental runs is changed, but only data measurement and treatment-related parameters. These parameters can largely affect the reported results, as shown earlier, and in that sense they do influence the robusmess of the method. The different parameters (see above) were first screened in a two-level D-optimal design (9 factors in 10 experiments). The most important were then examined in a face-centered CCD, and conclusions were drawn from the response surfaces plots. 

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