Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWSResearch foci are the theoretical design and optimization of laser-based and laser-assisted technologies in accordance with fundamental thermodynamic relationships and corresponding equations of state. The achievable thermal efficiency of those processes will be quantified in comparison to competing techniques. Another field of attention is the profound analysis of functional dependencies between control parameters, variables of influence, disturbances and dependent quantities of interest (responses) in laser material processing. These studies are performed by means of numerical and experimental approaches as well.