This work presents the evolution from fundamental single wire sawing experiments using structured wire for the first time to the introduction of this wire in multi-crystalline silicon wafer mass production. It is shown that via single wire experiments 100% higher throughput and more than 10% less specific energy consumption were foreseen for the replacement of straight with structured wire in mass production of multi-crystalline silicon wafers. The analysis of production data demonstrates that these predictions were even exceeded and that additionally, 45% less wire consumption and 40% less slurry consumption were achieved. This work reveals the influence on wafer metrology and gives a basic description of the dynamics in the cutting slot. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.