Fine grained superplastic Zn-22%Al alloy was extruded using a laser machined micro-die to produce a micro-gear shaft. Extrusion process was conducted under a constant pressure at constant temperatures ranging from 503 to 563K. Laser machining was capable to machine a micro-die with close tolerances and adequate surface quality. The extrusion rate increased with extrusion load under constant extrusion temperature. The rate reached a steady state and became constant after a certain period. There was a small instantaneous stroke on application of the load and then a very brief primary stage which preceded steady-state flow. The micro-extrusion process was proven to produce a micro-gear shaft successfully using a fine grained superplastic Zn-22%Al alloy.

This paper aims at finding out dominant robot configurations with maximal position errors, which can be attributed to the parameter errors, by using Monte-Carlo simulation for error analysis of a 3-axis SCARA(Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) type robot. In particular, the Monte-Carlo simulation is used for virtually measuring on the position errors, instead of physical measurement. In order to measure the observability of the model parameters with respect to a set of robot configurations, we propose the observability index which is defined as the product of singular values for error propagation matrices. Thus the index can be used for discriminating dominant robot configurations from a set of simulated ones in conjunction with standard deviation of positional errors, This paper analyzed error by robot positional error.

Secondary electron detectors used in scanning electron microscope accept secondary electrons emitted from the specimen and convert them to an electrical signal that, after amplification, is used to modulate the gray-level intensities on a cathode ray tube, producing an image of the specimen. In order to acquire images with good qualities, as many secondary electrons as possible should be reached to the detector. To realize this it is very important to select an appropriate mounting position and angle of the detector inside the chamber of scanning electron microscope. In this paper, a number of numerical simulations are performed to explore the relationships between detection rates of secondary electrons and the values of some parameters, such as distances between the detector and sample, relative mounting positions of scintillator positioned inside the detector with respect to detector cover, two types of mounting angles of the detector. The relationships between detection rates and applied voltages to corona ring and faraday cage, and energies of secondary electrons are investigated as well.

Friction stir welding(FSW) is an relatively new solid state joining process. A1606l-T6 aluminium alloy has gathered wide acceptance in the fabrication of light weight structures requiring a high strength to weight ratio and good corrosion resistance. This friction stir process(FSP) uses a non-consumable tool to generate frictional heat in the abutting surfaces. The welding parameters such as tool rotational speed, welding speed, etc., and tool pin profile playa major role in deciding FSP zone formation in A16061-T6 aluminium alloy. Tow different tool pin profiles have been used to fabricate the joints. The formation of friction stir processed zone has been analysed macroscopically. Tensile properties of the joints have been evaluated and correlated with the friction stir processed zone formation.

Application of ceramic has increased due to excellent mechanical properties, and machining of ceramic has demanded gradually a precision surface machining. For decreasing the surface roughness, the control of IED lapping parameters is very important. This paper deal with the analysis of the process parameters such as applied forces, percentage of h-BN and IED lapping time, developed based on Taguchi method. Also, SEM was used for monitoring of a machinable ceramic surface.

R/In order to satisfy the customer's variant needs for a product quality in recent years, a demand for developing higher precision machining technologies in a lot of application areas such as automobile, cellular phone and semiconductor has been increased more and more. Magnetic abrasive polishing(MAP) process is one of these precision technologies. In this study, to verify the parameters' effect of the MAP process on the surface roughness improvement of the plane and the inclined workpiece, well planned experiments which was called the design of experiments were carried out. Considered polishing factors were spindle speed, supplied current, abrasive type and working gap between the workpiece and the solid tool. As a result, it was seen that the supplied current and the working gap greatly affected the surface roughness improvement.

Various researches to reduce weight of a vehicle are achieving. One of these researches is tendencious to manufacture the hollow piston rod using friction welding instead of solid one of the vehicle shock absorber. This study deals with the friction welding of SM45C to SM20C-pipe that is used normally in the vehicle shock absorber. The friction time was variable conditions under the conditions of spindle revolution of 2,000rpm, friction pressure of 55MPa, upset pressure of 75MPa, and upset time of 2.0seconds. Under these conditions, the microstructure of weld interface, tensile fracture surface and mechanical tests of friction weld were studied and so the results were as follows. When the friction time was l.5seconds under the conditions, the maximum tensile strength of the friction weld happened to be 837MPa, which is 113% of SM20C's tensile strength and 97% of SM45C's. The optimal welding conditions were n=2,000rpm, $P_1=55MPa$, $P_2=75MPa$, $t_1=1.5sec$, $t_2=2.0sec$ when the total upset length is 1.7mm.

This paper presents a new design of the precision stage for the reticle in lithography process and a low hunting control method for the stage. The stage has three axes for X, Y, ${\theta}_z$ those actuated by three voice coil motors individually. The designed reticle stage system has three gap sensors and voice coil motors, and supported by four air bearings and the forward/inverse kinematics of the stage were solved to get an accurate reference position. When a stage is in regulating control mode, there always exist small fluctuations(stage hunting) in the stage movement. Because the low stage hunting characteristic is very important in recent lithography and nano-level applications, a special regulating controller for ultra low hunting is proposed in this paper. Also this research proposed the 2-step transmission system for preventing the noise infection from environmental devices. The experimental results showed the proposed regulating control system reduced hunting noise as 35nm(rms) when a conventional PID generates 77nm(rms) in the same mechanical system. Besides the reticle stage has 100nm linear accuracy and $1{\mu}rad$ rotation accuracy at the control frequency of 8kHz.

This paper has proposed a new parameter to interpret the effects of plastic deformation in bending of strips in cylindrical die and punch. With reference to the parameter, we have provided an insight on the separation between strips and punches, the occurrence of the multi-point bending during the process of deformation, the final shapes of strips, and the springback ratios. Also using the parameter, we have considered the different effects between the bending deformation in the cylindrical die and the bending deformation due to pure bending.

The important dynamic specifications in the aluminum automobile body design are the vibrations and crashworthiness in the views of ride comforts and safety. Thus, considerable effort has been invested into improving the performance of mechanical structures comprised of the interactive multiple sub-structures. Most mechanical structures are complex and are essentially multi-criteria optimization problems with objective functions retained as constraints. Each weight factor can be defined according to the effects and priorities among objective functions, and a feasible Pareto-optimal solution exists for the criteria-defined constraints. In this paper, a multi-criteria design based on the Pareto-optimal sensitivity is applied to the vibration qualities and crushing characteristics of front structure in the automobile body design. The vibration qualities include the idle, wheel unbalance and road shake. The crushing characteristic of front structure is the axial maximum peak load.

This paper presents an atomic force probe for triggering coordinate measuring machines(CMMs). A rigorous comparison is made between touch trigger probe and atomic force probe for CMMs. Typical CMMs(touch trigger probe based CMMs) often lead to some errors associated with object curvature and difference in triggering sensitivity. Their applicability is limited only to hard objects. The aim of this work is to develop a trigger sensor for CMMs using atomic force. In order to show the applicability of atomic force as a trigger sensor, a cylindrical shape is measured with a CMM and an atomic force microscope. Three different touch probe heads with different ball sizes are tested. The experiments show that smaller ball provides better results for curved objects. The experimental results also show that the performance of atomic force as a trigger sensor is about that of the smallest ball probe. In addition, experiments are also performed to measure soft objects. Finally, this paper suggests and verifies a trigger sensor using atomic force for CMMs.

Flow characteristics have one of the effects in the process of engine. The numerical analysis makes it possible to predict the flow fields. This paper presents characteristics of steady flow according to variation of valve lift in a gasoline engine. The numerical computations have been made to observe the pressure distribution in accordance with the variable valve lift. Characteristics of tumble flow and swirl flow according to the variable valve has also been investigated. We could find that tumble ratio and swirl ratio is different between with/without PDA valve. The steady flow test was simulated through three-dimensional analysis on intake port design for comparing with experimental data and confirming the feasibility of applying analytic method. As a result, this study shows the possibility of the usage of numerical simulation to predict the flow characteristics for gasoline engine.

Differential pressure flow meters which have a shape of triangular separate bar(TSB) were tested for investigating the flow rate characteristics of the flow meters with varying the temperature of the gas flow. Three kinds of the triangular separate bar flow meters whose aerodynamic angles are different one another are used. The mass flow rate of the flow meters are evaluated using a non-dimensional parameter which includes the gas temperature, exhaust gas pressure and differential pressure at the flow meters, and atmospheric pressure. A burner system which is similar to gas turbine was used for raising the gas flow temperature. The burner system was operated with varying the air/fuel ratio by controlling both the fuel injection rate from the fuel nozzle and air flow rate from a blower. An empirical correlation between the mass flow rate at the TSB flow meter and the non-dimensional parameter was obtained. The empirical correlation showed linear relationship between the mass flow rate and the non-dimensional parameter H. Also, the mass flow rate characteristics at the TSB flow meter was affected by the gas temperature.

Diamond core drills are applied to drill difficult-to-cut materials. This paper proposes basic understanding of ceramic drilling mechanics and characteristics of main factors affecting tool life, tool wear, cutting force, and chipping thickness. In contrast to conventional drilling, the core drilling process make deep grooves on the workpiece. One difficulty of it is the evacuation of chips from the drilled groove. As the drilling depth increases, an increased amount of chips tend to cluster together and clog the groove. Eventually severe wear develops and diamond grits are separated from the drill body. To relieve the clogging problem and to evacuate chips from the groove easily, the helical drilling process is applied for the core drilling process. To analyze drilling characteristics and derive optimal drilling conditions, tool life, tool wear, cutting force, and chipping thickness are quantified through the monitoring system and the Taguchi method. Mathematical models for the tool life and chipping thickness are derived from the response surface method. Optimal drilling database has been constructed through the experimental models.

The objective of this study is to evaluate micro end-milling characteristics and tool wear behavior of AlN-hBN composites. First, AlN based composites with hBN contents in the range of 10 to 20vol% were prepared by hot-pressing. Vickers hardness and flexural strength of the prepared composite specimens were measured and compared according to the vol% of hBN variations. Then, cutting force variations were measured and analyzed using a tool dynamometer during the micro end-milling experiments; and machined surface shapes and roughness were investigated using a 3D non-contact type surface profiler. After micro end-milling, worn tools were investigated using a tool microscope and SEM images. From the experimental results, it can be observed that the cutting forces decreased, and surface qualities were improved with increasing hBN contents. At low content of hBN, tool chipping was observed; and tool wear rate decreased with increasing hBN contents. The results of this study insist that proper machining conditions, including tool wear behavior investigation, should be determined for the micro end-milling of AlN-hBN composites for its further application.

In order to meet the optical performance in the process of the micro lens manufacturing with plastics, it is important to embody accuracy in shape and surface roughness to the intended design. Since it is difficult to machine exactly the mold core of lens fit to the designed shape, in this paper, a simple program using MATLAB is developed for shape correction of the mold core after first machining it. This program evaluates correction parameters(aspheric coefficients and curvature) and generates aspheric NC data for compensating the core surface in prior machining process. The program provides the way to manufacture plastic injection molding lens with aspheric shape of high precision, and is expected to be effective for correction and to shorten the processing time.

A new type of swivel unit is suggested in order to complement weak points of the existing. This new type of Swivel unit is developed by adopting a spring type cable which has elasticity and restoring force. To minimize the troubles in the process of manufacturing during operating the new type system, strength analysis and the check of interference between parts are accomplished with CATIA. The check of rotating performance is also carried out to determine the diameter and length of spring type cable by SimDesigner motion analysis. Swivel unit used in the robot spot welding is developed with spring type cable and its usefulness in the industrial field is verified through experiments. This system has been registered for patent.

The vibration and disturbances from operating the compact disk layer have an effect on the play ability. As the excitation sources of the compact disk player, there are the vibration of the motors and gears, impact by mechanical parts and the external excitations. So, most of the compact disk player have a anti-vibrational system, which is included some rubber or oil dampers. In this study, the vibration characteristics of rubber damper which is used home compact disk player are investigated. The materials and shape of rubber damper are changed, and the transmissibility is measured. As a conclusion, the natural frequency is moved to higher frequency and the transmissibility is reduced by the increasing rubber stiffness. In comparison to butyl rubber damper, the transmissibility of silicon damper was increased by larger restitution elasticity. The hollow damper was effective to reduced the transmissibility.

With the increasing demand for higher production quality and growing competition in the global market, coordinate measuring machine(CMM) has been widely used in industry to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of measurement. In this paper the performance evaluation of coordinate measuring machine is proposed using design of experiments. A factorial design is applied to carry out the performance test proposed by ISO 10360 with a length bar and to investigate CMM measurement errors associated to orientation and length in the work volume. The determination of the significance of effects in an experiment is made through the analysis of variance(ANOVA). The results show that the proposed method is suitable to analyze the factors which affect the CMM measurement performance.

Recently more complex geometric shapes, including freeform surfaces, are adopted for the design of products to emphasize style or beauty. Modeling of these products is extremely difficult or often impossible. Reverse engineering is the latest technology that can solve the problem by generating CAD models from the physical mockups or prototype models. Reverse engineering uses the coordinate measuring machine(CMM) to get the shape data of products. CMM is limited by the size of the product; therefore it must need the feature to solve it. The tooling-ball which is generally used for feature has difficulty in being used for soft products. Besides, the higher the accuracy of the tooling-ball is, the more expensive its cost is. This study will develop the feature of high accuracy without additional tools and compare the difference of accuracy by it.