• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.461-468
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• 2001

Impact between fruits and other materials is a major cause of product damage in harvesting and handling systems. The oriental pears are more susceptible to bruising than other fruits such as European pears and apples, and are required more careful handling. The interest in the handling of the pears for the processing systems has raised the question of the allowable drop height to which pears can be dropped without causing objectionable damage. Drop tests on pears were conducted using an impact device developed by authors to estimate the allowable drop height without bruising. The impact device was constructed to hold in a selected orientation and to release a fruit by vacuum for dropping on to a force transducer. The drop height was adjustable for zero to 60 cm to achieve the desired distance between the bottom of the fruits and the top of the impact force transducer. The transducer was secured to 150 kg$\sub$f/ concrete block. The transducer signal was sampled every 0.17 ms with a strain gage measurement board in the micro computer where it was digitaly stored for later analysis. The selected sample fruit was Niitaka cultivar of pears which is one of the most promising fruit for export in Korea. The pears were harvested during the 1998 harvest season from an orchard in Daejeon. The sample fruit was selected from two groups which were stored for 3 months and 5 months respectively by the method of current commercial practice. The pears were allowed to stabilize at environmental condition(18$^{\circ}C$, 65% rh) of the experimental room. One hundred fifty six pears were tested from the heights of 5, 7.5. 10 and 12.5 cm while measurement were made of impact peak force, contact time, time to peak force, dwell time, pear diameter and mass. The bioyield strength and modulus of elasticity were measured using UTM immediately after each drop test. The allowable drop height was estimated on the base of bioyield strength of the pears in two ways. One was assumed the peak force during impact test increasing linearly with time, and the other was based on the actual drop test results. The computer program was developed for measuring the impact characteristics of the pears and analyzing the data obtained in the study. The peak force increased while contact times decreased with increasing drop height and contact times of the sample from the hard tissue group. The allowable drop height increased with increasing bioyield strength and contact times, and also varied with Poisson\`s ratio, mass and equilibrium radius of the pears. The allowable drop height calculated by a theoretical method was in the range from 1 to 4 cm, meanwhile, the estimated drop height considering the result of the impact test was in the range from 1 to 6 cm. Since the physical properties of fruits affected significantly the allowable drop height, the physical properties of the fruits should be considered when estimating the allowable drop height.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1989.10a
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• pp.606-608
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• 1989

Force/torque sensors are now providing widespread practical solutions to manufacturing problems, particularly in the area of automated assembly. The current state of the industry is discussed, including the evolution of transducer and controller design, and the trend of robot manufacturers to integrate force/torque sensors into their robot systems thereby greatly improving cycle time and simplifying the application development task for the end-user. Current and future application areas are discussed as well as the benefits of force/torque sensing.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

The present study is a fundamental approach to develop the measuring technology for minute fluctuating pressures on the three-dimensional blade surfaces of the fan which rotates with an arbitrary rotation-axis direction. In this situation, we are required to correct the centrifugal-force effect, the gravitational-force effect and the other leading-error effects for accurate measurements of the minute pressures. The working fluid is air. A pressure transducer rotating with an arbitrary attitude is closely sealed by a twofold shroud system. The rotational motion with an arbitrary attitude is produced by fixing the pressure transducer to the cantilever which is connected to a motor-driven disc of 500mm in diameter and 5mm in thickness. As a result, we have quantitatively determined main governing effects upon the non-effective component of the pressure-transducer signal.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.47-61
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• 2005

A ring-shaped lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoceramic sensor has been integrated with the Langevin-type piezoceramic driver of an ultrasonic wire-bonding transducer to form a smart transducer for in-situ measurement of three essential bonding parameters: namely, impact force, ultrasonic amplitude and bond time. This sensor has an inner diameter, an outer diameter and a thickness of 12.7 mm, 5.1 mm and 0.6 mm, respectively. It has a specifically designed electrode pattern on the two major surfaces perpendicular to its thickness along which polarization is induced. The process-test results have indicated that the sensor not only is sensitive to excessive impact forces exerted on the devices to be bonded but also can track changes in the ultrasonic amplitude proficiently during bonding. Good correlation between the sensor outputs and the bond quality has been established. This smart transducer has good potential to be used in automatic process-control systems for ultrasonic wire bonding.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.141-147
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• 2013

Ultrasonic shears is currently in wide use as an energy device for minimal invasive surgery. There is an advantage of minimizing the carbonization behavior of the tissue due to the vibrational energy transfer system of the transducer by applying a piezoelectric ceramic. However, the vibrational energy transfer system has a pitfall in energy consumption. When the movement of the forceps is interrupted by the tissue, the horn which transfers the vibrational energy of the transducer will be affected. A study was performed to recognize different tissues by measuring the impedance of the transducer of the ultrasonic shears in order to find the factor of energy consumption according to the tissue. In the first stage of the study, the voltage and current of the transducer connecting portion were measured, along with the phase changes. Subsequently, in the second stage, the impedance of the transducer was directly measured. In the final stage, using the handpiece, we grasped the tissue and observed the impedance differences appeared in the transducer To verify the proposed tissue distinguishing method, we used the handpiece to apply a force between 5N and 10N to pork while increasing the value of the impedance of the transducer from 400 ${\Omega}$.. It was found that fat and skin tissue, tendon, liver and protein all have different impedance values of 420 ${\Omega}$, 490 ${\Omega}$, 530 ${\Omega}$, and 580 ${\Omega}$, respectively. Thus, the impedance value can be used to distinguish the type of tissues grasped by the forceps. In the future study, this relationship will be used to improve the energy efficiency of ultrasonic shears.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.183-187
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• 2018

In this paper, we investigated the efficiency according to the output transmission method of the round window driving type AMEIs (active middle ear implants) through the cadaveric experiment. For the experiment, we fabricated DRT (direct rod transducer) and FMT (floating mass transducer) type vibrational transducers based on our previous studies and conducted their output characteristics were measured. TCBT (tri-coil bellows transducer) and DFMT (differential floating mass transducer) were implemented with the same driving force and electrical characteristics as one of DRT and FMT, respectively. In the experiment using three human temporal bone, normal stapes vibration was measured with 1 Pa in front of tympanic membrane, and then was compared with each output of transducers. From the comparison, the DRT type vibration transducer was superior in overall energy transfer efficiency, especially in the low frequency range. There was no difference in implantation difficulty between the two transducers. The results of this study suggest that the DRT type vibrational transducer is more efficient and needs further study to overcome the low frequency degradation in round window approaching with FMT.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.366-372
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• 2021

Cadherin-Catenin complex is thought to play an essential role in the transmission of force at adherens junction. Due to the lack of proper tools to visualize and detect mechanical force signals, the underlying mechanism by which the cadherin-catenin complex regulates force transmission at intercellular junctions remains elusive. In this study, we visualize cadherin-mediated force transmission using an engineered α-Catenin sensor based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Our results reveal that α-catenin is a key force transducer in cadherin-mediated mechanotransduction at cell-cell junctions. Thus, our finding will provide important insights for studying the effects of chemical and physical signals on cell-cell communication and the relationship between physiological and pathological phenomena.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.46-50
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• 2008

The present status and future prospects of the levitation mass method (LMM), a technique for precision mass and force measurement, are reviewed. In the LMM, the inertial force of a mass levitated using a pneumatic linear bearing is used as the reference force applied to the objects being tested, such as force transducers, materials, or structures. The inertial force of the levitated mass is measured using an optical interferometer. We have modified this technique for dynamic force calibration of impact, oscillation, and step loads. We have also applied the LMM to material testing, providing methods for evaluating material viscoelasticity under an oscillating or impact load, evaluating material friction, evaluating the biomechanics of a human hand, and generating and measuring micro-Newton-level forces.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.656-664
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• 2017

This paper presents the design and fabrication of a high power piezoelectric ultrasonic surgery unit for multi-purpose dental implantation. A conventional piezoelectric ultrasonic surgery units consists of a transducer and a tip. However, the drawback of this simple structure is that the output performance of the transducer considerably changes with the change of the tips. An ultrasonic surgery unit that has an additional booster between the transducer and the tip can solve this problem to some extent; for this, an optimal structural design for the transducer is required. We used the Bolted Langevin Transducer (BLT) as the basic transducer; it consists of piezoelectric ceramics and a metal body. It's structure was optimized using mathematical methods to determine the length and radius of the tail and head masses. Additionally, the booster was also subjected to the same methods. Using these mathematical methods, optimal results in terms of the resonance frequency (24.96 kHz), displacement ($14.27{\mu}m$), and pressure (2.8 MPa), could be obtained. The validity of this proposed surgery unit was confirmed experimentally, exhibiting a cutting force of around 7% higher than that of a conventional surgery unit.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.96-103
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• 2005

One of the major problems limiting the accuracy of piezoelectric transducers fur cylinder pressure measurements in an internal combustion (IC) engine is the thermal shock. Thermal shock is generated from the temperature variation during the cycle. This temperature variation results in contraction and expansion of the diaphragm and consequently changes the force acting on the quartz in the pressure transducer An empirical equation for compensation of the thermal shock error was derived from consideration of the diaphragm thermal deformation and actual pressure data. The result indicate that the thermal shock equation provides reliable correction based on known surface temperature swing.