This paper presents the design of a novel kinematic tensioning system to remedy the situation where the input-output relation of a remotely operated end-effector is not completely kinematic due to the onset of slack in the cable transmission. The actuation of multi-link remote manipulators via cable transmission presents the design characteristic of backlash, in certain directions, after actuation

We show that new kinematic equivalents with improved performance of standard flexure elements can be systematically synthesized by combination of cross-pivot flexures. Cross-pivot flexures provide a unique feature of kinematic stability under both high loading and large displacement conditions which can be exploited to synthesize a range of kinematic equivalents to standard flexure elements which retain

Slurry is widely used in polishing difficult-to-machine materials. However, it is accompanied with some issues, such as the agglomeration of abrasives and high disposal cost. Although using fixed abrasive grains instead of slurry can solve these issues, the problems of wear and of loading fixed abrasive grinding stones, which result in decrease of material removal rate (MRR), also need to be solved

The tuned mass damper (TMD) has been used in machining processes for reducing forced vibration, suppressing chatter, and improving machined surface quality. In micro-milling process, the tiny size of the cutting tool-tip and the high rotating speed bring challenges in implementing the TMD. Besides, the TMD needs to have two degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) for reducing vibrations of micro-mill in two orthogonal

Micro machining processes are characterized by the influence of size effects like the influence of the workpiece micro structure on the process and ultimately on the process results. So far, the influence of grain orientation on the process results is state of the art and mostly investigated on single-crystal materials, but the influence of the grain orientation on the process and process results in

This paper is concerned with understanding the role of specific energy in micro-grinding of conventional and additively manufactured Ti6Al4V. The effects of grinding and dressing parameters, cooling-lubrication conditions, and the directions of material build-up are studied. It is demonstrated that the minimum specific energy in single grain tests is independent of the material-fabrication method.

Polishing is a main process in achieving high-quality surfaces of optical components. However, effective assessing technique for rough stage in the polishing process is sparse so that hinders the study on the mechanism and optimization of polishing. In this study, we propose an inspection method for polishing quality based on quasi Brewster angle technology (qBAT). An equivalent medium layer theory

Microstructural replication accuracy in precision micro electroforming process is related to ions transportation inside the micro structure and microstructural feature width and aspect ratio. In this study, a novel star pattern having a varying feature width of 20–320 μm with a corresponding aspect ratio of 5–0.3125 is proposed to characterize ion transportation and electrodeposition for electroforming

Manipulation at the sub-micron scale often requires force-sensing capabilities of milli- to nanonewton forces. This article presents a novel design of a compliant load cell with mechanically adjustable stiffness. The system enables adapting force sensitivity to the requirements of a specific application. The principle of the stiffness adjustment is based on a preloaded spring, that stores the potential

A design of a new, absolute sensor for measurement of an angular micro-displacement is presented. In this sensor deflections of incident laser beam generate changes of the constant of the interference fringes that are created by the double arm special interferometer. Fringe constant is determined using a CCD camera and proposed analysis algorithms. Sensor’s operating principle and metrological properties

This paper proposes a new vibration cutting method named “multimode vibration cutting” for precision surface texturing. The proposed cutting method utilizes multiple unidirectional vibration modes mainly in the depth-of-cut direction. The vibrations at multiple frequencies induced to the tool tip can generate not only sinusoidal but also highly-flexible trajectories such as trapezoidal, triangular

Free-form surfaces have been widely used in aerospace, automotive and other fields. Due to its complex geometry, free-form surface inspection is generally conducted by touch-trigger or measuring probe-based Coordinate Measurement Machines or On-machine Measurement. Sampling strategy plays a decisive role in improving both measurement accuracy and efficiency, which is determined by sample size and distribution

To expand the measurement target from that containing simple cylindrical-shaped components to complex-shaped components that have several directional tilted surfaces, we determined an issue in measuring the rough surfaces with laser distance measurement. The issue is that laser speckle causes measurement error, which amount, we found, can be determined by the diameter and irradiation angle of the measurement

To explore the mechanism of formation and methods of control of edge burr in the grinding and forming of cemented carbide micro-drill, the morphology, material composition, and the edge structure of the generated area of the edge burrs are studied. Through indentation and scratch experiments, the critical grinding depth (hc) of grinding machining is calculated to be 0.793-1.052 μm. The grinding experiments

To obtain the great surface quality of Ti–6Al–4V and achieve high efficiency in the polishing process, the chemistry enhanced shear thickening polishing (C-STP) was proposed, and the polishing performance of different pH slurry was studied. The results show that the material removal rate gradually increases as the pH value decreases from 10 to 1, and the best surface quality is obtained at pH 2. The

Turning is one of the most commonly used cutting processes for manufacturing components in production engineering. The turning process, in some cases, is accompanied by intense relative movements between tool and workpiece, which is called chatter vibrations. Chatter has been identified as a detrimental problem that adversely impacts surface finish, tool life, process productivity, and dimensional

This paper presents a new surface texturing technique using ball-end milling with high feed speed and spindle speed modulation. The ratio between feed-rate and cutting tool radius is in the range of 0.2–0.4, which is much larger than the ratio in conventional milling. Sinusoidal modulation signal is added, so the spindle speed becomes time-varying in order to generate different texture profiles. The

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is changing the manufacturing paradigm as it makes it possible to generate complex geometries that are impossible using conventional technologies. However, conventional GPS/GD&T practices are inadequate both at specifying and verifying geometric tolerances. In both cases, they lack the required flexibility. Applying volumetric instead of surface representations helps to

Conformal inkjet printing with multi-axis linkage motion platform that enables the fabrication of a variety of curved electronics has drawn great attention recently. However, the geometric precision of inkjet printing on arbitrary surface is a long-term obstacle for the fabrication of curved electronics. Herein, we propose a precision-enhanced method for non-contact, conformal 3D printing based on

Nano-finishing of material surfaces is an important class of technology in precision manufacturing. This paper presents a non-resonant vibration-assisted magnetorheological finishing method for difficult-to-process materials. The aim is to enhance the shearing effects of the magnetorheological finishing. A two-dimensional vibration-assisted polishing device was developed, and the impact forces generated

Large-stroke high-speed positioning stages play a significant role in microelectronic packaging manufacturing. Considering the problem of Z-axis bonding position error caused by inaccurate positioning, diverse chip pad sizes, and other interfering factors, this study proposes a rapid high-precision compensating method with a micromotion compensator to reduce the positioning error in the Z-axis direction

In this study, a novel dynamic contour error compensation technique has been proposed for the elliptical vibration cutting process achieved through the ultra-precision amplitude control. The influence of the contour error, triggered due to the inertial vibrations of the friction-less feed drive system, on the machining accuracy deterioration has been experimentally investigated. In order to reduce

The discoveries made in the twentieth-century include attempts to understand the origin of the universe, constituents of matter, enigmas of biological reactions, etc. could be possible mainly due to the extensive development in the field of particle accelerators. All the particle accelerators, irrespective of their scientific application, need precise alignment of various components for proper functioning

To improve positioning precision of the traveling wave ultrasonic motor (USM), a flexible shaft was used, and the structure was redesigned to reduce the fluctuations of step angles and speed. The start and stop response performances of the motor were analyzed theoretically and tested by a high-resolution test rig. The step characteristics were calculated, which showed the minimum step angle is below

This paper reports the design, modeling, and control of a novel three-degrees-of-freedom piezoelectric compliant microstage by introducing a new double-rocker mechanism. The double-rocker mechanism combines a first (leverage) amplifier and a second (rocker) amplifier for double-stage displacement amplification and parasitic motion reduction. An analytical model is established to calculate the deformation

Cutting force measurement is important for monitoring the diamond cutting process. In this paper, a new measurement method of thrust cutting force associated with a voice coil motor (VCM) driven fast tool servo (FTS) system has been developed. Instead of integrating additional force sensors to the FTS which would influence the dynamics of the FTS, the force measurement in the proposed system is achieved

A thermally actuated, single-axis, bidirectional translation stage is designed and constructed. To increase the temperature of the thermal actuator, induction heating is used while air-water-mist cooling is used to decrease the temperature. An automated control strategy comprising PID closed loop control (for heating) and On/Off switching between air and mist control (for cooling) is described. The

Nanoindentations carried out by a "virtual plasma indenter" has been proposed in this study to solve the plasma etchings of Si wafer and determine the deep trench isolation (DTI) profile with a high accuracy. The methods of finding the virtual Gaussian-like indenter profiler and the back load applied to the back surface of indenter corresponding to the given etching conditions have been developed.

For the highly efficient and versatile polishing of metals, isotropic etching polishing (IEP), which is based on the merging of isotropic etching holes, has been developed. In this study, the feasibility and mechanism of isotropic etching polishing of nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718 (IN718) and the polishing characteristics have been studied. The potentiodynamic experiments revealed similar trends

In this paper we present two new designs of spherical flexure joints, which are the compliant equivalent of a traditional ball-and-socket joint. The designs are formed by tetrahedron-shaped elements, each composed of three blade flexures with a trapezoidal shape, that are connected in series without intermediate bodies. This is new with respect to the designs currently found in literature and helps

Confocal microscopy is high precision and widely used method for topography measurement. The surface height information is obtained by peak extraction of the axial response signal (ARS) which axial tomography of the surface is required. Therefore, when scanning large-diameter surfaces with a confocal coordinate measuring system (CCMS), the relative horizontal scanning trajectory (RHST) between the

Non-ideal models have gained considerable attention in the design stage for evaluating product functionality and performance considering the realistic conditions of the product surface. The performance evaluation generally involves deriving the statistical distributions of certain key characteristics, such as gaps and distances, based on numerous assembly process simulations, thus necessitating a large

In this paper, we propose a new procedure for the extended calibration of charge-mode accelerometers. This procedure covers two main stages. The first one follows the general guidelines of international guides that relate to calibrating accelerometers in the frequency domain and are implemented using a weighted-least-squares method. These guidelines are modified herein for the advanced modelling of

Aspheric optics has been widely employed in some high-tech industries for its superiority. In order to achieve the ultra-precision machining of these aspheric surfaces, the large optical ultra-precision grinding machine becomes crucial because it determines the efficiency of the whole process. As the key functional unit in ultra-precision machine tool, the hydrostatic guideways are commonly adopted

Modern additive manufacturing technologies allow the creation of parts characterized by complex geometries that cannot be created using conventional production techniques. Among them the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technique is very promising. By using SLM it is possible to create lightweight lattice structures that may fill void regions or partially replace bulk regions of a given mechanical component

Despite the popularity of the analogue measuring devices, there is no recognized reference provided comprehensive guidelines for determining their resolution and its associated uncertainty. For filling this gap, this article is introduced as an attempt to explore and investigate all the available works related to this issue. The new terminology “evident space”, “evident resolution”, and “conjunction”

The positioning operation of the axes of numerically controlled (NC) machine tools is essential before initiating their machining operation. Residual vibration following the positioning operations of the axes deteriorates the cycle time and quality of the machined parts. This study aims to develop a novel acceleration and deceleration design method to suppress the residual vibration during the high-speed

Evaluating the influence of geometric errors in rotary axes is a common method used by a five-axis machine tool for improving the machining accuracy. In conventional geometric error models, the table coordinate system is considered as the final workpiece coordinate system. In this study, an additional workpiece coordinate transformation was proposed to identify the influence of geometric error. First

Compliant mechanisms are state of the art in micropositioning stages due to their many beneficial features. However, their design usually compromises between motion range, motion accuracy and design space, while mechanisms with distributed compliance are mostly applied. The further use of flexure hinges with common notch shapes strongly limits the stroke in existing high-precision motion systems. Therefore

A wide variety of mechatronic products undergoes major changes to miniaturize them and integrate a larger number of functions. They require advanced technologies for their manipulation and assembly, that become even more challenging due to the different properties and tiny size of their components. Innovative devices are necessary to enable the automation of such operations, such as sorting and feeding

The increasing adoption of exotic and hard to cut materials in high-end applications makes electric discharge machining (EDM) process more relevant than ever. In particular, wire EDM variant (WEDM) deserves attention due to its ability to cut the workpiece's surroundings without completely evaporating the unused portion of the rare and expensive exotic materials. However, WEDM is a stochastic process

Electrolyte Jet Machining (EJM) has been performed on stainless steel surfaces with the aim of reducing bacterial retention through the generation of nanoscale surface morphology. Following initial EJM experiments aimed at investigating the influence of machining depth, machining speed and current density on the resulting surface roughness, three characteristic surfaces were produced with a current

Miniature ball-end diamond wheels are widely used for bone grinding in endoscopic surgeries. During bone grinding, a considerable amount of heat is generated, which can cause thermal injuries to the tissues adjacent to bone, including nerves. In our previous studies, it was revealed that the strong adhesion of bone chips on the wheel surface promotes heat generation. To prevent adhesion, a surface-treated

An image distortion elimination method based on optimized windowed Fourier transform processing is proposed in this paper. Simulation testing was performed beforehand to find the optimal window size and grating pitch (in pixels), which are crucial for the distortion calibration accuracy. With the optimized parameters, gratings with different frequencies were fabricated by photolithography as standard

We proposed a new primary calibration method of a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) using the optical modulated excitation of an electro-optical modulator and validated this approach by comparing mechanical modulated excitation with homodyne laser interferometer at the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ). The velocity sensitivity of the LDV was evaluated with the uncertainty budget at a high-frequency

The time shift of mechanical watches is caused by individual differences (manufacturing error), environmental temperature, magnetism, posture, impact force and dynamic environment. The easiest and clearest method of measuring the accuracy of mechanical watches is to measure the time shift by comparing it with the reference time. The disadvantage of this method is that it can only measure accuracy at

This paper presents a novel fixed abrasive tool namely grain boundary cohesion fixed abrasive pellet (GBCFAP) which is able to provide higher finishing efficiency as well as better surface/subsurface quality of sapphire substrate during the chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) process. The manufacturing procedures of GBCFAP are introduced in detail in this paper. It is found that the sintering temperature

Grinding is a finishing operation performed to obtain the desired finish on the component. Wheel wear is one of the primary constraints in achieving the desired productivity in grinding. A new methodology is proposed for accurate and timely identification of wheel wear in cylindrical grinding using Hilbert Huang transform and support vector machine. During the grinding of EN31 carbon steel, the condition

A large number of drilling have been performed to assemble aircraft parts of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). Although high quality is required in machining the holes with high productivity in terms of reliability of parts, delamination often occurs around the holes in drilling. This paper presents a novel drilling method with variable feed rate to machine the delamination-free holes at a high

High aspect ratio (HAR) micro-grooves are of great significance for vacuum electronic devices. However, the fabrication of HAR micro-groove on oxygen-free copper remains challenge since the high surface quality is hard to achieve. Aiming to improve the surface quality, a hybrid and successive method, obtained by combining nanosecond laser and micro-milling (NLMM), was presented. The nanosecond laser

Recently, the demand for realizing micromachining through small-diameter tools has increased. When performing microfabrication using a numerically controlled machine tool, a machining error may be introduced if the relative position of the tool tip and workpiece surface deviates during tool change. Therefore, it is critical to determine this relative position in an actual machining condition at a specific