Present and future of micromechatronics

Abstract

Micromachine has brought about a profound technological innovation over a wide range of industries. It is expected to be the basic used in the new industries in the future. Micromachine is being studied throughout the world. In Japan, R&D on Micromachine Technology, one of the Industrial Science and Technology Frontier Program Projects sponsored by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), started in 1991 as a 10-year plan. This paper briefly outlines and describes the current status of this R&D project. It then discusses the problems of the current which have become clear during the course of R&D on micromachine (micromechatronics). To solve these problems, and also to achieve microminiaturization and precision, or micro-scale and integration and wide-range application simultaneously, we propose the new systems of wide-area 3D nano-scale machining technology and mechanical engineering based on nano-scale effects. Mechanical parts have become increasingly smaller in size recently. In contrast, these small part processing machines are still very large and their production efficiency is simply wasted. A Microfactory intends to dramatically save energy, space and resources at production plants by reducing the size of the production machines to that comparable with that of the product. The concept of a microfactory is outlined in this paper. The micro-lathe, which has been developed to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of a microfactory, is also outlined.