ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF

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                  ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF
                        E-Mail Newsletter

                               No.7
             Issued by the Asian TOP Panel, July 2002.

           The Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES)
           The Institution of Engineers, Indonesia (PII)
           The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME)
           The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers (KSME)

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About the Asian TOP Panel (ATOP)
    On August 29, 2001, presidents of four engineering societies gathered　
in Japan to pave the way for stepped-up collaboration. They are Chinese　
Mechanical Engineering Society, Institution of Engineers Indonesia,
Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Korean Society of Mechanical
Engineers.
    They agreed to establish the Asian TOP Panel (ATOP), which is a　
voluntary body and open to any Asian engineering society and
institution. At the first meeting, they decided to issue monthly E-mail　
newsletter which you are reading now. It will carry short technical news　
of Asian countries, and be distributed to all individual members of the
ATOP societies and institutions.
    ATOP will meet every two years. The next meeting will be held in Korea
in 2003.

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[Contents]

(1) Honorary President of CMES led a delegation to Greece attending
    "Energy 2002" by HAMEE (Source : CMES).
(2) Cooperation between CMES and The Japan Society of Logistics Systems
    (Source : CMES).
(3) The Fourth International Conference on Material Handling & Logistics
    Systems (Source : CMES).
(4) The 11th World Congress in Mechanism and Machine Science
    (Source : CMES).
(5) China to Build Largest Numerical Control Machine Tool Plant
    (Source : CMES).
(6) Japan Utilize the New Energy Resource: Methane-Hydride
    (Source : JSME).
(7) Present Micromachine Technology (Source : JSME).
(8) Development Completed on New MACH Gas Engine Series Compatible Gas
    Engines for Dispersed Power Generation (Source : JSME).

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1) Honorary President of Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, Mr. Lu
Yongxiang led a delegation to Greece attending the International
Congress "Energy 2002" held by Hellenic Association of Mechanical &
Electrical Engineers (HAMEE) on June 11,2002.

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2) Deputy Secretary-general of CMES, Mr. Wang Ruigang met Mr. Yutaha
Karasawa, the Chairman of the Japan Society of Logistics Systems on May
31 in Beijing. They proposed to do some cooperation on holding the
international conference of logistics system in future. and other
cooperation between these two societies.   The Japan Society of
Logistics Systems is also the co-sponsor of The Fourth International
Conference on Material Handling & Logistics Systems.

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3) The Fourth International Conference on Material Handling & Logistics
Systems
November   20-22, 2002 Wuhan, CHINA

Sponsored by:
Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES)

Co-Sponsored by:
Capsule Pipeline Research Center, University of Missouri-Columbia
China Coal Society
Institute of Asia Pacific Studies, Wasada University
Japan Material Handling Society (JMHS)
Korea Society of Supply Chain Management (KSSCM)
Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA)
The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE)
The Japan Society of Logistics Systems
Wuhan University of Technology
Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society
46 Sanlihe Road Beijing 100823, China
Tel.: +86-10-6859 5318
Fax: +86-10-6859 5314
E-mail: cmes_ac@cmes.org
zuoxw@21cn.com
http//www.cmes.org

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4) The 11th World Congress in Mechanism and Machine Science
August 18-21,2003 Tianjin, China
Sponsors:
- IFToMM, the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism
and Machine Science
- The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)1)
- The Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES)
- Tianjin Science of Technology Commission
- Tianjin Economic-Technology Development Area (TEDA)
- Tianjin University

For the details of the congress, please visit www.iftomm2003.com

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5)China to Build Largest Numerical Control Machine Tool Plant

China will build its largest manufacturing base for numerical control
machine tools in Beijing with the combined efforts
of the Beijing No.1 Machine Tool Plant and Japan's Okuma Corporation,
according to a contract signed in Beijing on May 25.

Jia Qinglin, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party
of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the Beijing Municipal
Committee of the CPC, voiced hopes for good results from this
cooperative venture while meeting Masahiro Kitajima, vice-president of
Okuma, before the contract signing ceremony.

Wang Jisheng, board chairman of Beijing No.1 Machine Tool Plant,
revealed that work on the joint venture will begin in June this year.
It is expected to start operating in October, 2003.

With an initial annual output of 200 machine tools, the new enterprise
aim to produce 1,000 tools annually, said Wang.

BYJC-Okuma has a total registered capital of over one hundred million
yuan (about 12 million U.S. dollars).

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(6) Japan Utilize the New Energy Resource: Methane-Hydride

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will start a new
energy project to utilize methane-hydride lying under the sea floor.
The 3-year first phase is to estimate by artificial seismic wave the
amount of deposits existing around Japan, and then by actually drilling
into the sea floor. Following this first phase, the next step will
start in 2007 to extract methane directly from the frozen
methane-hydride layers. The total deposits around Japan is expected to
reach 7,400 billion square meters, which is equivalent to consuming
natural gas for 100 years in Japan. The METI plans to put this project
into commercial service in 2016.

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(7) Present Micromachine Technology

The ten-year national project "Micromachine Technology R&D" ended in
March 2001 with a lot of results, i.e. over 500 patent applications,
several already-commercialized technologies.Now, micromachine technology
has gained a strong support to go further into nano-scale domain and
meet bottom-up nanotechnology.
(by Takayuki Hirano, Micromachine Center)

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(8) Development Completed on New MACH Gas Engine Series Compatible Gas
    Engines for Dispersed Power Generation

MHI has succeeded in the demonstration testing of the MACH 30G at
Kanazawa Plant of Yokohama Dockyard & Machinery Works, which features
the world's highest efficiency and lowest NOx emissions.
This new gas engine was developed based on the KU30 series diesel
engine, which has a delivery record of 250 units and has logged more
than 100,000 hours of operating time. The new gas engine covers an
output range of 3,800 to 5,750 kW.
The name MACH comes from the acronym for Mitsubishi Advanced engine
of Clean & High-efficiency.
Previously, gas engine output was about 70% of that of diesel engines
of similar size. However, MHI successfully raised the output of its
new engines to that of diesel engines, and implemented radical
standardization measures, such as compact enclosure equipment, to
reduce equipment costs.
Technically, improvement of heat efficiency tends to deteriorate NOx
values, and previously achieving both goals was difficult. However, by
changing the ignition system from one using an ignition plug to one
adopting a new electronically controlled common-rail fuel injection
system, and a variable geometry turbocharger and a new model piston,
the world's highest generation efficiency (42.5%) and lowest NOx
emission (100 ppm or less (O2=0%), 24 ppm or less (O2=16%) were
achieved.
In addition, winning by a wide margin in efficiency over the small gas
turbines and cheng-cycle gas turbine that have been the focus of
attention recently, this new gas engine scores highly in environmental
metrics, reliability, cost and maintenance fees. The new series is
anticipated to become the core of future fuel-compatible power
generation facilities.
(by MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.)

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Editor: Osamu Mochizuki, International Affairs Committee
Published by The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Shinanomachi-Rengakan Bldg, Shinanomachi 35,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0016, Japan

FAX : 81-3-5360-3508
All Rights Reserved, Copyright C 2002
The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
URL:http//www.jsme.or.jp/English/