ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF

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                  ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF
                        E-Mail Newsletter

                               No.33
             Issued by the Asian TOP Panel, September 2004

           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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    According to the agreement made in the 2nd Asian TOP Panel Meeting,
the ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF (E-mail newsletter) has now been edited
by the KSME for the year 2004.

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[Contents]
(1) China to Use 8 Million Tons of Steel for Autos in 2005 (Source: CMES)
(2) HK's quarterly machinery exports up 28.1 percent (Source: CMES)
(3) China targets medical equipment for government procurement (Source: CMES)
(4) Development of the world's smallest precision planetary gear (Source: JSME)
(5) Visible Light Photocatalyst with Superior Durability and High Catalytic Activity (Source : JSME)
(6) Nanoscale Patterning Using Femtosecond Laser and Self-assembled Monolayers (SAMs) (Source : KSME)

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(1) China to Use 8 Million Tons of Steel for Autos in 2005 (Source: CMES)

China annual consumption of steel for automobiles is expected to reach 10 million tons in six years time. It is expected to reach eight million tons next year.
Industry insiders point out that China's automobile steel market is growing rapidly with the fast increase in car production.
China consumed 5.6 million tons of steel for auto production in 2002. The figure is expected to reach eight million tons next year.
China used to import most of its sheet steel for auto production, but domestic production has grown rapidly since the 1990s and now accounts for more than half of domestic consumption.

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(2) HK's quarterly machinery exports up 28.1 percent (Source: CMES)

Hong Kong's machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components industry's domestic exports rose by 900 million Hong Kong dollars (115 million US dollars) in the second quarter, up 28.1 percent over a year earlier to 3.9 billion Hong Kong dollars (500 million US dollars).
According to the figures released by the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department on Tuesday, the wearing apparel industry saw its domestic exports rise by 400 million Hong Kong dollars or 4.9 percent to 8 billion Hong Kong dollars in the same period.
However, the value of the textiles industry's domestic exports fell by 500 million Hong Kong dollars or 6.1 percent compared with the same quarter in 2003 to 7.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.
The consumer electrical and electronic products industry also saw a dip of 200 million Hong Kong dollars or 6.9 percent to 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars.
The value of these four major industries together accounted for 73 percent of Hong Kong's total domestic exports of manufactured goods.
As for other manufacturing industries, a notable increase was registered in the value of the basic metals and fabricated metal products industry's domestic exports, by 200 million Hong Kong dollars or 24.1 percent compared with a year earlier to 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars in the second quarter.

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(3) China targets medical equipment for government procurement (Source: CMES)

More than 400 Chinese and overseas businesses gathered in a vast Beijing exhibition hall on August 9 to compete for a share of more than two billion yuan (about 240 million US dollars), the amount the Chinese government has allocated to buy medical equipment in 2004.
Nine expert teams organized by the Ministry of Health will evaluate the equipment, said Huang Jiefu, China's vice minister of health, at the opening ceremony of the 13th China International Medical Equipment and Facilities Exposition and Symposia (China-HOSPEC).
The Health Ministry announced earlier that the central government would spend 1.5 billion yuan (approximately 181 million US dollars) this year on ambulances, in-car equipment, and devices for testing and treating infectious diseases.
Another 573 million yuan (some 70 million US dollars) will be used to buy overalls for medical personnel, emergency rescue equipment, laboratory devices for provincial and municipal disease control centers, vehicles with special purposes and testing machines for AIDS and schistosomiasis (commonly known as snail fever).
"With the continuous growth of China's economy and the public's increased attention on healthcare, the potential healthcare market in China is huge and fast growing," said Aris Bruin, chief operation officer of Philips Medical Systems in China.
China has become the third largest healthcare market in the world, behind the United States and Japan. "In the next three years, the annual growth rate of China's healthcare market is expected to exceed 10 percent," Bruin said.
In 2003, the Health Ministry spent more than 800 million yuan (about 96.4 million US dollars).
Sources with the Health Ministry noted that items to be purchased this year would include computerized tomography (CT) machines, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, X-ray machines, clinical devices, ambulances, PET-CT machines and high-value consumable materials.

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(4) Development of the world's smallest precision planetary gear (Source: JSME)

Norio SHIROKOSHI, Harmonic AD Inc.
Marketing and Technical Dept.

Harmonic AD inc. (Harmonic Drive Systems group) has developed the worldwide smallest precision planetary gear. The reducer$B!/(Bs backlash is less than 1 arc-min and the size is only 60mm square.
This design was developed by controlling the engagement clearances for each gear element including the sun gear, planet gears, and internal gear. These clearances are less than 2 micrometer and are maintained using fine control of tooth thickness for each of the gears.
In addition, a high precision measurement system has been developed to verify the backlash of the gears. Backlash is measured by determining the transmission error of the gear using clock-wise (CW) rotation with a small load. Next, the rotational direction is changed to counter clock-wise (CCW) and the transmission error is measured again.
Finally, the difference between the CW and CCW transmission error is calculated. This value is a good measure of backlash. This method produces a continuous measurement of backlash and therefore provides an easy way to determine the largest backlash value over the entire range of output positions. This method is very helpful for determining the
backlash characteristics of precision gears.
Applications of such a compact, low backlash reducer include advanced IC handling machines, fine optical control applications, and machines requiring high performance in a compact package. It is also a good complement to very compact servomotors.

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(5) Visible Light Photocatalyst with Superior Durability and High Catalytic Activity (Source : JSME)

Masahiro FURUYA, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI)

Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) has developed a new process to form high performance photocatalyst film of titanium dioxide by oxidizing titanium metals in the burning flame of acetylene gases. The oxide film made by this new process has much superior resistance against scratch, wear and chemical reactions to the conventional titanium dioxide spray coating films. Further, this film shows superior performances in the visible-light photo-catalysis; ten times or more of photo-current density and wide absorption wave range up to 490nm compared to conventional spray coating films up to 410nm.
Corresponding to these photo-electrochemistry performances, the deodorizing (decomposing of acetaldehyde) and anti-contamination effects of this oxide film were also confirmed. The improving effect of catalyst film by the proposed process is estimated as the contribution of Ti-C metallic bond doped in the titanium oxide film.

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(6) Nanoscale Patterning Using Femtosecond Laser and Self-assembled Monolayers (SAMs) (Source : KSME)

Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) reported a method for nanopatterning in a recent issue of KSME Transactions (Vol. 28, No. 9).
Standard positive photoresist techniques were adapted to generate nano-scale patterns of gold substrate using self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and femtosecond laser. SAMs formed by the adsorption of alkanethiols onto gold substrate are employed as very thin photoresists. Alkanethiolates formed by the adsorption of alkanethiols are oxidized on
exposure to UV light in the presence of air. Ultrafast laser of wavelength 800nm and pulse width 200fs is applied for photolithography. Results show that ultrafast laser of visible range wavelength can replace deep UV laser source for photo patterning using thin organic films. Femtosecond laser coupled near-field scanning optical microscopy
facilitates not only the patterning of surface chemical structure, but also the creation of three-dimensional nano-scale structures by combination with suitable etching methods.

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Editor : Professor Mansoo Choi of Seoul National University,
           Director of General Affairs, KSME
           ksme@ksme.or.kr