Present and future of micromechatronics

Micromachine technology has brought about a profound technological innovation over a wide range of industries. It is expected to be the basic technology used in the new industries in the future. Micromachine technology 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 technology which have become clear during the course of R&D on micromachine technology (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 technology 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.