1 The Institute of Precision Engineering - An Introduction Ruxu Du, Ph.D. Professor and Director Institute of Precision Engineering The Chinese University of Hong Kong January 2007

2 CUHK The Chinese University of Hong Kong is celebrating her 43 th anniversary now

3 CUHK The numbers –9,000 undergraduate and 5,000 graduates –8 faculties, 62 departments, 820 professors –HK$4.2 billion (US$600 million) annual budget –HK$1.0 billion (US$125 million) annual research grants

4 DU The academic career of Prof. R. Du –1989, Ph.D., the University of Michigan –1991, Assistant Professor, the University of Windsor (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) –1995, Associate Professor, the University of Windsor –1999, Associate Professor, the University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida, USA) –2001, Professor, the Chinese University of Hong Kong –2006, Founding director, Institute of Precision Engineering, CUHK –More updated information can be found at our website at

5 DU Research funding: –Up to date: HK$92,000,000 (US$11,500,000) –Annual budget in : HK$24,000,000 (US$3,000,000) Current team members: –4 Professors –8 Post Doctor Fellows / Visiting Scholars –5 Research Associates / Assistants –6 Ph.D students –6 M.Phil. students –10 in our Shenzhen Operation 1 –16 in our Shenzhen Operation 2

6 DU Publications: –International journal publications: 70 –International conference publications: 82 –Book chapters: 7 –Patents: 5 Services –Associate Editor, Int. J. of Control and Intelligent Systems –Associate Editor, Computer Aided Design and Applications –Member of Editorial Board, Int. J. of Power and Energy Systems –Chair, 2 nd Asian International Conference on Mechantronics (2006)

7 The team

8 Research Directions Condition monitoring, fault diagnosis and automatic control Design –Metal forming press design –Air conditioning system design –Industrial sewing machine design –Footwear design Manufacturing –Metal forming –Metal cutting –Plastic injection molding

9 Technology Inventions Condition monitoring and fault diagnosis –New methods 4D holospectrum (1994) Snake Skeleton Graph (2002) Fuzzy Transition Probability (2004) Bio-inspired method (2006) –Applications Machining (1985 ~ 1995) Large rotating machinery (1994) Metal forming (1999 ~ 2005) Plastic injection molding (2003) Air conditioning systems (2005)

10 Technology Inventions Industry sewing machine and sewing process Modeling and simulation Needle heating Needle cutting

11 Technology Inventions Sheet metal stamping process monitoring and diagnosis Inverse FEM software On-line monitoring based on SVM Current project: design optimization Diagnosis based on thermo energy distribution

12 Technology Inventions Design a new controllable mechanical metal forming press First PrototypeSecond Prototype Current projects: build a 300 ton prototype

13 Technology Inventions Design a solar air conditioner Refrigerant storage for instant response On-spot cooling Bubble pump powered by solar vacant tube

14 Technology Inventions Other projects –Virtual label: an expert system for textile label pattern editing and simulation –Shoe design: design custom-made athletic and causal footwear –Condition monitoring and control of plastic injection molding process –Tool condition monitoring in machining –……

15 New Projects Do you know what mechanism is this?

16 New Projects The watch project –The sponsors: Innovation and Technology Commission, Hong Kong Hong Kong Watch Manufacturers Association Federation of Hong Kong Watch Trade and Industry Federation of Hong Kong Industry, Watch and Clock Council –The budget: HK$64 million (US$8 million) –The objective: Develop technologies and capabilities for design and manufacture high quality mechanical watch movements –The time: started on Jan. 1, 2006 for three years

17 New Projects The watch project –Selected R&D projects: Dynamic modeling and design optimization Virtual library Signature analysis Micro CNC gear hobbing machine Ultra precision wire EDM machine Nanospring Micro assembly Precision stamping Six sigma quality management …….

18 New Projects –Dynamic modeling of the Swiss lever mechanism –The kinematics does not satisfy the Lipschitz condition and hence, can only model by a set of 11 impulsive differential equations –Solving the equation set reveals the dynamical behavior of the mechanism Phase diagram of the balance wheel Phase diagram of the pallet fork

19 New Projects –Virtual library Daniel Co-axial English lever Swiss lever

20 New Projects –Signature analysis Use FEM to find the modal frequencies Use reassigned spectrogram to diagnose possible errors

21 New Projects Micro CNC gear hobbing machine CAD model of the machine Computer simulation of gear formation

22 New Projects –Ultra precision wire EDM machine Minimum wire size: 0.03 mm Minimum resolution: 0.1  m 3D EDM milling

23 Thank you