Papers by Author: Tojiro Aoyama

Abstract: Sapphire is an attractive engineering material for the cover glass of smartphones and wristwatches because of its high hardness and resistance to corrosion, wear, and heat. However, the high rate of tool wear and brittle chippings around the holes are serious problems associated with drilling sapphire. To enhance the accuracy and efficiency of the drilling process on sapphire, this paper presents a novel tool-path strategy using helical milling along with various tool path patterns. Experimental results show that the proposed method successfully reduces brittle chippings around the holes.

Abstract: Detection of a tool fracture is necessary to ensure cutting accuracy and to avoid a tool breakage because tool fracture is one of the significant prediction signals of the tool breakage. For monitoring the tool condition, generally additional sensors are used. However using these sensors causes high cost and increase of failure rate. In this paper, a novel sensor-less detection method of tool fracture in drilling process is proposed on the basis of a disturbance observer theory. It is applied to the x-y stage of the machine tool. The proposed method requires no external sensor because it uses only the servo information of the spindle control system. Since structures of normal drills with two floats are symmetrical with respect to a point, theoretically the cutting force in the x and y directions does not work. When the drill is fractured, its structure becomes asymmetry so that unbalanced forces would exert in the x and y directions at intervals of the spindle speed. Therefore, it is possible to detect a tool fracture by the frequency analysis of estimated disturbance force with a wavelet transform. The experimental results show that the proposed method is available for detection of the small tool fracture effectively.

Abstract: . A polishing process, which is the final process in manufacturing optical elements, takes a long time and often depends on the experience and special skills. Development of a skill-less polishing technology and automation of its process, therefore, has been required. One of the most promising polishing technologies is Field-assisted Fine Finishing (FFF). In this study, an Electro-rheological Gel (ERG) polishing pad with one-sided patterned electrodes is developed to polish insulator materials and, moreover, a novel electric-field-assisted polishing technology for glass polishing is proposed applying this pad. The ERG polishing pad can change the polishing performance according to applied electric field due to “electro-adhesion effect”. Results of several polishing tests show that the performance of polishing a blue glass can be controlled by applying electric field to the ERG pad.

Abstract: Large amount of cutting oil consumption is one of the issues for environment. The Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) technique has been applied to the near-dry cutting process. However, MQL technique generates oil mist which is harmful to the working environment and the health of factory workers. In this study, a new lubrication system called Direct Oil Shot Lubrication System (DOS) was developed and applied to milling processes. The performances of DOS technique was evaluated by measuring the floating oil mist and carrying out the cutting tests. The amount of floating oil mist of DOS system was considerably reduced compared to the MQL. The behavior of small oil drops supplied from DOS nozzle to cutting edge was analyzed by means of a high speed video observation, and the optimum setting for DOS was obtained. The experimental result shows developed DOS system realized the smaller density of oil mist floating than the MQL technique while the DOS attained the almost same lubrication effect in milling process as the MQL technique.