Introduction
Institute of Manufacturing Engineering (IME) is a scientific research institution approved and founded by National Huaqiao University in April 2014, located on Xiamen campus of Huaqiao University in Xiamen, Fujian province. IME is committed to promoting the development of manufacturing science and technology. It has a research center with more than 3000 square meters and a large number of advanced scientific instruments. IME has several research platforms, including: (1) National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Manufacturing Technology of Brittle Material Products, (2) Engineering Research Center for Brittle Materials Machining, MOE, (3) Fujian Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Manufacturing for Brittle Materials, etc. IME is the Senior organization memeber of the International Committee for Abrasive Technology (ICAT). Since its establishment, IME has undertaken nearly one hundred research projects and has received numerous awards including a Second Prize of National Science and Technology Development Awards and seven more awards at the provincial and ministerial level.
Currently, IME has 20 faculty members including 13 professors and all of them possess PhD degrees. It has formed a brilliant teaching and research team with a large portion of early career researchers together with middle career and senior experts. IME shows its advantage on interdisciplinary integration based on the fact that all the professors are mainly majored in mechanical engineering, which covers Instrument Science, Measuring Technology, Material Science, Mechanics, Exploration Engineering, etc.
IME offers First-level doctoral degrees of Mechanical Engineering, First-level master’s degrees of Instrument Science and Technology, and it also has the Post-doctoral Research Station for Mechanical Engineering. Since its establishment, many outstanding students have been trained and they are employed by renowned industrial companies, such as Saint Gobain Company ( one of the Fortune Global 500 companies), Zhengzhou Research Institute for Abrasives & Grinding Co., Ltd (industry leaders), Xiamen XinGuangRunZe Technology Co., Ltd, and San’an Optoelectronics Co., Ltd, etc.
The main research directions of IME
High efficiency and precision machining and equipment for stone material
The research focuses on the machining technology and equipmental development for natural stone with the goal of high efficiency, precision and environment-friendly. The aim is to establish a research platform for typical stone machining technology involving sawing, wire sawing, and polishing. The material removal mechanism, interfacial behavior and related tribological issues in the machining process can thus be systematically studied. Meanwhile, the effects of processing parameters on the abrasion of tools and the processing results will be established. This can provide the basis for the processing monitoring, the optimization of processing parameters, and the development of new processing parameters. By promoting the “Robots replace Human Labor” plan for stone industry, the transformation of numerical control and the intelligent upgrading for stone processing equipment can be realized. At the same time, the research on the intelligent processing system, optimization of controlling parameters of robots for stone material will be carried out. To solve the environmental pollution induced by stone processing, on one hand, the machining process will be optimized in order to reduce the formation of stone debris; on the other hand, the research on 3D printing using the powder of stone waste and the corresponding parametric and equipmental development will also be carried out.
The High Efficiency Green Intelligent Manufacturing of Optoelectronic Materials
Originating from the machining processing of substrate and wafer in the optoelectronic materials industry, a processing and testing equipment covering the entire manufacturing chain will be set up. Based on the understanding of the intrinsic properties of materials, the mechanism of material removal in different processing operations can be revealed. As a consequence, a series of new tools and equipment with the function of cutting, grinding, polishing could be invented. By controlling the interfacial behavior between the tool and the workpiece, new machining methods and processing techniques based on fixed abrasives will be developed for optoelectronic materials. By making an on-line testing platform, the characteristic parameters of wafers and tools can be quickly and nondestructively tested, and analyzing the obtained data can lead to the establishment of an information system for wafer intelligent manufacturing with the function of dynamic control in the entire wafer processing. Based on the conditions above, the high efficiency green intelligent Manufacturing of Optoelectronic Materials will be vigorously promoted.
Intelligent Processing of Diamond Tools
Targeting at solving the common bottlenecks of diamond abrasive tools used in brittle materials processing, various of diamond tools processing platforms and abrasive performance testing platforms are set up, by which the bonding and holding mechanisms of diamond abrasive can be thoroughly revealed. It will provide basic theory for the development of high-performance tools. By means of studying processing performance, wear characteristics of diamond tools and their relationships in different applications, the collected data can form a database which can be applied to the development and intelligent using of tools. The working status of diamond tools will be digitally detected and quantitatively characterized by means of machine vision. It thus be possible to realize the Intelligent monitoring and performance evaluation of the working status of diamond tools. Besides, the parametrization of diamond tools is carried out and digital designing system for diamond tool is developed, combined with robot technologies, the development of intelligent manufacturing equipment for diamond tools is thus undertaken.
Simulation and Optimization of machining process for Brittle Materials
The construction of a testing platform with multi-function of mechanical property testing can relalize the characterization of mechanical properties of brittle materials under static and dynamic loading conditions and at different size scales, such as nano- and micron- scales. Based on the experimental data, simulation model of brittle material removal process under different processing conditions can be established by using various numerical simulation methods, such as Finite Element, Discrete Element, Smooth Particle Dynamics, Molecular Dynamics, etc. It can thus be applied to study the removal mechanism of brittle materials, and helps to reveal the intrinsic relationship between processing parameters and material removal behavior. Besides, the machining process parameters are optimized, and an intelligent process data system based on simulation data is developed.