GFRP is a composite material with a number of useful features in terms of tensile strength and both impact and chemical resistance. GFRP components are widely used for design and die stamping and decoration by machining and printing technology. However, these machining and printing technologies have problems with regard to abrasion quality and chemical resistance, and therefore improvements are required. This study focused on the development of a clearer laser marking method. A laser marking method using multiphoton absorption of a femtosecond laser was developed to achieve clear marking without any surface damage. The inner parts marked by this technique showed chemical resistance.

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A ball end mill is generally used in free-from surface cutting processes. As the point of contact of a ball end mill and a workpiece depends on the normal direction of the cutting point and each cutting point of the cutting edge has different cutting conditions, it is difficult to estimate tool wear of a ball end mill. In this research, the actual cutting length of each cutter edge was derived using the developed NC(Numerical Control) simulator, and a system to estimate tool wear distribution of a ball end mill based on the tool wear estimation equation, defined with the real cutting length and cutting conditions at each cutting point, was developed. The usefulness of the system was confirmed by experiment.

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The dicing processing is one method for cutting hard and brittle materials, which is used for cutting thin plates, such as silicon wafers. Ultrasonic vibration dicing was studied to improve the processing accuracy or diced edge chipping. As this ultrasonic dicing technique requires resonance of the dicing tool, it is necessary to use a specialized ultrasonic tool. Therefore, this study was performed to develop a new ultrasonic vibration dicing tool using the normal commercially available dicing blades. This newly developed ultrasonic tool is expected to reduce costs. This report describes the vibration characteristics of this tool.

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Productivity can be improved if a mirror finished surface can be obtained with grinding instead of polishing. The quality of surfaces finished with conventional grinding wheels composed of fine abrasives is poorer than that of those finished by polishing. Here, we propose a new layer-structured grinding wheel based on a natural whetstone called Awasedo, and describe the development of a grinding wheel with a product layer of silica and mica. The utility of the grinding wheel was demonstrated by grinding of a 3-inch silicon wafer in a constant-pressure process yielding a mirror surface with roughness of 1 nm Ra and 7 nm Rz.

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A system for measuring radial cutting force for honing was developed to produce a highly efficient automatic in-feed internal honing machine based on honing force measurement. We present an outline of the developed measuring system and some results. The radial cutting force can be obtained from the measured value of wedge thrust for in-feed of honing stones. Piezo-electric force sensors were used to measure the wedge thrust. We estimated the cutting force ratio of the in-feed internal honing from tangential and radial cutting forces. An in-feed rate control system for internal honing was developed as an application of the radial cutting force measurement.

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