Technical education on buffing technology, which is energy intensive and manual work, has been conducted by providing necessary training to skilled persons. This training is very time consuming. To improve upon this conventional method, we have designed and developed a digital buffing machine with a 3-component force sensor and a torque sensor. Although the polishing forces were indirect, the accuracy of the force was sufficiently high. Using this digital buffing machine, technology training on buffing was provided to three people with no experience and their performance was compared with well-trained experts. After 5 days of time-intensive training, the three trainees performed polishing with a force waveform similar to the experts. Their skill set with buffing technology was markedly improved within a very short time due to digitization and visualization, leading to innovation over the conventional technology education method.

In this study, a hydroxyapatite (HAp) surface layer was generated at room temperature on a beta-titanium alloy (Ti-29Nb-13Ta-4.6Zr, TNTZ) for use in bio-implants using fine particle peening (FPP) by transfer and microstructural modification of the shot particles. The elemental composition and thickness of the HAp layer on TNTZ followed by aging tended to increase with the FPP treatment time. The rate of increase in the HAp layer thickness in TNTZ followed by aging was lower than that in solution-treated TNTZ. In addition, FPP using HAp shot particles formed a work-hardened layer with high compressive residual stress on TNTZ followed by aging.