This research is conducted using with experiments and simulations to reproduce the flow loads corresponding to paddle movements in the development of land training equipment for canoeists. By comparing the results of experiments using a circular tank and a miniature model of a paddle blade with those of a simulation with a free interface, the validity of the simulation was verified and changes in the flow around the blade and forces on the paddle during paddling were investigated. Focused on the effect of changes in the angle of attack, the results are obtained such as the magnitude and direction of the force, pressure distribution, and velocity vectors. The results showed positive pressure in the downstream and negative pressure in the upstream of the paddle. The area of the negative pressure increases with the higher angle of attack. Since the force acts in the direction from positive pressure to negative pressure, it is thought that the lateral force tends to act in the negative direction, and the force measurement results show this tendency.

In the sport of Kendo, bamboo swords, or "Shinai", utilize cowhide in components such as the tip cover and the binding. However, being a natural material, the quality of cowhide varies greatly, with instances of it being damaged after only a few uses reported. In an effort to prevent accidents due to such damages, the authors investigated the impact durability of leather materials. They developed a repeated impact testing device and measured the number of hits until damage occurred in both natural cowhide and artificial leather. Assuming a Weibull distribution to evaluate durability, it was found that artificial leather can be expected to provide safety on par with, or even exceeding that of high-quality cowhide.

To digitally archive traditional Japanese dance, it is necessary to record the body movements of the performers wearing stage costumes. In conventional motion capture techniques, attaching special sensors to capture dance movements can be burdensome for performers. In recent years, markerless video motion analysis systems have been used for motion analysis. However, neither conventional nor markerless motion capture can accurately estimate body parts hidden by stage costumes. Therefore, in this work, we tried to utilize markerless motion capture to estimate motion while performers wear stage costumes by retraining existing pre-trained models.

This study clarified what scenes spectators are moved by when they watch sports for people with disabilities and why. Participants were divided into two groups, A and B, and were asked to watch a video and answer a questionnaire afterward. Group A was given video footage of games and interviews with the athletes, while Group B was given only video footage of the games. The game and interview videos were of three sports: track and field for the disabled, wheelchair rugby, and blind soccer. The participants were university students. The questionnaire results were analyzed using factor analysis and analysis of variance. The results revealed that the dramatic nature of the athletes' human aspects is a necessary factor for spectators to be moved by sports for the disabled. According to the mechanism of emotion, people are moved only by what they are interested in. It is thought that the participants in the experiment were moved by the sports for the disabled because their interest in the athletes was increased by watching the video interviews with the athletes, and these results were obtained.

It is emphasized that the decision-making in conceptual design is highly dependent on the designer's aesthetic sense. However, even in a subjective phase, objective aspects such as mechanical rationality are implicitly or explicitly considered, and these two perspectives are inseparable. A concept of Mechanical Kansei defined as “the capability to evaluate and judge impressions in terms of unconscious, intuitive, and integrative information in mechanics,” has been proposed to elucidate how this capability is utilized for design. In this article, we focus on the capability to recall the force flow within a structure; and take the topology-optimized structures as the representation of such force flow. Through learning the optimized shapes and their histories with a variational autoencoder (VAE), dimensionality compression from the large design variable space to the lower dimensional latent variable space is performed. As a result, it was shown that the three-dimensional latent space reflected the geometric positions of randomly located supports on the design domain and iterations on optimization. The obtained mappings from the boundary conditions to the representation of force flow in structure within the encoder and decoder of VAE could help us to understand the Mechanical Kansei.

In this study, we focused on roughness of grasped objects and investigated effects of roughness on mechanical responses in fingertip, roughness perception, and gripping comfort during gripping cylinders with grooves. Roughness perception and gripping comfort evaluation of cylinders with different grooves and ridges were obtained from ten participants in grasping experiment. Mechanical responses in fingertip during gripping cylinders with grooves were calculated by finite element (FE) method using fingertip FE model. Results of FE simulation indicated that strain energy density in skin and subcutaneous tissue increased with groove width of cylinders. Additionally, perceived roughness also increased with groove width of cylinder. Hence, strain energy density in skin and subcutaneous tissue seems to contribute to roughness perception. Furthermore, relationships between perceived roughness and gripping comfort evaluation were different among individuals. Specifically, cylinders perceived to be rough tended to be evaluated as discomfort by seven participants, whereas others tended to evaluate as comfort.

In the present study, the direction and point of application of the tensile force carried by the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) were analyzed with respect to the femoral and tibial attachments. Porcine knee joints (n=4) were fixed to a 6-DOF robotic system at full extension, 60°, and 90° of flexion. The ACL force in response to a 100 N anterior tibial load was analyzed under the assumption of superposition. After the tests, 10 points randomly selected on the femoral and tibial attachments' boundaries were 3-dimensionally digitized. The centroid of the attachment areas, connecting line between the femoral and tibial centroids (centroid line), and attachment plane were analyzed. In addition, the intersection and angle between the force line and the attachment plane, the angle between the centroid line and the attachment plane, and the angle between the force line and centroid line were analyzed. As a result, there were differences in the angles formed by the force line and the angles formed by the centroid line at all flexion angles. The intersection of the force line was located posteriorly to the centroid in the femoral attachment. These results indicate that the ACL are bent due to fiber impingement to the femoral condyle. The angle between the force line and centroid line was smaller at the full extension than at flexion, suggesting that the fiber bending becomes smaller in the full extension.

In light of the growing concern over repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) in fingers resulting from prolonged smartphone usage, this study proposes a detection device and method. The method revolves around observing mechanical signals acquired by the hand detection device and biomedical signals from the finger itself and analyzing their characteristics for diagnostic purposes. Additionally, a small-scale trial was conducted to provide preliminary validation for the study's approach. Although the trial may have limitations in terms of scale, it offers initial evidence regarding the effectiveness of the proposed detection device and method.

Thin film sweat sensors utilizing ionophores have emerged as a powerful and non-invasive method for monitoring health. These sensors offer remarkable sensitivity, selectivity, and rapid response, making them a promising solution for personalized health tracking. Ionophores, specialized molecules with target-specific binding capabilities, enable accurate detection of biomarkers in real-time and continuous sweat analysis. Their integration into wearable devices allows for miniaturization and flexibility, ensuring seamless monitoring of athletes, patients, and individuals. By focusing on crucial biomarkers such as electrolytes and metabolites, these sensors provide valuable insights into dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, and metabolic disorders. Potential applications encompass health tracking, disease diagnosis, and sports performance optimization. With their exceptional performance and compatibility with wearable technology, these sensors hold great promise for enhancing personalized healthcare and promoting proactive well-being practices. In this study we will focus on the manual labor carried out for their fabrication and the improvement on its fabrication yield.

“Tomoiku” means to make living with nature and with one's friends one's own business. and to be prepared to do so. All things influence each other and grow together. One area where this concept is particularly effective is in manufacturing. where everyone takes a leading role and creates a place where he or she can subjectively perceive the situation and environment. Create a situation where "the situation makes people work". Believing in oneself. each person can take the leading role through dialogue with diversity. Creating a place is a situation-building and culture-building process. As a case study. Tanaka Sangyo (headquartered in Mishima City) introduces its approach to manufacturing and global activities.

In order to expand business by taking advantage of their own technologies, we developed the strategy formulation method called QFD-Advanced and SWOT-Advanced. First, the manufacturing technologies of each company are understood functionally and visualized by organizing them as a chain of cause-and-effect relationships. Next, technologies are examined from a bird's-eye view toward the ideal of each function. Next, or in parallel, the "Ba" is created for open and diverse human resources (colleagues) to consider the social value that could be the objective through proactive dialogue, and these are then superimposed and integrated. We then create themes and construct projects by linking these objectives with the technologies we have examined.

The plating process consumes a lot of electricity, gas, and various chemicals. This is not only resource- and cost-intensive, but also environmentally harmful in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. The measures of each process for decarbonization are diverse and deeply interrelated, so it is necessary to consider the whole as a system and to think functionally. The author, as a business coordinator, played a role in coordinating and integrating the proposals of rectifier manufacturers, chemical manufacturers, and wastewater treatment manufacturers, while interacting with them. This paper introduces the case study and the starting point of these activities.

Nissin Precision Machines Co., Ltd. (Nissin), a distinguished Japanese-based medium-sized enterprise renowned for its expertise in precision die and mold manufacturing technology, has strategically targeted one of the biggest vertical markets, the industrial manufacturing industry, and effectively bolstered the growth of leading worldwide manufacturers. Primarily attributed to Nissin’s superior manufacturing techniques that are capable of processing steel materials and nonferrous metals to tolerances within micron or sub-micron increments, and of creating state-of-the-art deep drawing press stamping products (forming long and narrow cup shapes from sheet metal) by progressive press stamping dies, Nissin has consistently and successfully achieved an excellent reputation among its peers and clients today. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly evident that refining manufacturing technology alone is no longer sufficient to enhance corporate value. Recognizing the evolving times, Nissin acknowledges the non-financial endeavors that contribute to community development, particularly through such GX activities as decarbonization and the transition from fossil-based plastics to plant-based alternatives. As a public entity within society, Nissin is cognizant of the significance of these endeavors. Consequently, Nissin not only strives to produce the next-generation motor cores for electric vehicles, necessitating precision die making technology to perforate through large, thin metallic materials, but also, along with designing a compelling marketing strategy to promote the value of the biomass plastic products, ventures into molding thin wall Poly-Lactic Acid (PLA) resin products utilizing CO2 microcellular foam injection technology.

In industry-government-academia development, participants need to share the goal and respect and disclose information. Otherwise, problems like conflicts of interest may arise. We have developed CFRTP technology based on old UD tape technology from Yamaha Corporation. We have improved and expanded the technology with the help of industry-government-academia members. We were selected for Shizuoka Prefecture’s new growth strategy research and found a way to use it for industry.

Twelve years after the combined disasters of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima Prefecture, the national government and prefectural governments are playing an important role in the industrial creation project based on the Fukushima Innovation Coast Framework, which is being implemented as a national project by industry, academia, government, industry, academia and civil society. The projects are managed by the Fukushima Innovation Coast Promotion Organization (FIPO) in cooperation and collaboration with the governments. Along with the implementation of projects aiming at innovative technological development that will bring about social change, the organization is simultaneously working on the formation of an innovation ecosystem centred on enterprises and the development of human resources for the next generation. In this report, I introduce some case studies, discuss the challenges of industrial human resource development, and consider measures to meet these needs from the perspective of the 'diversity' and 'co-education' required for a sustainable society.

At last year's annual conference, we introduced a case study of Akita Prefecture regarding an approach to attract students' interest in science and engineering fields through lectures and classes delivered to high schools.

However, it is important to reach out to the younger generation if we want to influence their future career choices. Last year, we conducted creative learning and classes for elementary and junior high school students, as well as lectures for elementary school teachers, and we will introduce these cases by showing the results of post-conference questionnaires.

This paper examines the relationship between internships and recruitment in small-and medium-sized manufacturing firms. The authors interviewed three companies that have effectively used internships for recruiting new graduates and for changes within their organizations，and discussed how and what the internships gave impacts to the companies including perspectives reported by the previous studies. The results suggest that appropriately considering "student growth" in the internship programs leads to an increase in the possibility of hiring highly educated persons. And it also found that managers' commitment to supervising students is effective in creating a fundamental environment for successful recruitment. The paper further suggests that the coordinators may be essential in providing the companies with awareness to link internships to future human resource development.

Green transformation (GX) initiatives aimed at achieving carbon neutrality are gradually taking shape. GX investment is said to be about 150 trillion yen in the next 10 years, and if it is realized, it will be a growth opportunity for Japanese industry that surpasses the high-growth period since the 1960s. The period from 1990 onwards after the period of rapid economic growth is called the "lost 30 years." The internal factor behind the downward trend in industrial competitiveness during this period is thought to be the lack of qualitative growth and innovation in manufacturing before and after the rapid economic growth. In this lecture, the strategy of regional industrial advancement toward decarbonization will be described, and the role of reskilling education and mechanical engineering that will be the driving force will be examined. In addition, examples of current practices are presented. Activities of patent education as reskilling will also be introduced.

Forest resources including woody biomass are expected to contribute to the revitalization of local community because abundant resources reside in the countryside. Aizu Electric Power Company (AiPower) has been trying to utilize forest resources for that purpose. In this paper, examples of on-going developments are exhibited and key findings are shared. Economics to materialize business viability is more of an issue than technologies.

We have started a project to practice what kind of effect will be produced in the local industry by reducing the risk in investment decision-making, building an environment where appropriate return on investment can be simulated in advance, and encouraging utilization. The place is Tsubame City, Niigata Prefecture. In July 2022, the data center "Tsubame Future Data Center", which executes simulations of all management and technical themes, started. As a pilot project, we are working with the product development manufacturer on a simulation of improving the function of a pellet stove that utilizes woody biomass energy.

The Odor from livestock is a serious problem for those who live in areas where livestock farming is flourishing. Odor control is necessary to deal with the problem to attract people to settle in the area, based on the information about where the odor comes from and how long it takes to move from the farm to the living area. However, the sensing devices are expensive, and the odor highly depends on the human sense of smell. Since various factors, such as wind directions, temperature, and land geometry, are involved in the dispersion of odors, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is best to consider these factors and predict odor distribution in the city and its suburbs. In this study, we perform numerical simulations of odor dispersion from the farm area including the living area. Rough simulations using the turbulence model based on Reynolds-averaged Navier—Stokes equation are performed in a wide area (7 km by 5 km), and the detailed simulations are established by nesting a medium area (1 km by 1 km). Also, the large-eddy simulations (LESs) in the finer-scale areas are performed using the results of the rough simulation as the boundary condition in order to resolve building effects and roads in the city. Many simulations with the various wind velocities and directions with different sources of odor are required for the comprehensive research on the odor dispersion. We also developed a super-resolution model by using a convolutional neural network (CNN) to surrogate the finest LESs, and it successfully reduces the computational cost.

The fuel consumption rate of passenger cars when the power of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) is replaced by fuel cells was investigated based on the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Cycles (WLTC) mode, taking into account differences in vehicle applications and vehicle types. The results of the analysis, which took into account maximum vehicle speed and one-fill mileage, showed that in FCVs, the fuel consumption rate of small passenger cars was 1.17 times higher on average than that of regular passenger cars, and among regular passenger cars, the difference was up to 1.41 times higher depending on body type. In addition, the difference in fuel consumption rates among different vehicle types and body types of FCVs narrowed as the driving speed increased, such as when driving on expressways. Therefore, the influence of vehicle type and body type on fuel consumption rate may be relatively small when FCVs are used for inter-city travel compared to when driving in urban areas. Furthermore, the fuel consumption rate of FCVs was found to decrease as the travel speed increases. Therefore, in terms of fuel consumption rate, unlike ICEVs, FCVs should be driven at lower speeds.

Many-channel microphone array has been developed for turbulent wall pressure measurements. The microphone array consists of custom-made PCB boards with digital MEMS microphones and an FPGA signal controller. The digital data stream from the microphone is bundled and recorded. The pressure signals are recovered using a decimation sinc2 filter in the post-processing. The measurements have been performed in a turbulent boundary layer and in a wing–flat plate juncture flow. For the turbulent boundary layer, the instantaneous space-time distribution of the wall pressure fields exhibits negative and positive wall pressure with packets of strong intermittent fluctuations. For the wing–flat plate juncture flow, the wall pressure fluctuations at 672 points on the flat plate and the velocity field in the stagnation plane have been measured simultaneously. The distribution of the RMS values of the wall pressure fluctuation indicates the trace of the strong wall pressure fluctuations. In the presentation, the future possibilities of the microphone array will be discussed.

Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PSP) and Temperature-Sensitive Paint (TSP) have been widely used in recent years to measure pressure and temperature distribution on walls using cameras optically. PSP measures pressure using a photochemical reaction called oxygen quenching, in which the emission intensity of a dye changes with the oxygen partial pressure (~pressure). On the other hand, TSP measures temperature by utilizing the change in luminescence intensity of dyes (thermal quenching) caused by changes in temperature. The characteristics of PSP and TSP vary greatly depending on the type of dye and binder used. Therefore, selecting the appropriate dye and binder for the experimental conditions is necessary. This presentation discusses the current status of PSP and TSP and their applications.

This study presents the development of a MEMS piezoresistive cantilever-type differential pressure sensor and its applications. We originally developed the differential pressure sensor to measure the aerodynamic force on the wing surface of a butterfly. The developed sensor was 1.0 mm x 1.0 mm x 0.3 mm in size and realized a pressure resolution of less than 0.1 Pa. A differential pressure of ±10 Pa was measured using the sensor during the spangle butterfly's takeoff. The sensor met the required high sensitivity, small size, and unbreakable specifications due to the special conditions of measuring by attaching to the butterfly's wing surface. As a result, it was deployed in other applications. For example, by attaching a chamber to the underside of the differential pressure sensor, the sensor worked as an atmospheric pressure change sensor, altimeter, and infrasound sensor. Furthermore, the sensor was utilized as a compact airflow sensor by integrating it into housings fabricated by a 3D printer.

Japan's first semi-stainless steel car Tokyu 5200 Series and all-stainless steel car Tokyu former 7000 Series are certified as Mechanical Heritage No. 51 of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.

As in previous studies, the latter was born from a US technology license. Then lightweight stainless steel cars were developed by domestic technologies and became de-facto standard technology by adopted by national railway cars. It was widely used in 46 prefectures except Okinawa because it was lightweight, no painting, ecological, and economical.

In this study, we focus on the Tokyu former 5000 Series the high-speed and ultra-lightweight steel cars, which was the basis for the development of the 5200 Series, clarified development history of carbody contour technology, and discussed the true value of the industrial heritage based on the TICCIH Nizhniy Tagil Charter.