A magnetic fluid (MF) seal was specially designed for use in an axial-flow blood pump. There are some potential problems to be solved for the use as a shaft seal for blood pumps. Experimental and theoretical sealing pressures, a long-term performance of the MF seal and biocompatibility of MF were studied. The sealing pressure was about 200mmHg in blood in the experiments. The theoretical sealing pressure was over 300mmHg with the use of high magnetization MF. The results of long-term performance tests showed that the durability of the seal was over 1 year. The results of cytotoxicity tests showed that the MF had no major problems for clinical applications. The results of this study indicate that this simple and biocompatible liquid seal is useful for a rotary blood pump.

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At present, ceramics material of Al_2O_3 or 3Y-PSZ have been used for te joint elements of the artificial joint. However, these materials are suffered fracture by impact force, because of their low toughness and high hardness. In this study, the authors developed two kinds of 3Y-PSZ ceramics matrix composites reinforced SUS316L or Ti and evaluated mechanical properties and wear resistance. These materials have been fabricated by a spark plasma sintering. The sintering behavior of composites at 1200℃ was studied, when the metal composite ratio was 0vol.% to 20vol% in each material. The density of each specimen was nearly equal to the theoretical value. The Vickers Hardness of the specimens was decreased by low of mixture, according to the concentration of the metal. The wear resistance of composites was improved in comparison with 3Y-PSZ ceramics. In these results, the composite materials were developed in this study were performed lower hardness and higher wear resistance compared with traditional bioceramics.

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Rapid aging of society has aroused a great interest in the disorder that affects the function of knee. Painful and crippling knee conditions are completely released by total knee arthroplasty (TKA). However, wear of polyethylene insert frequently shortens the life span of TKA. Since knee movement involves a complicated combination of translations and rotations, adequate motion analysis is necessary for estimating the wear of inserts and improving the design of artificial knee joint. In this study, we developed the 6-DOF motion simulator for artificial knee joints and analysed the motion of the polyethylene insert on the mobile bearing TKA. Polyethylene insert and tibial component were mounted on the parallel link 6-DOF actuator that can control internal/external and abduction/adduction, and lateral/medial and anterior/posterior translation. Flexion/extension rotation and axial load were controlled by a couple of air survo cylinders. The internal/external motion of the polyethylene insert was observed depending on the flexion/extension motion conditions. The frequency of walking cycle greatly influenced on the motion of insert, which would be induced by the friction between the polyethylene and tibial component.

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For several decades, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been used as one of the most wear-proof bearing materials in joint arthroplasty. However, delamination, observed mainly in retrieved UHMWPE knee components, has been the problem to be elucidated. In previous studies the authors have shown that grain boundary, a substructure formed in processing, has effects on subsurface crack initiation as a precursor of delamination. Also we have shown that vitamin E addition to UHMWPE components prevents the subsurface crack initiation. In this study microscopic strain measurements were conducted under uniaxial tension using the digital image correlation method. The aim of this study was to investigated the relationship between gamma irradiation and vitamin E addition on microscopic deformation especially in the vicinity of grain boundary in UHMWPE components.

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Wear and lubrication characteristics have been investigated in an artificial articular cartilage with low elastic modulus for joint prostheses. Wear tests were performed with a knee joint simulator. Polyvinyl formal was adopted as the artificial articular cartilage for the flat tibial component. The thickness of the polyvinyl formal was 3mm, and the mechanical property was adjusted through a new developing process in order to ensure that the micro-elastohydrodynamic lubrication regime was effective. The compliant bearing had a spherical surface with a radius of 30mm. The spherical bearing consisted of Co-Cr-Mo alloy, alumina ceramic, and zirconia ceramic. The results showed that no detectable wear debris was generated in joint simulation tests carried out over 0.1 million cycles. Although there still remain some problems to solve, the polyvinyl formal seems to be a very interesting and promising material, which meets the requirements of artificial articular cartilage.

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Metal-on-metal joint prosthesis considered consists of a cobalt-chrome acetabular insert, articulating against a cobalt-chromium femoral head. The two bearing surfaces have possibility of direct contact with each other in the friction process. The metallic oxide film that forms on the bearing surface has a large effect on the wear characteristics. The oxide film damaged by the friction process, we have shown that a decrease of the oxygen supply in a lubricant does not always increase the wear. The idea of 'coverage of the bearing surfaces' is introduced in order to elucidate the mechanism. This ' coverage' will control re-formation of oxide film on the bearing surface. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of 'coverage' on the wear of a cobalt-chrome bearing surface.

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This study was to examine the wear characteristics of an artificial hip joint on the exfoliation of adsorbed film by long-term simulator test and pin-on-disc test. Lubricant was a water-based liquid, and it contained principal constituents in synovial fluid. If a joint remains in a stationary state under heavy load from body weight, the lubricating condition is too severe to generate sufficient fluid film. However, the wear of UHMWPE cup decreased with the formation of transferred film. The bearing surface of the UHMWPE cup became differing contour in the different operating conditions of the sequence cycle and interruption cycle. The wear of UHMWPE pin decreased with the increase of contact pressure in pin-on-disc test. And, the formation of transferred film was observed on the bearing surface of Co-Cr-Mo alloy. Therefore, the transferred film at asperity level was thought to be effective on the decrease of wear in the severe condition with the exfoliation of synovial constituents.

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In simulation studies concerning wear of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) used in joint prostheses, representative themes seem to be the lubricating liquid used in testing and the sliding direction of UHMWPE. Thee types of research are necessary in order to equalize results in vitro with results in vivo. The important point to note is that bovine serum has been used extensively as a lubricating liquid in these researches. The bovine serum is a good lubricating liquid, but considerable variation in the quality produces scattering result in wear of the UHMWPE. This report presents a simulated synovial fluid that we can make in laboratory settings. The liquid was a water-based liquid and contained the principal constituents of synovial fluid. Wear tests of UHMEWPE showed that boundary lubricating performance of the simulated fluid was equal to that of bovine serum.

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PVA hydrogel is a kind of prospective material as artificial cartilage. In the knee joint simulator test, PVA hydrogel performs low friction and low wear. Although under severe condition such as boundary or mixed lubrication, the wear is increased. Therefore it is necessary to investigate the wear properties of PVA hydrogel in severe condition. Lubricant containing protein was used in reciprocating test. Proteins made the boundary film on PVA hydrogel, and the wear was decreased. Protein boundary film on glass plate was observed in AFM. PVA hydrogel is soft material, so it was difficult to get clear images in AFM. Therefore glass plate was tested. Lubricant was contained albumin or γ-globulin as typical protein in synovial fluid. The boundary film of albumin was absorbed weaker than that of γ-globulin. In the lubricant mixed albumin and γ-globulin the wear was decreased so that the boundary film has low shear layer of albumin.

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Friction between finger skin and an object plays an important role in the picking-up motion. Some researchers have reported friction coefficient values exceeding 1.0 [-] for skin samples. This is a rare phenomenon not observed in friction between artificial materials. This frictional behavior appears to be affected by sweat on the finger surface and elastic deformation of the dactylogram. In this report, we describe the influences of normal load and loading duration on the frictional behavior between the skin and a glass. A sliding tester and optical microscope were utilized. Normal load was applied to the glass with a lever system. That could adjust contact pressure. At light normal load, increased loading duration produced a higher frictional force. However, at heavy normal load the loading time displayed no apparent effect on frictional force. Frictional coefficient was decreased by an increase in load, and the highest value, 14.0 [-], was recorded at the lowest load tested.

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This paper describes the investigation of the most suitable parameter of a rocking suppression system installed in a newly developed 3-dimensional base isolation system using a velocity reduction mechanism. This base isolation system achieved very low vertical natural frequency using the velocity reduction mechanism which is composed of a worm gear system. Vertical motion is transformed into the rotational motion by a rack-pinion system. Multiple sets of these worm gear and rack-pinion systems compose a unit of a vertical base isolation system. In this system, pinion shafts are connected to each other. Therefore, rocking motion could be suppressed effectively by the tortional rigidity of the pinion shaft.

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This paper deals with impact vibration in continuous system excited by periodic displacement with arbitrary functions. The analytical model is steady impact vibration in both ends supported beam having an attached mass, which collides elastically to an unsymmetric faces. In order to clarify the main resonance of the system subjected to excitation by displacement, the resulting vibrations are analyzed by applying the Fourier series method to this system. Following these theoretical analyses, numerical calculations are performed, and the resonance curves are made by using the resulting vibrations. The numerical results are in a fairly good agreement with the experimental ones.

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This paper studies the influence of external damping on nonlinear vibrations for a dynamic system with piecewise linear stiffness. The effect of external damping on chaos and multiple period vibrations is discussed through both of the simulation and experiment. The investigation is based on frequency response, time response, bifurcation diagram, FFT, phase plane diagram and Poincare map. The results show that external damping has an expected tendency to suppress chaos and multiple periods in the majority cases, but for some conditions, the frequency region where chaos occurs becomes wider as damping increases.

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Rapid technological development in many industrial branches requires increasing of the rotating machinery speed and performances. This tendency might be considered the main cause that induced numerous vibration troubles in the field of rotating machinery. Recently, in order to increase the machines performances the radial clearance between the rotating shaft and casing became smaller and smaller. As a result, severe vibration accidentally occurred in the rotating machinery systems. From the standpoint of the unbalance response type, the problem of rubbing might occur in the low-speed, near the critical speed, or in the high-speed ranges of the rotor. Among these speed intervals, especially in the case of high-speeds, various kinds of vibration occurred, such as "synchronous vibration", "sub-harmonic vibration", "chaotic vibration", etc. This study presents a theoretical and experimental study of the rotor vibration due to the rubbing against casing, for high-speeds regime and different configurations of the casing.

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R.D. Mindlin has pointed out taht Timoshenko's shear coefficient, in Timoshenko's equations of flexural vibrations of beams, depends on both the shape of the cross-section and the mode of vibration. In this paper, it is demonstrated that Timoshenko's shear coefficient depends on three factors which are the shape of the cross-section, the mode of vibration and the Poisson's ratio of materials. In the cases of rectangular and circular cross-sections, the slower phase velocity obtained by shear coefficient constituted with three factors well coincides with that obtained by plane strain theory of elasticity and by Pochhammer-Chree theory respectively.

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This paper describes improvement of cymbal sound quality. At first we record the cymbal sound in time-domain to research the quality. In frequency-domain, we make a sound of cymbal to reduce the power level of frequency band by using FFT, and return in time-domain by using IFFT. We inspect in the method of paired comparison and choose best sound at the result of the inspection. To make a cymbal which has the good sound quality, analyzed the experimental mode, executed by using FEM and optimized the structure model. At the results, it is possible to link structure analysis and evaluation of sound quality.

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It is difficult to analyze the vibration and sound responses on a whole, surface and inside of a printer using FEM. This difficulty comes from the fact that almost the parts of the printer are made of plastic mold. In this investigation, statistical energy analysis (SEA) is applied to predict the responses on the printer unit. First, the selection of SEA subsystems is discussed using the initial slope ratio techniques. Then, an SEA model is constructed experimentally. The vibration energy level on each SEA subsystem predicted by the constructed SEA model is compared with the measured levels under impact test. It is shown that the vibration analysis on the printer unit is suitable for SEA.

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MUSIC (Multiple Signal Classification) has been proposed as a high-resolution signal-processing algorithm for the direction finding. It uses the received signals sampled by the array receiver. The MUSIC has been conventionally applied to signal sources located in the far field. We are now proposing a new algorithm that is able to highly resolve and make precise estimating for the location finding of short-range signal sources. This paper will describe the details of the proposed algorithm, and show these performances for the location finding of the simulated signal sources. It is clear that the proposed algorithm was able to precisely resolve and highly estimate the short-range signal sources.

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This paper deals with the design of PID controller by means of the moment method. Moment method is an approach based on estimated moments of the control object that conform as possible as a transfer function of control system to a reference system model. This design method is applied to the temperature control of a distillation column. In this study moments are derived from ARMAX model based on operational data. Simulation of PID control system design proposed here shows very good results.

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PID control is using for many process system. However, it is difficult to determine appropriate gains because the dynamical characteristics of process will be changed by operating condition. In this paper, stable temperature control in a distillation column is considered. ARMAX dynamical models are built from operational data. Parameters of models are identified using kalman filter. The generalized predictive control method is applied for an auto-tuning PID control system.

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In emergency transportation, a patient receives the lateral acceleration when an ambulance turns a corner. Such acceleration causes the feeling of discomfort or carsickness. We make the actively-controlled bed for an ambulance which reduces the patient's discomfort by rotating the bed. The bed is actuated by a DC servo motor. The desired angle of the bed is calculated in real time from the lateral acceleration of an ambulance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the rolling-typed actively-controlled bed in terms of the subjectivity of ride comfort. In experiment, the subjects evaluate a degree of the ride comfort on a scale of five for every second. Compared to the fixed bed, the ride quality improves when the bed is actively controlled.

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A ladder of the ladder truck with lift mechanism often generates a lot of vibrations at the time of the lift operation. The lift operation includes the extending and retracting motions, the ascending and descending motions, and the turning motion. In this paper, the simulation analysis of the dynamic behavior for the multi-sections ladder which can extend, retract and turn is described. We make the dynamic analytical model of the multi-sections flexible ladder using multibody dynamics. A coupled equation of motion of the multi-sections flexible ladder is derived using the differential algebraic equation (DAE).

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A friction coefficient between wheel and road is regarded as being important factor for prevention of car accidents and making progress in drivability. This paper proposes a vehicle model. And the lateral motion, the yawing motion, the rolling motion, the load shift, and the suspension alignment change analyzed by using a multi-body-dynamics simulation program (ADAMS) are taken into consideration in the proposed model. 3-directional forces acting between wheel and road can be obtained by using the proposed model. Furthermore, a friction coefficient can be extrapolated by using these forces.

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Recently, to insure the stable supply of the electric power, many robotized manipulator systems for live-line maintenance work are used. However, since of the heavy mass of bucket, it's very easy for bucket to vibrate in case of quick change of the position. Also, the hydraulic actuator used for the aerial vehicle becomes the hindering of system performance and precision due to the nonlinear characteristics of the servo valve with a nonsymmetrical cylinder. In this paper, trajectory control method for bucket in the vertical surface are discussed. Here, we reorganize the equation of motion for the aerial vehicle and linearly approximate the servo valve with a nonsymmetrical cylinder. We approximate the bucket velocity a 2nd order vibration model, and then actualized the trajectory control through the state estimation by the disturbance observer. Simulations show that the bucket has no vibration, moreover can follow the given trajectory by using proposed method.

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This paper deals with a brake device attached to each wheel of small cars as a component of brake-by-wire system. The brake device consists of a disk brake, a piezoelectric pump, two accumulators and a three position solenoid valve. Mathematical model of the brake device, an approximation formula of the caliper piston force (CPF), and a control scheme of the CPF are presented. Simulation results show that (1) the CPF large enough for small cars is generated by using a multilayerd piezoelectric element of 40mm diameter, (2) the rise time of the CPF is about 0.1 second including the time to contact the disk pad with the disk plate, (3) the formula gives close approximation to the simulated value of CPF, and (4) the feedback control of the CPF is achieved by using the disturbance observer.

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This paper proposes a new modeling technique and control system design of a flexible rotor using active magnetic bearings (AMB) for motion and vibration control. The goal of the research is to pass through a critical speed of the rotor and achieve high-speed rotation. To achieve this, it is necessary to control both vibration and motion. Even though reduced order physical model that we used before is available in expressing vibration, this technique cannot express motion. Thus we propose an extended reduced order physical model that can simultaneously express motion and vibration. In addition to use the model, we apply a new controller that combined PID control with linear quadratic (LQ) control to a flexible rotor. The effectiveness of the proposed modeling and controlling is verified by simulation and experiment.

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Training and activity environment of a care dog were improved by Law Concerning Service Dogs for the disabled, and it contributes to improvement in the quality of a life for the disabled. One of the support which a service dog provides, there's a running support with towing a wheelchair in case which is difficult to drive for operator oneself. Since much burden follows on the back of a service dog at this time, the protection, which mitigates this and promotes long-term activity, is required. By detecting each relative velocity and angle between a service dog and a wheelchair, we propose the Guidance control method of making a wheelchair follow a service dog. In this paper, we describe an opinion about an adjustment of the control system by some results of simulated experiment.

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Most of electric wheelchair employs various type of control rod as the driving device. On the other hand, different kinds of them have been developed as suitable as each user has needed. We propose the bi-state operating controller using the motion of operator's head, which was detected by three couples of photo sensors. The reference signal for the direction control was directly generated by using head motion. In addition of information on it, we employed the special signal to decide the operating command. That signal informed the state on decision-making of operator to the logic circuits, and was generated by the signal of the silicon gum fiber which was bit by the operator. The adjusting condition of new type of driving device was described in this report.

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As the population ages and fewer babies are born, both care-givers and persons who have necessity for being cared are currently ageing. Since it's important for both of them to be concerned with a local community, as one of the transfer aids, power assist wheelchairs are developed to help them to move. It is required that adjustment of the assist power is given due consideration in their safety and reducing burden to their body. Human adjusts assist power depending on walking velocity, so that we regard human, wheelchair as a prime motor, a load, and identify human-wheelchair's modeling system. In this paper, we describe the influence on assist power to human's behavior and an evaluation of wheelchair's driving performance.

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The modeling methodology for the dynamics stability of a flexible plate, which moves axially from a constraint area into a narrow unconstraint area filled with fluid with high speed velocity, is developed. We calculate fluid force by using the discrete vortex method and derive the equation of motion in the form of the differential algebraic equation by using multi-body dynamics formulation. We verify the validity of the analytical result by the experiment and clarify the dynamic stability of the system.

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The vibration system treaded in this study is of a single degree of freedom, and consists of four dampers and a mass. The viscoelastic material (VEM) for vibration control using the damper is urethane resin. The vibration transmissibility and loss factor of the resin are measured by forced vibration of the damping system. The transmissibility curve that were obtained experimentally have some influence on the excitation displacement amplitude. The loss factors are calculated by the maximum vibration transmissibility, and the effects of excitation displacement amplitude and static compressive stress on the loss factor are evident.

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It seems to be important and efficient to monitor the flow inside a pipe, in order to analyze the flow condition and make higher controlled air-conditioners. Mixing the fluorescent material into the refrigerant has been used as the leak tester. We proposed an optical sensor system to monitor the flow condition by using the amount of scattered light and the fluorescent light from the fluorescent material changed by the flow condition. Since the scattered light is strongly influenced by the change of shape at the boundary between the liquid refrigerant and the vapor and the fluorescent light by the amount of fluorescent material, the change of both amounts of light inform us the change of flow condition. The design methodology of optical monitoring sensor was described by the experimental results

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The boiler with a pre-mixed combustion method, which realizes a decrease of NOx and a miniaturization of a boiler, has a strong tendency to be extremely loud by the combustion driven noise. A method reduces this kind of noise is required. This noise is created by the oscillating phenomenon of the flame, and the frequency of it depends on the geometric structure of the combustion system with the specific spectrum. In this paper, we propose one of the reducing methods applying a side slide type muffler, which drives as a resonator muffler. It has been confirmed that the noise was reduced under to the dark noise level by making the noise excitation phenomenon caused by the flame reduced, from the experimental result.

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In this paper, I-PD control system with Smith's compensator, the disturbance compensator and the neural network compensator is applied to the force control of the pneumatic cylinder and the effectiveness is discussed. The Smith's method eliminates delay time from the characteristic polynomial, and it is easy to design the control system. However, Smith predictor control system is proposed for the reference-output transfer characteristics and the steady-state error is not zero for the disturbance if the plant is the astatic system, such as the pneumatic cylinder. Also, the Smith's predictor control system contains the modeling error including the friction force. This error causes the big tracking error. The disturbance compensator control disturbances, and the neural network compensator identifies the modeling error and improves the tracking performance in our control system.

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We import natural gas in the form of LNG by LNG carriers. While the prime movers of LNG carriers are mostly steam turbine systems at present, a diesel prime mover with LNG reliquefaction system is proposed as an alternative system, pursuing economical improvement. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Kawasaki Shipuilding Corporation have developed the dynamic model of the LNG reliquefaction system and been analyzing the dynamic characteristics. This paper describes the developed dynamic model and the simulation result.

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From a viewpoint of environmental preservation and resource protection, the recycling of wastes has been promoting. Expectations to new energy resource are growing by decrease of fossil fuel. Biomass has attracted considerable attention as new energy without global warming. This study is an attempt to thermally recycle woody biomass fuel made from waste products of forestry and lumbering industry. Pyrolysis and combustion behavior of woody biomass are affected considerably by kinds of material and treatment on making as fuel. The pyrolytic characteristics of woody biomass samples were investigated by the thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA) to obtain fundamental data of biomass utilization. The results indicated that the weight of all samples decreased during two stages with endothermic reaction during pyrolysis and combustion process.

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The 21st century begins, and bioenergy is suddenly establishing position as sustainable energy. However, It harms value as energy in order to position value as fuel as economic policy with the present quick effect nature or a local area active big project under the present conditions. In this study, we notice to a difference of a market scale of the biomass fuel under cascade ranking and, by this study, examine the effectiveness. Density of Kenaf is about 20kg/m^3 in a dry state, and 20-30 times are low in comparison with quality of woody biomass. A raw herby biomass included free water of approximately 85%. When it transported herby biomass, it was shown that the densification that this study included a dry process in was an important technology problem.

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This paper presents a basic consideration for production method of hydrogen gas as a sustainable and clean energy by the use of photosynthesis bacteria. The results of experimental study on the effect of controlled parameters in the process were summarized as follows : (1) optimal light energy existed to get the highest specific production volume of hydrogen gas, (2) there was the relationship of Monod's equation between the biomass concentration and the H_2 production volume, (3) treatment of biological oxidation for organic wastewater were consistent with production of hydrogen gas.

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This system helps us to remove any gas from a gas meter and pipeline etc. It consists of the activated carbon and a container, and stores gas over ten times as the volume of the container at normal pressure. Using it, the gas meters can be changed in safety and environmental-friendliness.

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Many types of manufacturing equipments generate heat. In order to prevent excessive temperature rises, machine cooling water often runs through them. This cooling water is usually mechanically chilled with refrigerating machines, which have high electricity consumption, all year round. In this paper, the author presents a machine cooling water system and a method for energy saving. Its quantitative effect is also discussed.

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Tatara is the anicient smelting process of iron in Japan. In recent years, a lot of history fans, the students in junior high school often try to make iron using Tatara for the pleasure. We introduced it into our student's graduation studies to give them hands on trainings since 2000 year. Because there are few research data about the Tatara, we made Tatara furnace by the trial and error. We think students could learn the basic smelting process of iron, and its basic knowledge and concept interestingly and creatively. We will continue to study the Tatara to provide students hands on training from the viewpoints of engineering.

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A curriculum of Fundamental Engineering Drawing, which serves to support engineering design education, is beginning a series of lecture on spring term of the freshman. In this course, students experiences the "learning of basic skill for drawing ", " drawing of idea for personal article" and "communication through drawing ". As a result they are able to acquire "drawing skill for engineering design" using their own abilities.

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In keeping with the goals of KIT's educational reforms, Fundamental Engineering Labs I, II, III courses are based on self-study and emphasize on problem identifications and solutions. In the Fundamental Engineering Labs, using vague keywords related to engineering fundamentals, each team establishes a specific theme according to the members' interests. Then they plan and implement their own experiments aimed at resolving the issues presented by that theme, and prepare a report of the results. These goal-oriented labs are achieving regular successes. It does not seem that all is going well, however. At the root of that fact are several problems. This paper describes to the problem of the implementation of these curriculums.

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The outline of the new class of "Find its root" developed at The University of Tokushima; Department of Mechanical Engineering is introduced in this report. In this class, each student investigated the history of a common technology, such as cars and airplanes, and has to answer the fundamental questions of who developed the technology, when and where it came from, why it developed, and what its background was. Through this investigation, it aimed at not only the deep understanding on the technology itself but also the improvement in the presentation ability.

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Independent study was started at Wakayama University, in 1996. The purpose of this subject is to evoke student's independency and creativity. This is the unique trial which is not done in other universities, and it was taken up on television and newspapers. Unlike other subjects, the student who wishes to take the independent study can choose the faculty adviser with negotiation by himself. In this report, the form of this independent study, an example of the independent study, and the results are explained.

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A practical course for learning output techniques with personal computers is presented. This course, named as "Basis of data handling", is programmed for freshmen of department of mechanical systems engineering in Musashi Institute of Technology intended for teaching basic output techniques required for engineers. Topics covered include : preparation of reports for experiments, handlings of figures and tables, engineering ethics, data gathering utilizing university library, technical writing, concept of significant digits, preparation for presentation. This paper reports our attempt of the program and its evaluation.

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The activities of the problem-based learning (PBL) and their outcomes are reported here. Based on the reactions from students and faculty members to these educational programs, the advantages and improvements are also examined. A series of PBL subjects from 1st to 3rd grade-problem -research, problem-solving and problem-creation- are programmed according to the intelligibility and degree of advancement of students in mechanical engineering. This well-planed system makes it possible to obtain the substantial educational effects and to start smoothly the research for graduation thesis in the last 4th grade.

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In recent years, creation education is esteemed. We have founded the curriculum to bring up creativity from the early. In the curriculum, we are putting emphasis on the creation manufacturing specifically. The contents consist of creative experiment production and the announcement. The creative experiment has a purpose of the fusing of the seat learning and the technology. Also, the creative experiment can correspond flexibly to the new technology. We need the idea to do a more systematized class. Many students recognized the importance of the creativity by these curriculums. Also, the problem includes a way of evaluating creativity. It is very difficult to evaluate creativity. Our problem in the future is to introduce the evaluation of the creativity.

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This report shows the systematic teaching method of design subject : that is the project to train the students' inquiry ability and creativity. Practically, we report in detail that the measure of the students' creativity initial value is indispensable for the students to realize the importance of the inquiry and creativity, and that the learning of the creative thinking way wipe out the students' perplexity and repulsion to Open-Ended Problem and improve the educational effects.

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