June 2005

P. 13 Frank Opinion

Miyako City makes efforts to promote manufacturing by establishing a school, which teaches metal molding, in a remote and backward fishing harbor

P. 15 Kaleidoscope

Robot development: The key to realizing longer steps was to twist the body at the waist rather than just moving the legs

P. 19 Detailed Reports

P. 19 Review of the 2005 Automotive Engineering Exposition

P. 26 Some Japanese companies become a target of anti-Japanese protests in China; The fate of Japanese companies depended on their communication skills

P. 28 65 kinds of prototype robots make their debut on June 9 at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi

P. 30 Varioptic, a French company, commercializes liquid lenses which resemble crystals

P. 31 Aloka uses animation for product development and applies it to the linkage of mechanism design, electrical design, and software design

P. 32 Tokyo Electric Power Company has developed a measuring module, which allows users to measure an electric current just by wrapping an optical fiber

P. 34 An earth simulator is used to conduct crash analyses of cars based on an analysis model with 10 million variables

P. 35 Fuji Electric Systems starts rolling out flowmeters that allow users to measure the distribution of current velocity in a pipe

P. 36 A perspective aimed at restoring manufacturing in Japan: Its important to have a way of thinking based on actual manufacturing experience

P. 46 Feature: Profitable Nanotechnologies

P.48 Part 1: Strategy and Limitations
- Re-experiencing the success of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP)
- Technological capabilities are required to use CFRP effectively

P.52 Part 2: Fullerenes
- A promising material for sports goods in 2005
- Its new functions that can persuade customers to pay high prices

P. 58 Part 3: Carbon Nano Tubes
- Such tubes are indispensable materials for cell phones
- Their use can help overcome the weak points of CFRP

P. 67 Chinas Secrets, Japans Secret Plans

Part 6: I am against the idea that the customer is god,: If we give in too much to customers demands, we are just asking for yet more demands to be made

P. 74 New Ideas

Alkali ion water generators

P. 78 Search for Manufacturing

The safety of products

P. 85 Emergency Report

The single primary cause of the derailment accident on the JR Fukuchiyama Line

P. 93 Special Report

Report from a seminar hosted by Nikkei Monozukuri
Evolved forms of collaboration

P. 122 The Method

New TRIZ (Part 4): Essence of the method of thinking based on TRIZ

P. 126 Methods for Enhancing Development Capabilities

Part 3: Information sharing within a project team

P. 131 Documentary

Development of Legend by Honda Motor (Part 5): Marketing safety

P. 136 Studying Hot Products

Large Capacity Refrigerators: Thoroughgoing pursuit of usability, maintenance of freshness, and cleanliness & deodorization

P. 138 Material Dynamics Mandala

Part 6: Estimating bending moments

P. 143 Treasure Box of Embedded Software

Part 6: Buying software in parts

P. 146 Outstanding SMEs

Fukuwauchi Technologies, a developer of DLC coating equipment, applies its room-temperature coating technique to various materials

P. 246 The Master

Part 13: Artisans of ornaments in the Heisei era

P. 250 Diary of an IT Consultant

A person in charge of a project tries to save his own neck; perhaps he needs an education in ethics