PRECISION ENGINEERING AT UNC CHARLOTTE

摘要

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte has recently established an interdisciplinary group in Precision Engineering. Administered through the College of Engineering, with participation of the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Technology, Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science, this group has both academic and research objectives. Academic objectives include undergraduate education through course work and projects in precision engineering/manufacturing related areas, and graduate education through coursework and dissertation and thesis topics related to ongoing faculty research projects. Present research efforts include the areas of nanotechnology, electro-optical instrumentation, and dimensional metrology for CIM. In nanotechnology, research is concentrated on development of microscopic machines, sensors and actuators. To support this research, the group has recently received a major three year grant from the National Science Foundation to proceed with a Strategic Manufacturing Initiative with the goal of producing high density data storage and retrieval systems with bit sizes on the order of nanometers. Research in electro-optical instrumentation includes development of a high speed laser tracking system for manufacturing applications, inspection systems for turbine blades, and optical inspection of photomasks. In dimensional metrology for Computer Aided Manufacturing, efforts are concentrated on advanced probes, controllers, surface measurements systems and databases, coordinated CAD systems (including "reverse engineering"), and inspection algorithms for measurement systems, including CMM's. A new Applied Research Center Building, scheduled for completion in late 1990, will provide major research laboratory space for the UNC Charlotte Precision Engineering Group. This new 75,000 sq. ft. facility will have clean rooms, electro-optical laboratories, vibration isolation, and machine shop capabilities to support precision engineering and other research.