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Featured Application: The circulating cooling water machine proposed in this paper is conductive to the thermal management of equipment and facilities in the field of precision manufacturing and measurement. It has already been applied to our lithography development project. An enhanced circulating cooling water (CCW) machine is developed to simultaneously achieve high temperature stability and dynamic performance of CCW temperature control. Dynamic thermal filtering based on an auto-updatable thermal capacity medium is proposed to reduce the temperature fluctuation of the CCW. Agile thermal control is presented to realize a quick response and high resolution of temperature control, through thermal inertia minimization and bidirectional regulation of heating/cooling power. Experimental results indicate that a temperature stability of ±3 mK (peak to peak value) and a settling time of 128 s, corresponding to a 1 K step set value, are achieved. It can therefore be concluded that the developed machine can satisfy the challenging requirements of precision manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For precision measurement of miniature internal structures with high aspect ratios, a spherical scattering electrical field probe (SSEP) is proposed based on charge signal detection. The characteristics and laws governing surface charge distribution on the probing ball of the SSEP are analyzed, with the spherical scattering electrical field modeled using a 3D seven-point finite difference method. The model is validated with finite element simulation by comparing with the analysis results of typical situations, in which probing balls of different diameters are used to probe a grounded plane with a probing gap of 0.3 μm. Results obtained with the proposed model and finite element method (FEM) simulation indicate that 31% of the total surface charge on a ϕ1 mm probing ball concentrates in an area that occupies 1% of the total probing ball surface. Moreover, this surface charge concentration remains unchanged when the surface being measured varies in geometry, or when the probing gap varies in sensing range. Based on this, the SSEP has realized approximate point probing capability with a virtual "needle" of electrical effect. Together with its non-contact sensing characteristics and 3D isotropy, it can, therefore, be concluded that the SSEP has great potential to be an ideal solution for precision measurement of miniature internal structures with high aspect ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Demand for circulating cooling water (CCW) with high temperature stability and a quick response to temperature control is essential for precision engineering, so a dynamic thermal filtering method is proposed in this paper. Some CCW is bypassed, blocked, and used as a thermal capacity medium, and the temperature fluctuation of CCW is significantly reduced by heat exchanging with the medium. The temperature of the medium dynamically follows the set value of the CCW temperature by real time updating, and so realizes a quick CCW temperature control response. The attenuation ratio of temperature fluctuation was derived, theoretically validating the effectiveness of the method. The experimental results indicate that a CCW temperature fluctuation attenuation ratio of tens of dB (−3.47 dB, −6.91 dB, −10.97 dB and −15.28 dB corresponding to temperature fluctuation frequencies of 0.01 Hz, 0.025 Hz, 0.053 Hz and 0.105 Hz, respectively) is achieved by the proposed method. The updating time of thermal capacity medium is 82 s, which means that the temperature fluctuation attenuation remains functionally valid when the set value of CCW changes. The proposed method is low cost in operation and provides an effective approach to satisfy the challenging demand for CCW with high stability and a good dynamic temperature control performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: This measurement method has been successfully applied in the aviation, aerospace, and automotive industries, especially for the ultraprecision manufacturing of key parts and small structures with large aspect ratios. In order to solve the difficulty of precision measurement of small hole diameters with large depth-to-diameter ratios, a new measurement method based on spherical scattering electrical-field probing (SSEP) was developed. A spherical scattering electrical field with identical sensing characteristics in arbitrary spatial directions was formed to convert the micro gap between the probing-ball and the part being measured into an electrical signal. 3D non-contact probing, nanometer resolution, and approximate point probing—which are key properties for high measurement precision and large measurable depth-to-diameter ratios—were achieved. A specially designed hole diameter measuring machine (HDMM) was developed, and key techniques, including laser interferometry for macro displacement measurement of the probe, multi-degree-of-freedom adjustment of hole attitude, and measurement process planning, are described. Experiments were carried out using the HDMM and a probing sensor with a ϕ3-mm probing ball and a 150-mm-long stylus to verify the performance of the probing sensor and the measuring machine. The experimental results indicate that the resolution of the probing sensor was as small as 1 nm, and the expanded uncertainty of measurement result was 0.2 μm (k = 2) when a ϕ20-mm ring gauge standard was measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]