Office of Public Affairs THE HONG KONG SCIENCE G m UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY ?!!cfHt)lh~~ Tel: (852) 358 63 16 Fax: (852) 358 0537
For immediate Release 6 January 1995
Modern Flexible Manufacturing Is the Goal of HKUST Engineers
By marrying modern computer technology with traditional machine bodies from
China, engineers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology are seeking to revitalize Hong Kong’s machine tool industry by giving it the ability to produce inexpensive and flexible machining systems.
“Until now, all commercially available computer-controlled systems have had a closed architecture, making it difficult to integrate new sensors and application software.
This has been a formidable hurdle for flexible manufacturing,” says Dr. Zexiang Li, Senior Lecturer in Electrical & Electronic Engineering.
“The technology we are working on is called CNC (for computer numerically controlled), and it works on five axes. Traditional three-axes machining can only deal with flat-surface products, whereas five-axes machining can produce three-dimensional moulds for components with sculptured surfaces, such as turbine blades and other high quality products.”
Since Hong Kong’s machine tool industry is not yet capable of producing a CNC
system, all three-dimensional moulds must currently be fashioned manually. The
coupling of five-axes machining with CNC technology will lead to machine tools that can reduce process time significantly, as well as improve product quality. This will allow local manufacturers to compete in the world market for mould and die products, including the rapidly growing market for automobile and aerospace parts in China.
“China does very well in producing traditonal machine bodies which are relatively cheap,” says Dr. Li, “but it still lags behind in the development of CNC technology. By incorporating this technology with machine bodiesfrom China, we can provide the local
manufacturing industry with an inexpensive means to achieve greater variety, and
flexibility in product design, as well as easier machine tool maintenance.”
(Please direct enquiries to the Office of Public Affairs at 2358 6306 or pag;llx6,3388 call 2651.)
