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Recently, the demand of shortening the period of development of Mold and Die and the demand of reducing costs are increasing more and more with the shortening of the life cycle of products. In such a situation, Production workplaces for Molds and Dies need development of the environment that more efficiently produces a product with higher added value. Therefore, development of a high performance machine tool and automation of manufacturing by using computer support are more important. However, the determination of the machining process still depends on the experience of the workers and the past actual results. In this work, support of the computer is not fully developed. In this research, we develop process-planning systems for the machining of Molds and Dies (Mill-Plan) as one of the technologies, which solves such a problem. This report reports the result applied to the composition of this system, and some examples.

In order to improve corrosion resistance and thermal efficiency of the air conditioner evaporator, a coating which provides hydrophilicity was formed over the chromate coating. In addition, there has been greater demand for air with fewer smells. This report describes the cause of “dusty odor” and a method to reduce it. The dusty odor is caused by a little corrosion of the substrate aluminum. Hydrophilic coating film dissolves little by little in condensed water, and substrate aluminum is exposed. A method to prevent the odor was developed by forming a coating giving hydrophilicity and durability to the evaporator surface.

This paper presents a design method for continuous fiber composites in three-dimensional space with locally varying orientation distribution and their fabrication method. The design method is formulated based on topology optimization by augmented tensor field design variables. The fabrication method is based on Tailored Fiber Placement technology, whereby a CNC embroidery machine prepares the preform. The fiber path is generated from an optimized orientation distribution field. The preform is formed with vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding. The fabricated prototype weighs 120 g, a 70% weight reduction, achieving 3.5× mass-specific stiffness improvement.

Two-layered surface materials composed of a thermoplastic olefin elastomer (TPO) skin and a cross-linked polypropylene (PP)foam are increasingly replacing the conventional PVC skin/PVC foam for interior trims. In the past, recycled material obtained by melt-blending TPO skin and PP foam could not be re-used for TPO skin because of its appearance. A new recycling technology using the reaction biaxial extruder with a reaction agent can decompose the network structure of PP foam. As a result, PP foam is dispersed into TPO uniformly and the recycled material has properties and an appearance similar to virgin TPO. These new properties may allow the application of the recycled material as a surface material.

Growing concerns about the depletion of raw materials as vehicle ownership continues to increase is prompting automakers to look for ways of decreasing the use of platinum-group metals (PGMs) in the exhaust systems. This research has developed a new catalyst with strong robustness against fluctuations in the exhaust gas and excellent nitrogen oxide (NOx) conversion performance. One of the key technologies is a new OSC material that has low surface area (SA) and high OSC performance. We enhanced the pyrochlore- ceria/zirconia (CZ) which has a very small SA. In order to enhance the heat resistance and promote the OSC reaction, we selected and optimized the additive element. This material showed high OSC performance especially in the temperature range of 400 degrees or less. Another key technology is washcoat structure that has high gas diffusivity by making connected pore in the washcoat (New pore forming technology).