The media may be fixated on nanotechnology, but the real action may well be in microtechnology. After all, we'll need to work at the micro level on the way down to the nano level, which is probably why the World Technology Evaluation Center (WTEC) in the USA embarked on its study of micromanufacturing.
WTEC, whch describes itself as "the nation's leading organization in conducting international technology assessments" has now published its 279-page report of its Assessment of International Research and Development in Micromanufacturing.
The bottom line seems to be that the USA may be good in nanotechnology, but by other benchmarks, especially "government funding in manufacturing", it lags everywhere else in the developed world.
WTEC sent a panel around the world to see what other countries are up to. Here's just a couple of useful insights on tools for micromanufacturing from the report's summary:
In Japan, it is interesting to note that the majority of the micromanufacturing equipment developed could be classified as somewhat exotic in nature, directed toward sophisticated, low-volume, high-precision needs of specific products and devices, and requiring a significant investment – costing in the several $100K to $1M range. On the other hand, there was little evidence found to support the notion that Japan might be considering the development of lower-cost, higher-volume commodity micromanufacturing equipment at this time.In contrast, in Germany, there was abundant evidence of the desire to commercialize smaller micromanufacturing machine tools and accessories on a commodity basis, examples including Kugler's Flycutter and MicroTURN machines, the Carl Zeiss F25 small-scale CMM, and the Klocke Nanotechnik microscale robotic systems.
A lot of the report deals with the production of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), a technology that is already widely used, in sensors for car airbags, for example.
While you are at the WTEC site, check out the notes from the review workshops, not to mention the other studies they have under way. Plenty of good background reading there.
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