Preface

Dear Friends and Esteemed Colleagues from the global micro manufacturing community,

It is our great pleasure to welcome you all to the Technical University of Denmark located near Copenhagen, Denmark, for the joint Multi-Material Micro Manufacturing (4M) and International Workshop on Micro Factories (IWMF) Conference.

The 4M International Conference on Multi-Material Micro Manufacturing, this year at its 12^th edition, was held for the first time in 2005 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, as one of the main activities of the 4M Network of Excellence (NoE) supported by the European Commission within the 6^th Framework Programme (FP6). The International Workshop on Micro Factories, this year at its 10^th edition, follows on a successful series of bi-annual events that took place globally (in Japan, Switzerland, USA, China, France, Korea, Finland) since 1998.

Both 4M and IWMF communities recognise that manufacturing processes at the micro-scale are the key-enabling technologies in bridging the gap between the nano- and the macroworlds, and thus to increase the accuracy of micro/nano/ precision production technologies, and also to integrate different dimensional scales in mass-manufacturing processes. Technology-push sessions at this year conference address the research progress in fabrication technologies (e.g. micro replication, machining, assembly processes, etc.), micro metrology, process chains, simulation and modelling, and materials. Specific application-driven sessions regarding industrial sectors that make successful use and are enabled by micro manufacturing technologies are planned: Micro Manufacturing of Terahertz Technology Devices (using both micro replication and additive manufacturing technologies); Micro Technologies for Hearing-Aid Systems (Denmark is home of three of the six largest hearing-aid companies in the world and greatly contribute to the R&D in the field of micro mechanical acoustic systems), and High Throughput Integrated Technologies for Multi-Material Functional Micro Components (supported by the EU FP7 HINMICO project).

This joint 4M and IWMF conference provides a global forum where the latest research on processes, equipment, and systems for fabricating miniature parts with micro-nano-scale features are presented. Researchers from Austria, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK and USA, presented their progress beyond state-of-the-art in the field of micro manufacturing. Excellent keynote speeches will be delivered by world-known speakers in the field of micro-nano replication, topology optimization of micro-nano systems and metal nano-patterning, respectively.

As conference chairs we wish to thank the 4M Association office for its coordination and promotion of this first joint 4M/IWMF event. The 4M Association is a membership-based organisation, set up by former members of the 4M Network of Excellence, whose aim is to support and serve the 4M community for the future, by developing further the links and contacts established amongst the members of the Network, and widening the community by opening up membership to all.

We would like to thank the Organisation Committee at the Technical University of Denmark, Department of Mechanical Engineering that took the responsibility for the local organisation and logistics, and for making the Conference possible in the first place.

Finally, and most importantly, we would like to thank all authors, speakers and the Conference Scientific Committee for their effort and commitment demonstrated during the article review process of all papers prior to acceptance for presentation at the conference.

We wish all the delegates a successful conference.

Conference Chairman
Guido Tosello, Technical University of Denmark

Conference Co-Chairmans
Hans Nørgaard Hansen, Technical University of Denmark
Komel Ehmann, Northwestern University
Stefan Dimov, Birmingham University