A new high precision contact scanning probe possible to measure miniature components on a micro/nano-CMM is proposed. This contact probe is composed of a fiber stylus with a ball tip, a floating plate and focus sensors. The ball tip is fabricated using optical fiber with melting and solidification processes. The stylus is attached to a floating plate, which is connected to the probe housing via...

A thin flat rectangular plate supported on its edges and subjected to in-plane loading exhibits stable post-buckling behaviour. However, the introduction of a nonlinear (softening) elastic foundation may cause the response to become unstable. Here the post-buckling of such a structure is investigated and several important phenomena are identified, including the transition of patterns from strip...

The basic building blocks of nano-structured hierarchical cellular materials are nano-sized wires or plates. Due to the effects of surface elasticity and the initial stress/strain, their bending, torsion, stretching and transverse shear rigidities are not only size-dependent, but also tunable and controllable over a large range. Based on the closed form results of the bending, torsion, stretchi...