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 Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering (CJME) sponsored by Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society is entering on its golden jubilee, becoming a generally accepted academic field of the propagation, exchange and cultivation of innovative thinking and of the practice and acquisition of knowledge. Early in its initial period, I had the luck to assist Mr. Zhuang Qianding, the first chief editor and a predecessor in Chinese mechanical engineering circles, to participate in the copy editing. I was appointed to be a member of the editorial advisory board of CJME for a long time, and between 1980s and 1990s, I was in charge of the editorial advisory board of CJME in succession to Mr. Lei Tianjue. Over the past 50-odd years, my working post always cannot leave from the teaching of thermal engineering and the scientific research work in the power machinery line. I am a faithful reader of CJME and also a beneficiary of reading this journal, so I have forged a special affection with CJME.
The machinery industry is an equipment industry, and the mechanical engineering has to seek for the advanced science and technology of design, manufacture, safety operation and control of mechanical equipment for the development of industrial and agricultural production, national defense and public facilities, and tests in scientific research, so it is related to a variety of disciplines. It has to give considerations to the economical utilization of resources, environmental protection and ecological maintenance so as to realize the prospect of sustainable development of society. Over the past 50 years, China has built an integrated powerful machinery industry by relying on her own efforts. CJME has witnessed the striding forward along the development course of mechanization, automation, numerical control, informatization, mechatronics and even optical-mechanical-electronic integration. CJME has no lack of masterworks that inspire our mechanical engineering circles to pioneer, advance bravely and take the lead in excellence, including Mr. Liu Xianzhou's textual research on our history of an cient machine inventions published on Vol.1 No.1, Vol.2 No.1 and Vol.7 No.2, which also are masterpieces that inspire the national sense of pride and prompt us to deep thought.
Scientific exploration and technical development will always tend to polarization in order to satisfy different demands. The mainstream of development in the second half of the 20th century was up-sizing the equipment to crave for scale benefit, expand production as quickly as possible in a bid to increase supply and heal war wounds, which also accelerated the development of industrialization of human society, including that an integrated system of equipment industry was established in our country through our constantly striving to become stronger and by relying on our own efforts. However, if nuclear weapon is to be developed from nuclear power, it must undergo the technical breakthrough in miniaturization and weight lightening. While in the construction of concentrated energy exploitation and supply bases, the development trend of scattered complementary miniature energy centers of flexible combined supply of heat, electricity and cold also emerged in a bid to quicken the return on investment and also to help prevent pollution sources from concentrating and endangering the ecological environment. Especially, the rise of computers and miniaturization / micro-miniaturization has brought along the rapid development of micro-processing and even nano-processing techniques, and which has promoted the rapid development of micro-devices, microde-tectors, micro-mechanical systems, microelectronic mechanical systems and optical-microelectronic mechanical systems from the late 20th century on, and in the various high-tech fields, such as robots, biomedical engineering, space probing and monitoring, new business opportunities have revealed themselves in terms of miniaturization and micro-miniaturization of equipment and pursuit of high performance.
Opportunity and challenge are like hand-in-hand twins. The micro-miniaturization of mea sures of space and time has altered the known rules of macro design. Under the micro-measures of micro-meter, nanometer and ultrahigh speed, machinery engineering will be related to coupling effect at profound levels such as electron, phonon and photon. Especially under the measure of nanometer, it will touch upon quantum effect and make a problem nonlinear and non-balanced and a system more complicated. Therefore, the mechanical engineering circles will face new challenge and opportunity of development besides that of up-sizing. We hope CJME will continue to stride forward to keep abreast of the times, take the lead in excellence, and retain its authoritativeness, advanced characteristic and forward-looking guidance.
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