NISTIR 6490

Information-Based Manufacturing

Program Summary and

Accomplishments

A NIST program promoting collaborative research and developing

competence in the use of advanced information technology for research,

standards and measurement services.

David C. Stieren

Mark E. Luce

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Technology Administration

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

Office of Manufacturing Programs

Gaithersburg, MD 20899

March 2000

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

William M. Daley, Secretary

TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION

Cheryl L. Shavers, Under Secretary for Technology

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY

Raymond G. Kammer, Director
II

Office of Manufacturing Programs

The Office of Manufacturing Programs (OMP) manages cross-division and crosslaboratory, collaborative research and development (R&D) programs within the

Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and

Technology (NIST), including the Information-Based Manufacturing Program. The

Information-Based Manufacturing Program consists of sixteen collaborative research

projects distributed among the seven NIST measurement and standards laboratories,

as well as the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The OMP manages these

projects by tracking deliverables, publishing program progress reports, conducting

management reviews of technical activities and funding obligations, planning and

conducting technology demonstrations, and preparing program descriptive materials

for public dissemination.

The points of contact within OMP for the Information-Based Manufacturing Program

are:

Mark Luce, Chief, OMP

mark.luce@nist.gov

 

David Stieren, Program Manager

david.stieren@.nist.gov

Disclaimer

No approval or endorsement of any commercial product by the National Institute of

Standards and Technology is intended or implied. Certain commercial equipment,

instruments, or materials are identified in this report in order to facilitate

understanding. Such identification does not imply recommendation or endorsement

by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the

materials or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose.

This publication was prepared by United States Government employees as part of

their official duties and is, therefore, a work of the U.S. Government and not subject

to copyright.
III

Acknowledgements

The following NIST staff members have contributed to the project summary

information contained in this document’s Appendix:

Dr. E. Clayton Teague

Dr. Theodore Vorburger

Dr. Alkan Donmez

Dr. Johannes Soons

Albert Wavering

Neil Christopher

Dr. William Stone

Eric Steel

Dr. Dale Newbury

Dr. Michael Postek

Dr. Timothy Foecke

Dr. Christopher Soares

Stephen Seltzer

Barbara Goldstein

Dr. George Kelly

Dr. Pedro Espina

Nile Oldham

Douglas Montgomery

Stephen Thompson

Timothy Quinn

Dr. Marc Desrosiers

Additional information about NIST, including the NIST Manufacturing Engineering

Laboratory and the program information described in this report, is available on the

World Wide Web at the following addresses:

http://www.nist.gov

http://www.nist.gov/mel
IV

Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................1

Program Overview...........................................................1

National Advanced Manufacturing Testbed ...................3

Program Accomplishments.............................................5

Measures of Program Success.....................................13

Summary .......................................................................18

Appendix: Project Summaries......................................20

References ....................................................................51
1

INTRODUCTION

The Information-Based Manufacturing Program of the National Institute of Standards

and Technology (NIST) is developing competence across NIST in the use of

information technology (IT) to aid in the conduct of research, accelerate the

development of standards, and improve the delivery of NIST measurement and

testing services, especially with respect to manufacturing.

The purpose of this report is to summarize the Information-Based Manufacturing

Program by providing an overview of the program and highlighting key

accomplishments that have been achieved. The appendices provide additional

information that describes the technical projects that constitute the program’s

research portfolio.

The intended audience for this document includes NIST staff working on the sixteen

projects of the Information-Based Manufacturing Program, private sector

organizations collaborating with NIST, and the industrial public in general. This report

is available on the World Wide Web via the home page of the NIST Manufacturing

Engineering Laboratory (MEL), which is located at http://www.nist.gov/mel.

Copies of this report can also be obtained via electronic mail request to the points of

contact from the MEL Office of Manufacturing Programs identified on page (ii) of the

report.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL) initiated the InformationBased Manufacturing Program in 1996 to enhance the development of informationbased technologies and standards for U.S. manufacturing industries, specifically

those working in the discrete-part, mechanical manufacturing sectors. The program

was also initiated to improve MEL’s ability to deliver measurement and testing

services for industry.

Initially, MEL designed the program’s strategy to promote collaborative research

across the various MEL Divisions and to develop competence in the use and

exploitation of IT for research and measurements and standards activities throughout

MEL. As the program evolved, the strategy changed to encompass collaborations

with the other NIST Measurement and Standards laboratories. This evolution

expanded the technical focus to include technologies, measurements, and standards

aimed at industrial sectors being served by the other NIST laboratories, and not just

MEL.
2

During the program, competence has been developed across all seven NIST

Laboratories and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program to exploit

IT in the improvement of

1. the conduct of manufacturing research performed by NIST for and with

American industry

2. the delivery of NIST measurement services

3. the means by which NIST scientists and engineers access the tools and

information they need to do their jobs, including equipment, software, other

NIST scientists, and non-NIST collaborators

This program began with a set of four inter-division MEL projects. Fueled with

additional financial support from the NIST Director, the program matured into a

collection of sixteen inter-laboratory projects that exploit the capabilities of highperformance networking and advanced computing technologies. Each of the sixteen

projects derives its technical and standards basis from specific core programs and

initiatives contained within distinct NIST laboratories. Additional information about the

activities of these projects can be found in the Appendix.

The Information-Based Manufacturing program has provided these projects with an

advanced information infrastructure enabling access to a collaborative, testbed

environment. In this environment, multidisciplinary expertise is leveraged through

cross-lab participation. These elements have combined to put NIST resources online across the agency, allowing significant amounts of hardware, software, and staff

expertise to be accessible by both NIST customers and NIST scientists. This has

successfully promoted the effective and efficient application of these resources to the

collaborative conduct of research and the improved delivery of measurement and

testing services.

With MEL providing technical and organizational support to all of the projects, the

program has demonstrated successfully the beginning of a new era of crosslaboratory cooperation at NIST. The focus on incorporating IT into projects to

leverage resources and foster inter-disciplinary collaboration has significantly

improved the way NIST scientists and engineers serve American industry.

Furthermore, the program has clearly and successfully demonstrated that NIST is an

agency that is fully embracing leading-edge IT to execute its congressionallymandated mission. The NIST mission is to foster sustained U.S. economic growth

by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and

standards.
3

NATIONAL ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TESTBED

The primary supporting resource of the Information-Based Manufacturing Program

has been the National Advanced Manufacturing Testbed (NAMT)[1]. The NAMT is a

physical testbed built on a state-of-the-art, high-speed computing and

communications infrastructure. The NAMT enables scientists and engineers from

industry, NIST, academia, and government agencies to work collaboratively to solve

measurement and standards issues that impede companies and industries from

making the most of their IT.

The NAMT provides network connectivity and computing support to the projects of

the Information-Based Manufacturing Program. Projects use this support to

demonstrate how leading-edge IT is being exploited in the performance of advanced

research, the development of standards, and the development and improved delivery

of NIST measurement services. The NAMT provides project participants the ability to

connect their research laboratories, equipment, and software into a high-performance

network backbone. This allows the simultaneous communication of voice, video, and

data information over a single physical medium to occur at high speeds and at

guaranteed qualities of service.

The network connectivity requirements of the Information-Based Manufacturing

Program frequently exceed what is available using the existing Internet. The NAMT

network backbone allows, for example, live video signals to be transmitted in fullmotion, 30 frames-per-second capacity between connected laboratory sites. Video,

audio, and data can be communicated with negligible latency and with guaranteed

quality of service. This basically means that if a communication session contains the

transfer of information requiring some minimum amount of bandwidth, the NAMT

network backbone technology is capable of providing that bandwidth without regard

to any contention issues. Contention issues are typical of multiple-user, broadcast

environments with low bandwidth transmission limitations.

The NAMT network backbone is also flexible enough to accommodate electronic

collaboration that is based upon simple Internet connections. This is important

because high-performance networking represents the next generation of capabilities

for today’s Internet. Not all partners in the Information-Based Manufacturing

Program utilize sophisticated, high-performance networking, and connections with

these partners must occur with today’s commodity Internet.

Each of the sixteen research projects in the program utilizes the NAMT as an

“Information Age workbench.” The projects test new technologies and showcase

how machines, software, and people can be networked together, efficiently and

effectively, to improve productivity and foster innovation.

The NAMT supports geographically distributed partners and it provides the means for

projects to utilize virtual technology (i.e., modeling and simulation) in support of
4

advanced research. Equipment, expertise, and other capabilities of program partners

are connected electronically through the NAMT computing and communications

infrastructure. Moreover, collections of resources and personnel can be easily

configured - and reconfigured - in response to changing research needs and

objectives.

The collaborative R&D environment supported by the NAMT is similar in many ways

to the concepts of a collaboratory, a term derived from a 1993 National Research

Council (NRC) Report [2]. A collaboratory can be considered as a “research center

without walls.” Within the NAMT collaboratory, various tools and systems that use

computing and networking technology to aid manufacturing research are integrated

together. This provides an environment that allows scientists and engineers to make

more efficient use of manufacturing resources, regardless of where they are located.

The NAMT collaboratory structure is shown schematically in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The NAMT Collaboratory

NAMT

High-Performance

Network

Public

High-Performance

Networks

Internet Connection

WWW

Industry

NIST LABORATORIES

TEST EQUIPMENT

& TEST RESULTS

COMPUTING &

SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

Academia

Government

Agencies

NIST SCIENTISTS &

ENGINEERS
5

The NAMT supports research on applications of simulation and modeling methods

that are essential to rapid and predictable production, among a host of other key

capabilities. Information-Based Manufacturing Program research supported by the

NAMT develops and validates models and simulations of individual processes, as

well as entire manufacturing systems.

The NAMT has created a significant opportunity to pool resources and capabilities, to

share risks, and, most important, to efficiently build the technical underpinnings of an

advanced information infrastructure required by American manufacturing industries.

Such a foundation and infusion of state-of-the-art computing and communications

technologies is enabling MEL and other NIST laboratories to address issues that

affect multiple manufacturing sectors. The NAMT is being used by the InformationBased Manufacturing Program as a platform for experimenting with technology and

standards solutions that American manufacturing industries will encounter as they

compete in the emerging digital economy of the 21st century.

PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Since 1996, the Information-Based Manufacturing program has been operating a

successful strategy to promote collaborative research across NIST and develop

competence in the use and exploitation of advanced information technologies. New

levels of technical competence have been achieved in the aforementioned areas,

and these competencies are the primary results that validate the success of that

strategy.

The following summarizes the capabilities and competencies that have been

developed as a result of the program. Specific instances of how these have been

created by the program are highlighted.

The ability to deliver NIST measurement and testing services on-line

This has been demonstrated by incorporating telepresence capabilities and network

laboratory linkages for:

• tele-calibration of gas flow meters and standards

• remote, collaborative measurement of electrical standards, specifically digital

multi-meters

• traceable, collaborative, physical and chemical analysis of standard reference

artifacts performed using scanning tunneling, scanning electron, tunneling

electron, and analytical electron microscopes

• dosimetry calibrations and standards for radiation sources used in medical

procedures, including certain treatments of cancer, and for radiation

processing industries
6

One example of a new measurement and testing service made possible by this

program was the successful deployment of a pilot network to enable collaboration

among measurement laboratories in eleven nations. This pilot is called SIMnet, an

internet-based network intended to speed development of the emerging

Interamerican Metrology System, or SIM [3].

Through SIMnet, NIST and 10 other National Measurement Institutes (NMIs) are now

able to participate remotely in “round robin” measurement comparisons. These

provide the technical basis for ensuring confidence in the measurement capabilities

of trading partners. Typically, multinational comparisons take several years and

involve personnel from the lead laboratory traveling from country to country. These

personnel provide expertise and training to assist in setting up the carefully controlled

conditions necessary for valid comparisons of measurements. Initiated as a pilot in

1999, SIMnet is demonstrating significant reductions in time and cost involved in

achieving measurement comparability and traceability throughout the Americas.

By means of the Internet, personal computers, and inexpensive videoconferencing

software and hardware, NMI staff in all participating countries will be able to observe

personnel in another nation as they perform a measurement comparison. They also

will be able to review the data as it is collected, ask questions, and serve as

consultants to the NMI performing the measurements.

The Organization for American States inaugurated this NIST-led effort to help to

ensure that measurements made in one American nation can be compared directly

to those made in another. Measurement comparability is an essential infrastructural

component of the planned Free Trade Area of the Americas, envisioned to extend

from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego by the year 2005.

Another example of Information-Based Manufacturing program success comes from

a project that was begun in 1998. The Tele-Calibration of Gas Flow Meters project,

led by the NIST Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory (CSTL), is focused on

the improvement of a specific set of NIST measurement services. The project seeks

to change the paradigm used to deliver flow-rate calibration services throughout the

Nation by using tele-presence to create a Calibration-Web capable of

• leveraging the expanded flow-rate capabilities of US secondary flow

laboratories in support of NIST’s standards business

• providing remote in-situ calibrations of flow meters to US industry

• enabling the remote monitoring of laboratories accredited by the NIST

National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program

• allowing tele-comparisons of national standards among National Metrology

Institutes worldwide

This project has enabled NIST to be in a position to serve an expanded range of flow

calibration requirements of U.S. industry. By using telepresence and forging critical

industrial partnerships, technology is enabling NIST scientists to expand the range of
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NIST gas flow calibrations by making the facilities at an industrial calibration

laboratory in Nunn, CO, available for use in NIST calibration operations over a widearea high-performance computing and communications network. By installing NIST

instrumentation at the industrial facility, this instrumentation can be accessed using

Web-based technology by NIST personnel to provide NIST-certified calibrations

outside NIST's Gaithersburg campus.

This project has, therefore, allowed NIST to improve the means by which it delivers

gas flow calibrations by expanding the range of flow calibration capabilities that NIST

can provide. Exploitation of IT, coupled with industrial partnerships, has allowed this

to happen without NIST incurring the several million-dollar costs associated with

upgrading its own facilities in Gaithersburg.

The provision of remote access to NIST equipment, instrumentation and

systems used in advanced manufacturing and measurement research

This has been demonstrated by providing network linkages to NIST research labs for

the communication of voice, video, and data information to and from those labs as a

means of improving organizational ability to leverage resources. This has included

the ability in many instances to tele-operate the research platforms in these labs.

This basically means that NIST research labs, and the equipment, instrumentation,

systems and scientists in them, are now accessible in real time from remote

locations. This facilitates the performance of research between geographically

distributed partners as effectively and efficiently as if the partners were physically colocated with one another.

The NIST labs and facilities possessing and using these capabilities are listed below.

The NIST Organizational Unit (OU) that operates each lab and facility is also

included.

• the Octahedral Hexapod machine and strut test lab (MEL)

• the Monarch Metalist turning machine lab (MEL)

• the Automated Welding Manufacturing System in Gaithersburg (MEL), and

the weld analysis lab in Boulder (Materials Science and Engineering

Laboratory (MSEL))

• the tensile testing and analysis lab (MSEL)

• advanced analytical microscope systems (MEL and Computer Science and

Technology Laboratory (CSTL))

• gas flow measurement systems and facilities (CSTL)

• electrical standards calibration instrumentation (Electronics and Electrical

Engineering Laboratory (EEEL))

• the Next Generation Inspection System lab (MEL )

• the TETRA and RoboCrane robotic systems (MEL )
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• the Computer Integrated Construction Environment lab and National

Construction Automation Testbed (Building and Fire Research Laboratory

(BFRL))

• dosimetry measurement systems (Physics Laboratory (PL))

• network protocol and collaborative software tool development and testing labs

(Information Technology Laboratory (ITL))

For example, one of the program’s original projects is exploiting IT to develop and

disseminate an understanding of the characteristics and capabilities of a

revolutionary new class of machine tools. This Characterization, Remote Access,

and Simulation of Hexapod Machines project is examining a promising new

technology that marks the first major departure in machine tool design in nearly a

century. By providing remote access to its experimental Octahedral Hexapod

Machine, NIST is helping a national group of machine tool builders, prospective

users, and researchers build experience with and evaluate the capabilities of this

type of machine (see Figure 2 below). For hexapods to achieve widespread use, a

number of important questions and issues must be resolved. Through this project,

NIST is helping remotely located industry and university researchers investigate the

performance characteristics and capabilities of the experimental technology. The

project is also developing and using new simulation and modeling tools, as well as

examining critical control and integration issues.

Figure 2. NIST Octahedral

Hexapod Machine

Currently, real-time hexapod collaborations primarily involve "over the shoulder"

participation, enabled by cameras manipulated by off-site observers. More extensive

capabilities for remote collaboration, including the sharing of hexapod sensor and
9

control information, are also being investigated. They are likely to become integral to

research as widespread advances in communication, networking, and security

technologies occur. Characterizing and enhancing the performance of the hexapod

are immediate aims of the project. Additionally, this collaborative work is

demonstrating how it may be possible for new, multi-organizational manufacturing

enterprises to be assembled over an advanced network. Electronically linked

partners are building experience in conducting and integrating remotely performed

manufacturing activities. They are developing, for example, some of the prototype

interfaces and other standards necessary to support geographically distributed

design and manufacturing capabilities.

The Hexapod project represents how NIST, through the Information-Based

Manufacturing Program, is anticipating and addressing the measurements and

standards issues associated with leading-edge manufacturing technology of interest

to U.S. industry. By improving the physical mechanics of how to work with this new

class of machines this project is resulting in NIST and its industry, other government,

and academic partners:

• developing and disseminating to industry an understanding of machine

performance characteristics

• demonstrating interactive, remote experimentation capabilities

• providing input to national and international standards committees and users

groups that are determining the best methodologies for evaluating and

characterizing the performance of these machines

• developing a knowledge-base of machining experience

• improving machine metrology and control systems

Another example of the program’s accomplishments relating to capabilities and

competence in this area comes from a project that was initiated during the first

program expansion involving cross-OU collaboration at NIST. This project, which is

focused on automating construction sites, seeks to exploit advanced networking

technologies to realize tremendous opportunities to trim construction time and reduce

the need for costly rework. In this BFRL-led project, NIST and its partners are

building the measurement and standards foundation so that

• the status of a construction site can be assessed instantaneously

• machinery can be operated remotely

• data flows seamlessly and can be easily integrated, providing workers and

managers with the information they need, when they need it

To elaborate, geographically distributed project partners are developing the

infrastructure for modeling, simulation, and automation of dangerous or error-pone

construction tasks. This infrastructure will also be used for remote site-management

capabilities and up-to-the-moment access to all site-related information, from

architectural designs, to subcontractor schedules, to the status of machinery.

Emphasis is on construction-site measurement capabilities—a necessary precursor
10

for automation—and technologies for gathering, exchanging, and analyzing

information. The project is also working with industry to develop wireless metrology

and jobsite communications standards that will bring the IT revolution to the

construction site.

Figure 3 below shows a portion of the physical testbed at NIST where research is

occurring on this project. In the figure, a NIST researcher is shown controlling an

automated, robotic, construction platform via a graphical interface. Among the

results of this project are the development of general automation for construction

sites, beyond the concepts of robot bulldozers; the development of wireless, job-site

communications standards; and the development of new, cutting-edge field sensing

technologies.

Figure 3. NIST Construction Automation Testbed

The use of modeling and simulation to advance research

This has been demonstrated by

• the development of high-fidelity, accurate, virtual machining operations by

MEL

• the validation of manufacturing equipment motions, errors, and structural

dynamics by MEL

• the provision of virtual testbeds that emulate the operations of complex

building systems and operations by BFRL
11

• the simulation of forming operations in virtual die design to prepare standard

mechanical tests for sheet metal forming by MSEL

• the modeling of welding processes and sensor data to calculate weld quality

in real-time by MEL and MSEL

With the power of today’s computing technology, manufacturers are beginning to

realize that processes, designs, and other applications can be developed efficiently

when they are tested and proven out in the computer domain first, and then

transitioned to the physical domain. This basic idea is summarized for manufacturing

by, “First part correct.”

These concepts can be captured in the phrase “virtual manufacturing.” From visions

of complex computer models of factories in operation, to machine tool models, to full

immersion in virtual worlds, all of these concepts—and others as well—have come to

mean virtual manufacturing. In the Information Based Manufacturing Program, virtual

manufacturing has meant primarily the incorporation of computer-based modeling

and simulation into manufacturing to improve how a particular process or operation is

performed.

The hexapod project described previously in this report has incorporated virtual

manufacturing concepts into its R&D efforts. Figure 4 below depicts an example of a

virtual manufacturing tool that has been used in this project.

Figure 4. Octahedral Hexapod

Machine Ghost Image

Simulation

The software tool shown in Figure 4 is a “ghost image” simulation that is used to

assist the performance characterization process for the NIST hexapod machine.

This tool is valuable because the project is working to develop and document an

understanding of the machine’s performance characteristics to determine whether

this new class of machine can become viable in a commercial sense. This sense

of performance understanding must be developed through rigorous measurement
12

and testing of the machines, and computer-based modeling of the machines in

operation can greatly enhance the ability to do this.

The ghost image simulation tool uses dynamic graphics that incorporate

measured machine performance parameters into a simulation of the machine in

operation. Such a simulation shows how the machine operates for a particular

process based upon actual performance characteristics that have been

measured. These characteristics include, for example, geometry and backlash

errors. This simulation is displayed simultaneously with a simulation of how the

machine would perform ideally for the process if there were no machine errors,

such as geometric inaccuracies. The simulation that depicts how the machine

actually performs is displayed as a semi-transparent, ghost image that is

projected on top of the simulation that depicts how an ideal machine should

perform.

Tools such as this offer engineers the ability to quickly and accurately identify

when errors occur, then focus on solving those machine performance

characteristics that result in machining errors. These types of tools allow this to

occur in a non-destructive environment where all proving out can be performed in

the computer domain. The intent here is the development of a comprehensive

visual model of manufacturing equipment operation that is based upon a rigorous

understanding of the equipment’s performance capabilities. This understanding

of manufacturing capabilities can ultimately lead to the realization of product

designs where the first part that is produced is correct.

Another active project that is exploring and exploiting virtual manufacturing

concepts is the MEL-led Machine Tool Performance Models and Machine Data

Repositories project. This project is also developing rigorous models of

manufacturing equipment performance capabilities that are based upon actual,

measured performance parameters. The models produced in this project

incorporate representations of machine errors in a generic data structure. The

NIST role in this project is primarily associated with the development of data

structures that are, in fact, generic so that they can be applied to different classes

of machine tools and manufacturing equipment.

The models represent a means by which an organization’s shop floor

manufacturing capabilities, or those of a supplier perhaps, can be accurately

incorporated into design processes. This is an important concept in reducing

manufacturing problems that can occur once a product or process design has

been finalized.

Figure 5 below shows an example of a software tool that uses performance

parameters for classes of machine tools to simulate parts produced on these

machines. The simulation tool shown in the figure creates “whiskers” on a turned

part to visually depict how spindle error on a lathe can result in a part with too

much or too little material removed during a turning process.
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With tools such as this, engineers have the ability to create producible designs.

Designs can be created with a high degree of certainty that they can actually be

manufactured by allowing the designs to be validated and proven in the virtual

sense based upon the measured performance characteristics of available

manufacturing equipment. These tools also offer planners the ability to select

certain pieces of equipment to match their capabilities to the specifications called

for in product designs.

Figure 5. Simulation of

Part Error Resulting from

Turning Machine

Geometry Error

This document’s Appendix provides additional information about how the projects

within the Information Based Manufacturing Program address and leverage the

concepts of virtual manufacturing.

MEASURES OF PROGRAM SUCCESS

In addition to the development and demonstration of the technical competencies

described in the previous section, a number of other parameters exist by which the

successes of the Information-Based Manufacturing Program can be measured.

These parameters are described in this section to provide a more quantifiable means

of representing and measuring program success.

Fostering cross-OU collaboration throughout NIST

The Information-Based Manufacturing Program has included 16 projects that have

been technically led by each of the seven NIST Laboratories, plus the MEP

Program. These projects, which have involved the participation of over 100 NIST

staff members, have relied upon multi-disciplinary expertise that is resident across

multiple NIST OUs to achieve goals and objectives. These collaborations have

demonstrated how valuable the cross-fertilization of project teams with expertise
14

from varied disciplines can be in the conduct of major, complex research projects.

This, in turn, has also demonstrated a new sense of excitement across NIST in

terms of what can be accomplished through multi-OU collaboration.

MEL has participated in all Program projects, and MEL’s participation in cross-OU

collaboration has existed in multiple forms, including:

- performance of research in pursuit of specific project objectives

- provision of IT support services to projects via the NAMT

- support and participation in technology demonstrations and focused technical

workshops associated with specific projects

- provision of planning and other support services to projects, such as assistance

with technical workshops and demonstrations

Without the Information-Based Manufacturing Program, these collaborations would

very likely not have occurred and consequently, the successful projects and results

described in this document would not have occurred either.

Producing Traditional R&D Program Outputs

In addition to the other parameters mentioned in this section, the Information-Based

Manufacturing Program has also produced traditional outputs that NIST uses to

measure the success and impact of its various programs. These outputs include the

following:

- publication of over 30 technical papers

- citation of the Program in 8 published news articles and periodicals

- execution of approximately 35 Cooperative Research and Development

Agreements

- nearly $2 million of investment from other government agencies into Program

technical efforts

- the conduct of approximately 20 NIST-hosted technical workshops and symposia

- the delivery of Program presentations by Program staff at over two dozen

technical conferences, workshops, and symposia, both domestic and

international

Fostering partnerships with customers of NIST

Over 100 organizations from industry, other government agencies, and academia

have worked in partnership with the projects of the Information-Based Manufacturing

Program. Partnership on these projects has assumed a variety of forms, and several

different vehicles have been used to define organizational partnerships that are both

formal and informal. Means to enter into formal partnership arrangements include

Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, the NIST Industry Fellows
15

Program, and contracts. Intellectual property concerns, if any, and the expected

outcome of joint efforts have usually dictated the type of arrangement. Informal

partnerships have included standards committee and users group participation.

Project partners have used the NAMT to leverage and access resources in the

conduct of collaborative R&D. The means and extent to which resources are

leveraged and accessed by project partners, especially those resources that are

physically located at NIST, are determined by several factors. These factors include

the nature of the work being performed, relevant technical issues, and relevant

contractual stipulations that may be associated with a particular organization.

The following organizations are partners in various capacities on Information-Based

Manufacturing Program projects. The lists below are not comprehensive, as only six

organizations representing industry, government, and academia are listed here.

These lists are provided to indicate the types of organizations that use the NAMT as

collaborators on NAMT-supported projects. Additional information about

partnerships associated with the NIST Information-Based Manufacturing Program

can be found in [1].

Representative Industry Organizations

- Caterpillar

- Boeing

- Honeywell / AMD

- Raytheon

- Ingersoll

- United Technologies / Pratt & Whitney

Representative Government Organizations

- NASA Johnson Space Flight Center

- Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratories

- Department of Energy Sandia National Laboratories

- Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratories

- Department of Energy Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories

- Department of Defense Manufacturing Technology Program

Representative Academic Organizations

- University of Maryland

- University of Florida

- University of North Carolina-Charlotte

- Georgia Polytechnic Institute

- Carnegie Mellon University

- Ohio State University
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Upgrading NIST networking capabilities

Figure 6 below shows the topology of the network linkages established in the

Information-Based Manufacturing Program through the NAMT. The figure shows the

network connectivity for buildings and laboratories both around the NIST campus in

Gaithersburg, along with how this connectivity is extended to non-NIST locations in

the wide area.

Figure 6. Program Network Topology

Shops Bldg.

NAMT Lab

Metrology Bldg.

 NIST

Backbone

Microscopy

Labs

Next Generation

 Internet &

 Internet2

Robot Lab

Machine Tool Lab

Conference Room

Internet

Construction

Labs

Building

Research Bldg.

Radiation

Calibration Labs

Radiation

Physics Bldg.

Metal

Forming Lab

Materials Bldg.

Advanced Microscopy Labs

Chemistry Bldg.

Construction

& Robot Labs

Engineering

Mechanics Bldg.

Machine

Tool Lab

Sound Bldg.

ATM Switch

ATM Switch

LAN Switch

Nanofabrication & Electronic

Commerce Labs

Technology Bldg.

Flow Calibration Lab

Fluid Mechanics

Bldg.

Red, Green Auditorium

Administration Bldg.

 Weld Lab

Collaborative Tools Lab

NIST North Bldg.

Construction Labs

Polymers Bldg.

TV

ATM Switch

TV

TV

TV

TV

TV

TV

TV

TV

TV

TV

TV TV

TV

TV

TV

TV

Demonstration Lab

Supply &

Plant Bldg.
17

As detailed previously in the NAMT section of this document, the Information-Based

Manufacturing Program has built a collaboratory on the NIST campus that is

supported by the NAMT. This is a significant accomplishment because over a dozen

buildings containing more than two dozen laboratory facilities across NIST have been

linked together through high-performance network technologies. Prior to the

existence of this Program and the NAMT, these high-performance linkages did not

exist. As a result of this Program and the NAMT, scientists and engineers working in

these linked facilities can perform collaborative research where the facilities are online in such a way that simultaneous access to voice, video, and data information

allows for the quick and efficient leverage of geographically distributed resources.

The technical focus areas of the NAMT Collaboratory—and also the focus areas of

the Information-Based Manufacturing Program’s projects—are depicted in Figure 7

below.

Figure 7. Program Technical Focus Areas

Virtual

Machining

Interoperability

Nanomanufacturing Telepresence Telemetrology for

Radiation Processing

Electronic

Commerce

Welding

Collaboratory

Cybernetic

Building Systems

Automated

Construction

Die Design

On-Line Length

Calibrations Telemetrology for

Gas Flow

HealthCare

Metrology

IT for Supply Chains
18

Additional information about the networking technologies and capabilities utilized in

the Information-Based Manufacturing Program can be found in NISTIR 6383, “The

National Advanced Manufacturing Testbed.”[1]

Demonstrating technical feasibility and leading-edge capabilities to NIST

customers

The Information-Based Manufacturing Program has provided over 150 technical

demonstrations since 1996 for audiences representing industry, government, and

academic organizations. The demonstrations provided by the Program have been a

visible and tangible means by which leading-edge, technical concepts and results

have been shown to be feasible to a wide cross-section of individuals and

organizations representing existing and potential customers of NIST.

Demonstrations have used various levels of networking performance and

capabilities. Several demonstrations have involved extensive reliance upon the

NAMT ATM network backbone, while others have shown how simple, commodity

Internet service can enable the conduct of collaborative research and measurement

services.

Additional information about Program demonstrations that have involved the NAMT

can be found in [1].

SUMMARY

The Information-Based Manufacturing Program has been developing competence

across NIST in the application of IT to improve and advance the conduct of

manufacturing research and the delivery of measurement and testing services. The

Program, which has been in operation since 1996, is led by the NIST MEL and

involves the participation of all of the NIST Laboratories, plus the NIST MEP and ATP

Programs.

The Information-Based Manufacturing Program has created an increased sense of

collaboration across NIST OUs, and it has played a significant role in demonstrating

how IT can be used

• to better conduct research for and with NIST’s customers

• to deliver NIST measurement and testing services more efficiently through on-line

capabilities

• to put the right tools into the hands of the NIST researchers who need them, and

do it at the right time

The NAMT has played a significant role as a physical testbed that supports the IT

needs of the projects of the Information-Based Manufacturing Program. With the
19

NAMT enabling various capabilities, the Program has focused on demonstrating

feasibility of an array of different concepts, ranging from new ways for multiple

organizations to partner with one another, to new technology, measurement, and

standards development and applications. The Information-Based Manufacturing

Program has been a key driver for demonstrating how NIST is embracing new

capabilities and technologies in the conduct of its agency mission in the new

millenium.
20

APPENDIX: PROJECT SUMMARIES

PROJECT TITLE: Nanomanufacturing of Atom-Based Standards

LEAD NIST OU: Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1996

Overview

There are two major industry trends that are driving forces for this project. First is the

ever decreasing dimensions and tolerances posed by the semiconductor and datastorage industries. Industry projects that within a decade the critical dimensions of

microelectronic devices will be near 100 nanometers, requiring dimensional

standards with uncertainties near 1 nanometer and a degree of geometric perfection

near to that of an ideal atomic lattice.

The second major trend in industry is the demand (in major part produced by the first

trend) for ever cleaner and highly controlled manufacturing environments. Currently

these trends are being manifested in the move from clean rooms to minienvironments to clean machines and the use of standard mechanical interface pods

to transfer materials between the manufacturing tools. As a result NIST is

undertaking development of atom-based dimensional artifact standards, where

feature size and geometry derive directly from that of atomic lattice. Some such

artifact standards are being fabricated, transported, and used at different sites,

spending their lives under vacuum. At the same time, microelectronic devices

themselves are being produced at different manufacturing sites with expensive,

specialized equipment carrying out different steps of the overall manufacturing

process. These steps include research and development, design, fabrication,

inspection, processing and repair. Much of this is dependent upon sophisticated

computer modeling, communications and control.

Goals

The goals of this project are

• to support the development and deployment of the technology of distributed

fabrication and use of nanometer-scale dimensional artifacts

• to use computer modeling and simulation for the development of mechanical

systems and components, including the artifact transport system

• to develop and demonstrate remote teleoperation of scanned probe microscopes

• to incorporate and deploy links by advanced computers and communications for

high-speed video, voice and data transmission among collaborators

Benefits

Benefits from the project are
21

1. next generation calibration standards with accuracy meeting industry’s projected

needs

2. interface standards for artifact transport systems (see description below)

3. interface standards for remote teleoperation of scanned probe microscopes

There are three major task areas.

Atom-Based Dimensional Calibration Standards

The first major task of this project has been the demonstration of feasibility of

fabrication of artifacts with dimensioned features derived from atomic-lattice

properties. The size and tolerances of dimensioned features in micro-, nano-, and

quantum-electronic devices are rapidly decreasing. This creates a need for artifacts

as calibration standards that have feature sizes and uniformities in geometry that are

nanometer and sub-nanometer in scale. Rather than depending on the removal or

addition of material to form dimensioned features of arbitrary size and shape, an

alternative for the fabrication of calibration standards with nanometer-scale

dimensions and high geometric perfection is to use controlled natural processes

(such as lattice dislocations). These processes yield features of size and shape

determined by crystalline lattice spacings and geometries. In collaboration with

vendors and users of commercial dimensional calibration standards, the project is

demonstrating feasibility of fabricating such atom-based artifact standards of use to

the U.S. microelectronics industry.

Artifact Transport System

The second major task has been the development of a portable, shippable chamber

with a standard mechanical interface. Such a chamber will allow physical transport

under vacuum of wafers and other substrates undergoing processing in high-vacuum

systems in clean-room facilities at geographically different locations. These different

locations can be different facilities at the same site or different sites. The shippable

chamber, called a "vacuum suitcase", is an essential element in the move from a

physically monolithic processing chamber to a physically distributed processing

system. In collaboration with vendors and users of vacuum equipment, this project

has developed a prototype "vacuum suitcase." This “vacuum suitcase” is for use in

the transfer of wafers and substrates between the NIST Ultra High Vacuum Scanning

Tunneling Microscope, the NIST Molecular Beam Epitaxy machine, wafer-processing

systems and related industry systems.

Teleoperation of Scanned Probe Microscopes

The third and last major task has been the demonstration of remote diagnostic

operation of scanned-probe-microscopy systems using standard data

representations. There is an increasing requirement for microelectronic wafer

processing and device fabrication completely within clean-room environments. This
22

has created a growing need for not only automated control of processes and roboticmanipulation of wafers and carriers, but remote "through-the-clean-room-wall"

teleoperation of scanned probe microscopes used for inspection of fabricated micro

structures. A need also exists for remote "from-a-vendor's-firm" teleoperation of such

microscopes for instrument trouble-shooting. In collaboration with vendors and users

of scanned probe microscope instruments, the project has developed a test-bed for

the identification of standard interface needs and issues in scanned probe

microscope teleoperation.
23

PROJECT TITLE: Machine Tool Performance Models and Machine

Data Repositories

LEAD NIST OU: Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1996

Overview

To reduce costs and respond rapidly to changing customer needs, large companies

are relying increasingly on a network of suppliers and outsourcing a significant

percentage of their manufacturing needs. This type of geographically and

organizationally distributed manufacturing requires better communication and

improved coordination and utilization of internal and external manufacturing

resources by all the participants.

Because of the need to shorten design and production cycles, designers and

production engineers must collaborate closely to determine the optimum use of

resources required to turn designs into real products, without extensive prototyping.

Prototyping is usually an iterative process, taking considerable time and effort before

actual production can begin. Creating a virtual manufacturing environment to

simulate the complete manufacturing cycle and carry out this iterative process in the

virtual domain presents a unique opportunity for industry to reduce time for new

product introduction.

Goals

The goal of this project is the development of engineering tools that enable design

and manufacturing engineers to predict machine tool performance and ensure that

parts can be machined to specification with a minimum of prototyping. These

engineering tools include data structures and low-order machine models that

represent actual machine behavior. They also include mathematical representation

of actual part geometry, including dimension and form errors. Additionally, virtual

machining algorithms, virtual inspection algorithms, standardized data formats, and

remotely accessible machine data repositories are being developed.

The project has sought to replace actual machining and inspection of parts during

prototyping with virtual machining and virtual inspection modules incorporated into a

CAD/CAM system. The virtual machining module simulates the movement of the

cutting tool when making a part. In this simulation, the effects of error motions,

predicted from machine-tool characterization data are reflected in the tool path.

Virtual machining results in an electronic approximation of the part that can be

inspected by the virtual inspection module. The virtual inspection module determines

the uncertainties associated with the selected inspection plans and equipment.

These uncertainties can be checked against the specified design tolerances of the

part. This virtual environment makes it possible to optimize the manufacturing

process by trying different machines and making changes to the process plans or

part designs.
24

One major challenge has been the development of a data structure for electronic

representation of machine performance and error characteristics. Such a data

structure can enable different manufacturing entities to effectively share information

on available manufacturing equipment. The types of information necessary for this

purpose include error characteristics of machine components, descriptions of

machine structure, axis designations, error notations and sign conventions. Based

upon the developed data structure, a data repository for storing machine

performance information is being created. This repository is being populated by

major manufacturers and their suppliers, as well as machine tool vendors. Algorithms

are being developed to access performance data from this repository and to apply

the data in predictive machine models.

Benefits

This project is contributing to a variety of important benefits, including:

• optimum and speedy allocation of in-house and/or supplier manufacturing

resources, which can significantly shorten time for new product introductions

• improved quantitative information exchange between design engineers,

manufacturing engineers and process planners

• optimization and quality assurance of existing manufacturing processes
25

PROJECT TITLE: Characterization, Remote Access, and Simulation of

Hexapod Machines

LEAD NIST OU: Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1996

Overview

The rapid production of quality parts with complex contoured geometric features

requires machine tools that combine speed, accuracy, stiffness, and multiaxis

versatility. In addition, manufacturers look for qualities such as ease of installation

and portability to enable plants to be reconfigured to meet changing market

demands. A new class of parallel-actuated machine tools based on the Stewart

platform mechanism presents new possibilities to meet these needs. However,

much remains to be learned about the characteristics of these 'hexapod' machine

tools before they can see widespread production application.

Industry workshops have highlighted the need for:

• an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of these new machines

• standard test methods and measurement procedures to evaluate their

performance

• a reservoir of application experience from which to draw

• modeling and simulation tools for developing applications and test methods

• remote access capabilities to make it easier for external collaborators to interact

and participate in the work being done

• examination of controller and integration issues

Goals

The goal of the project has been the development of methods to characterize and

extend the limits of performance of a new class of Stewart platform-based machine

tools in terms of accuracy, productivity, and versatility through the development and

implementation of virtual and distributed manufacturing technologies.

The NAMT Hexapod project team, in collaboration with external partners, has been

performing work in the three areas of characterization, remote access, and simulation

to address the needs discussed above. The work at NIST is performed using the

Octahedral Hexapod machine, which was installed at the Gaithersburg, MD site in

May, 1995. To the extent possible, models, measurement techniques, and other

project results are developed in a generic form to allow them to be easily applied to

other machines with a parallel arrangement of actuators. NIST researchers are

participating in a national Hexapod Users Group to coordinate research activities and

share results.
26

Benefits

Potential benefits of Hexapod machines cited in the trade literature include increased

stiffness, higher accuracy, higher speed and acceleration due to reduced moving

mass, and reduced production and installation costs. This project’s results include:

• test procedures and standards to assess, describe, and compare the

performance of these new machines

• opportunities for machine tool users to gain first-hand experience with this new

technology

• networked sensor and control information for remote experimentation, interaction,

and integration

• program validation, workspace analysis, part placement, and other simulation

tools for faster application development

• performance enhancements, such as calibration techniques and feedback

metrology systems, for higher accuracy

This project has been working to produce benefits in the technical areas as detailed

below.

Characterization

The approach used to develop performance evaluation techniques has included the

ANSI/ASME B5.54-1992 Methods for Performance Evaluation of Computer

Numerically Controlled Machining Centers [4] and ISO 230 [5] as starting points.

Modified versions of these test procedures are being proposed and tested for

hexapod machines. Performance enhancements, such as improved calibration and

feedback metrology techniques, are also being used as an improved understanding

of machine behavior is gained.

Remote Access

For remote interaction, high-speed communications links, such as ATM networks,

have been used to provide real-time transfer of audio/video and sensor data to

researchers at remote sites. An Internet-based version of similar capabilities has

also been developed that provides services at a lower cost, but with some

compromise in performance.

To examine controller and integration issues, an open architecture controller is being

installed and tested on the Hexapod. This controller is based on Application

Programming Interfaces and software developed under the NIST Enhanced Machine

Controller Program [6].
27

Simulation

From the validation of machine motions to detailed investigation of the errors and

structural dynamics of the Hexapod, a comprehensive set of modeling and simulation

tools is needed. These simulation capabilities are being developed in an incremental

fashion, gradually adding to the fidelity and detail of the modeled behavior. This is

reducing the risks and increasing the effectiveness of the hexapod research efforts.
28

PROJECT TITLE: Framework for Discrete Parts Manufacturing

LEAD NIST OU: Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1996

Overview

Driven to improve competitive performance, U.S. manufacturers invest billions of

dollars each year in information technology. A substantial portion of this investment is

allocated for creating and integrating applications software. Chief among these

integrated applications are manufacturing execution systems (MES), product data

management (PDM) systems, database management systems (DBMS), computer

aided manufacturing (CAM), and factory control systems, as well as planning and

scheduling systems. Many of these applications and most of the software used in

their integration are non-standard, one-of-a-kind creations. Now, manufacturers are

trying to replace their in-house software systems with standards-based, off-the-shelf

products. They want to reduce their outlay of capital and human resources on

systems development, integration, and maintenance in order to focus on core

manufacturing competencies and to improve operational flexibility.

Industry requires the capability to rapidly integrate best-in-class applications, improve

interoperability, defer obsolescence, increase system stability, and integrate widely

distributed manufacturing operations. Information technology standards provide

these benefits, while reducing technical and financial risks. However, no single

standard exists that will satisfy all of the system interoperability needs of

manufacturing organizations. Consequently, development and adoption of suites of

information technology standards are key elements in the competitive strategies of

many U.S. manufacturing organizations. Validation testing of candidate standards is

a critical technical ingredient of these strategies. Manufacturers use validation testing

to determine profiles of standards. Information technology vendors use test results to

garner marketplace confidence and to reduce technical risks associated with the

adoption of new technologies embedded into modern, complex manufacturing

systems.

Goals

The Framework Project is providing industry with tests and methods for analyzing

and validating emerging manufacturing information standards and technologies.

Work has been focused on information models for manufacturing, software

application interface definitions, object-oriented class hierarchies, data access

protocols, scheduling and control strategies, integration mechanisms, and

communication architectures.

This project is performing analyses and validation testing of standards, pre-standard

specifications, and other so-called middleware technologies developed by industry

consortia. The approach taken in this project has been to implement a distributed

manufacturing software system based on the combined use of emerging standards
29

and technologies. This test system consists of MES, PDM systems, DBMS, CAM

systems, and factory control systems, as well as planning and scheduling systems.

Testing has been conducted against manufacturing scenarios representative of the

defense, aerospace, and automobile industries and entailing the design, production,

and inspection of discrete metal parts. The results of the implementation and testing

form the basis for documented reviews of the specifications. These reviews address

the internal consistency of each specification as well as the technical relationships

between the specifications. These reviews are used as input to ongoing development

within the various consortia and they are used in the formal consensus building

process within standards organizations.

Benefits

Project benefits include:

1. Test-generated information that can be used in standards profiles, aiding strategic

standards management.

2. Validation of emerging standards and technologies that can reduce the standards

development cycle-time.

3. Standards-based information technology that can increase product quality,

decrease time-to-market, reduce product development costs, and increase the

efficiency of manufacturing operations.

4. The adoption and use of standards that reduce costs for manufacturing-system

end users and allow system providers to profit from economies of scale.
30

PROJECT TITLE: Interface and Data Standards for Real-Time

Construction Site Metrology

LEAD NIST OU: Building and Fire Research Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1997

Overview

U.S. construction industries account for approximately 13% of the United States’

gross domestic product [7]. Time is the primary issue in these industries, and even

small construction technology improvements that enable the ability to finish a job

correctly the first time and on-time offer the potential for major economic impact to

this very significant industry. Real-time, wireless metrology capabilities form the

foundation for industry's abilities to automate and improve operations at construction

sites. This project has been working with industry to speed the development and

application of the standards required to implement real-time metrology into

automated construction site applications.

Goals

The project has established a National Construction Automation Testbed for

collaborative development with industry of interface data standards for real-time

construction site metrology. This remotely accessible testbed facility incorporates site

simulation tools for the planning and programming the operations of semi-automated

machinery into the development of the interface data standards that are the primary

focus of the project. The testbed is conducting construction experiments at full-scale

to determine problem areas for information transfer.

Benefits

The project has been conducting research focused on the development and testing

of non-intrusive site scanning, discrete component identification, three-dimensional

dynamic databases, and multi-robot coordination. As a result of this research, project

benefits include:

• metrology relevant to construction sites and processes, specifically in terms of

open standards for real-time (“live”) data exchange, inter-operability, and new,

cutting-edge field-sensing technology

• Automation tools for on-site productivity, quality, and safety, where automation is

not just “robot bulldozers,” but includes data at your fingertips (measurements,

CAD data, phone numbers), user feedback (3-D graphics, head-up displays),

and derivative quantities and automatic object recognition
31

PROJECT TITLE: Telepresence Microscopy and Microanalysis

LEAD NIST OU: Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1997

Overview

Telepresence microscopy and microanalysis is the remote sharing and/or operation

of microscopes/microprobes. The chemical microstructure of material specimens is

critical to materials science and technology, semiconductor device development,

quality measurements and process control, and failure analysis and evaluation. NIST

microanalysis customers need the following:

• quick access to advanced microscopy and microanalysis instrumentation and

expertise, which is especially critical to small start-up firms

• quality measurements of nanoscale dimensions and material chemistry

properties

• quick time response for analysis that is demanded by process control

Goals

This project has established and is demonstrating remote communications with

microanalysis customers from NIST labs via inexpensive teleconferencing

hardware/software, as well as via more high-performance networking technologies.

Low-end, communications-based systems utilize World Wide Web-based

technology, specifically allowing for "over-the-shoulder" remote monitoring of NIST

analysis experiments. This specifically targets small enterprises that account for a

large percentage of the industrial community working in these areas. The high-end

portion of the project is also developing, testing, and implementing the hardware and

software that is necessary for remote control of these types of leading edge

instrumentation at NIST labs. This specifically utilizes high bandwidth networking

technology capabilities. This project is gaining critical research experience in

telepresence operation by solving actual problems occurring daily within industry.

Benefits

Through demonstrating telepresence in the areas of advanced microscopy and

microanalysis, this project has been enabling and demonstrating the possibility for

and benefits of more efficient use of expensive, scarce resources and critical

personnel at industrial central laboratories. The project has done this by providing

remote, instantaneous, around-the-clock access to critical production facilities; by

providing "just-in-time" analysis; and by improving communications within the service

analysis industry.

Ultimately, standards and standard data will be created for telepresence microscopy

and microanalysis.
32

PROJECT TITLE: Virtual Die Design for Information-Based Metal

Forming

LEAD NIST OU: Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1997

Overview

The metal forming industry is a several hundred billion-dollar industry in the United

States, with a large portion being accounted for by the automotive industry. The

development of new dies for stamped parts for a car model can cost several hundred

million dollars, and typical time to production for a new car model of around 50

weeks. The time for producing and trying dies can be on the order of 25-28 weeks.

Die fabrication costs tend to be so high because commonly used die design

processes are typically sequential operations involving little concurrent

communication among the various technical functions involved in the process [8].

Goals

The project has been incorporating improved materials models into common finite

element analysis packages to improve the constitutive laws associated with

simulations of forming operations that are used in virtual die design. The project has

concentrated on:

• the development of standard mechanical tests relevant to sheet metal forming,

including plane strain tensile tests and channel forming tests

• the development of accurate simulations of material responses in forming

processes

• on-line techniques for remote data acquisition and control of forming operations.

Benefits

Capabilities enabled by virtual die design include more rapid fabrication of sheet

metal forming dies and higher precision stamped parts with tighter dimensional

tolerances. Improved intercommunication between the producer, supplier, and

designer of dies is also a benefit. Ultimately, the capabilities developed in the project

demonstrate the capabilities to implement die design and fabrication scenarios where

the number of tryouts are reduced to one – where the first die that is designed and

fabricated is the correct one.
33

PROJECT TITLE: Design, Manufacture, and Calibration of Radioactive

Seeds and Other Radiation Sources

LEAD NIST OU: Physics Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1997

Overview

Application of radiation sources for interstitial cancer therapy (presently 50,000

patients per year in the US) and for cardiovascular therapy to prevent restenosis

following angioplasty (potentially 400,000 patients per year in the US) is extremely

important for US health care [9]. Using the capabilities of the NAMT infrastructure,

combined with robotics and communications software development from the

Intelligent Systems Division, the Ionizing Radiation Division is developing and has

demonstrated an interactive network for a hierarchical measurement system as a

model for other national standards laboratories.

Goals

The project involves a number of components in design, manufacturing, and

calibration. The modeling and simulation methods, developed at NIST for

determination of the radiation fields emerging from these small sources and the

spatial distribution of dose absorbed in a medium, are regarded as benchmark quality

by the international community of source users and manufacturers. These methods

have been incorporated into many available computational codes, but the use of

such complex codes can require significant training and intellectual investment. The

project is making these calculations available for remote use through the World Wide

Web. Additional effort is developing the necessary software interfaces and expert

systems to allow source manufacturers and other interested parties to input

mechanical-drawing information and other pertinent data to simulate the dose rate

delivered by a potential source and to vary parameters to optimize source design.

The ability to accurately connect information on the incorporated radioactivity and the

dose rate delivered to a medium depends critically on knowledge of the absolute

activity of the radionuclide present in the source. NIST is a world leader in

radionuclide metrology and works with manufacturers to provide factors for

commercially available calibrators of radioactive sources. This program includes

many new sources being considered for brachytherapy, with the information made

available to manufacturers on the world-wide web.

Modeling and simulation technologies are being used in the design of hazardous

radioactive sources. The effect is the reduction of radiation doses to manufacturing

personnel, allowing the ability to test "virtual designs" of new radiation sources, rather

than building and testing each one.

In subsequent calibrations the sources must be handled several times at different

institutes. An improved communications network that links manufacturers, NIST and
34

calibration laboratories is improving communication and product quality while

simultaneously reducing source handling and the number of calibrations required.

Benefits

Manufacturing and sales of these radioactive sources represent one of the fastest

growing segments of the US economy. ABC Evening News reported in 1997 the

successful use of I125 in prostate cancer therapy, and the manufacturer of these

sources has reported sales increasing at 10% per month. The Wall Street Journal

reported on the new application of seeds to prevent restenosis following balloon

angioplasty, and all of the source manufacturers, major medical centers, and

instrument makers are exploring new approaches through research teams.

This project is impacting and enhancing all these efforts, and NIST is developing a

new paradigm for how these sources are designed, manufactured and calibrated.

Project approaches to networked source handling and calibrations can be quickly

introduced to the calibration community at the major medical calibration centers -

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and

University of Wisconsin. The manufacturers also have immediate benefits in the form

of lower design and construction costs from robotics systems designed by NIST.
35

PROJECT TITLE: Internet Commerce for Manufacturing

LEAD NIST OU: Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1997

Overview

The Internet Commerce for Manufacturing project (ICM) was established to work with

industry to enable both small and large organizations to make effective use of

Electronic Commerce (EC) technology across a portion of the printed circuit

assembly (PCA) supply chain.

Goals and Benefits

The project is validating and demonstrating the use of open systems and standards

to efficiently share both technical and business data across organizations. The

project is also aiding the development and testing of standards identified as critical.

The ICM project is

• Gathering and documenting industry requirements and current practice through a

series of Scenario Development/Strategy Workshops. This information is used to

develop an Activity Model to guide the project, and to publish a Business Case to

document the economic motivation for migrating towards Internet commerce in

the PCA industry. The Business Case highlights the industry’s structural changes,

as well as suggesting an appropriate industry and government response to

facilitate the adoption of EC standards and technologies.

• Identifying and developing needed standards. A Standards Roadmap from the

project reflects the availability and status of standards for the exchange of both

technical and business information. The ICM team is participating in the

development and testing of those standards from the Standards Roadmap

identified as critical to the migration towards Internet commerce, such as the IPC

GENCAM standard.

• Developing an Internet Commerce for Manufacturing testbed at NIST. This

testbed validates the ability to use suites of standards identified in the Standards

Roadmap to address the industry needs identified in the Business Case

document. Industry and academic partners serve as demonstration nodes within

the scenario, with NIST developing enabling tools for demonstration purposes

and to facilitate further development.

• Disseminating results to industry, academia and other agencies through

participation in a variety of in-house and conference demonstrations; publication

of the business case, standards roadmap, and proceedings from all workshops;

working with the NIST Verification of IT Solutions for SMEs (VITSS) project in the

transfer of research results to industry via national recommendations to

Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers and actual product offerings (not to

be developed by NIST).
36

PROJECT TITLE: Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed

LEAD NIST OU: Building and Fire Research Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1998

Overview

Industry is experiencing increasing pressure to integrate more and more building

control systems and services. This pressure creates a need for the ability to test and

evaluate the complex interactions that are likely to occur under normal and adverse

(e.g., emergency) operating situations. Control manufacturers and service providers

also need assistance in the development, testing, and certification of new products

for building control and services. These tasks simply can not be accomplished using

real buildings because of the complexity of the systems involved and because of

need to maintain a comfortable and safe occupant environment in buildings at all

times. They can only be done through simulation/emulation and the establishment of

a Cybernetic Building Testbed where manufacturers can (1) bring the actual control

products that they have under development, (2) obtain assistance in testing and

evaluating their performance, and (3) perform interoperability tests with other

manufacturers.

Researchers and service providers can use the Testbed either onsite or remotely to

study system interactions, evaluate control algorithms, test the performance of new

services, and develop national and international standards for integrated systems

that will assure life safety, reliability, proper operation, and enhanced building system

performance.

Goals

This project is creating a real time, distributed Cybernetic Building System Emulator

called a Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed (VCBT). It consists of a variety of

simulation models (or emulators) that together emulate the performance of a typical

cybernetic building system. The simulation models are interfaced with real state-ofthe-art and prototype control systems using the Building Automation and Control

Network (BACnet) data communication protocol to provide a hybrid

software/hardware testbed. This testbed can be used by NIST researchers, control

manufacturers, service companies, and software developers to develop and evaluate

control strategies and control products that use the BACnet protocol [10].

The VCBT emulates the performance of both fault-free and fault-containing heating

and cooling equipment, different heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC)

systems, and the building shell, as well as life-safety, lighting, security, and vertical

transport systems, and other services. Included are an advanced graphical user

interface and remote accessibility to the VCBT through various communication

interfaces such as telephone, the Internet, and the World Wide Web.
37

This project combines the NIST BFRL's extensive experience with the modeling and

simulation of buildings, HVAC systems, controls, and fires with the NIST MEL's

expertise in systems integration, object oriented programming, the use of a Common

Object Broker Architecture (CORBA), advanced information models and data bases,

and the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). The project incorporates the

NAMT high-performance network to exchange information among the various VCBT

components in real time, allowing for both on-site and remote use of the VCBT by

NIST customers.

Phase I of the project involved the development of an HVAC emulator to simulate the

performance of a Variable Air Volume (VAV) air handling unit, three VAV boxes and

three building zones using BFRL's HVACSIM+ program. Phase II developed a

building shell emulator, a fire emulator, a more complex HVAC emulator, a

building/HVAC Product Model, and a VRML based interactive VCBT display. The

various VCBT components, distributed about different NIST locations, use the

CORBA paradigm to provide a real-time, distributed emulation environment based on

message passing between objects and client-server programming. Phases III and IV,

which represent future activities, will involve the enhancement of the VCBT front-end

and the expansion of the VCBT to include the emulation of additional building

services, fault containing systems, and other services likely to be provided by outside

service companies.

Benefits

The Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed (VCBT) is a tool for researchers at NIST and

other organizations to study the complex interactions that occur as a result of

integrating different building services and systems. Of particular interest is the impact

of integrating fire detection, smoke control, transportation, HVAC, and energy

management systems on life safety. The availability of the VCBT as a testbed for

testing and evaluating changes to the BACnet standard facilitates the extension of

the BACnet protocol to cover lighting, fire detection, transportation, and other

services.

Manufacturers of building controls and future cybernetic building products can use

the VCBT to:

• develop and test algorithms

• evaluate the performance of new products

• perform interoperability testing with other manufacturers.

The existence and use of the VCBT by newly developing service companies can

greatly speed up the development of new building services, such as fault detection

and diagnosis, automated commissioning, building system optimization, and

predictive maintenance. In addition, by providing both on-site and remote access to

the VCBT, NIST has provided greater customer access to the research facilities of

the Building and Fire Research Laboratory.
38

PROJECT TITLE: Tele-Calibration of Gas Flow Meters

LEAD NIST OU: Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1998

Overview

Every year in the U.S. gas flow meters are used to measure trillions of dollars in

goods destined for consumption here and abroad. For example, Americans use

natural gas at the rate of $2.2 billion per day and this gas is metered some five to

seven times between the well head and the consuming burners. Gas flow meters are

also extensively used throughout industry as process control monitors in applications

that range from the measurement of power plant emissions to the control of oxygen

flow for premature children in intensive care units.

In conjunction with the establishment and maintenance of the national measurement

infrastructure that can assure the quality of these important measurements, NIST

provides gas flow measurement standards and meter calibration services to US

industry, other government agencies and academia. These services are provided for

a gamut of gases, for widely ranging conditions for flows from (1 x 104 to 8.5 x 104)

standard liters per minute (slm) (or, (1.67 x 102 to 1.42 x 103) liters per second).[11]

Although NIST has provided calibration services in flow for approximately five

decades, U.S. industry has critical needs for gas measurement traceability at much

larger flow rates (ranging to approximately 1 x 108 slm) (or, to approximately 1.67 x

106

 liters per second), at a wide range of working pressures (from (1 to 60) atm), and

for a large number of gas species. The construction of facilities capable of handling

such large flow rates at NIST is all but impossible due to capital and space

constraints.

A small number of secondary metrology laboratories in the US, however, are capable

of calibrating sensors at flow rates larger than those attainable by NIST. One such

facility is the Colorado Engineering Experiment Station Inc. (CEESI), in Nunn CO,

which provides calibrations at flow rates as large as 2.7 x 105

 slm (or, 4.5 x 103 liters

per second), with plans for a CEESI facility in Iowa capable of flowing as much as 4.3

x 107

 slm (or, 7.17 x 105 liters per second) – the largest facility of its kind in the world.

Goals

This project has been using the NAMT information infrastructure to expand the range

of NIST gas flow calibrations by making the facilities at CEESI available for use in

NIST calibration operations over a wide-area, high-performance, computing and

communications network. By installing NIST instrumentation and a NIST portable

primary standard at CEESI's "Primary A" facility in Nunn, CO, this instrumentation

can be accessed using Web-based technology by NIST personnel to provide NISTcertified calibrations outside NIST's Gaithersburg campus.
39

Benefits

This project is benefiting U.S. industry by addressing the following needs:

• demonstration of the feasibility of using information technology to expand NIST's

calibration services via tele-presence in U.S. secondary calibration laboratories.

• expansion of NIST's gas flow calibration capabilities by allowing NIST to calibrate

meters in flows ranging from 3 times to possibly 500 times larger than those used

prior to the establishment of the project

• implementation for the first time of CSTL’s portable primary standard concept that

promises to be a driving force for future practice in flow meter calibrations.
40

PROJECT TITLE: Remote Calibration and Verification of Electrical

Standards

LEAD NIST OU: Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1998

Overview and Goals

This project is expanding the present NIST Special Test Service for digital

multimeters (DMMs) and multifunction calibrators, used to test DMMs for the five

electrical quantities they normally measure—ac and dc voltage and current and dc

resistance. The expanded service is similar to Measurement Assurance Programs

(MAPs) that are in place within the Electricity Division, where NIST-owned

transportable standards are calibrated and sent to customers to calibrate their

equipment. Also, the SIMNet activities described in the Program Accomplishments

section of this document have been performed in conjunction with this project.

The developed service enhances communication between NIST and its partners

using the Internet. The instrumentation tested is owned by each of the partners and,

except for occasional calibration at NIST, remains at the partner's laboratory. Like a

MAP, NIST characterizes the transportable standard and analyzes the test data. In

addition, NIST can control parts of the test remotely to assure that the measurements

at the partner's laboratory are in control. The extent of the value and cost

effectiveness of this new type of service is being evaluated to determine the potential

for it leading to a future NIST interactive Calibration Service.

Several models of DMMs and multifunction calibrators are characterized using the

NIST Multifunction Calibration System in the Electronic Instrumentation and

Metrology Group in the Electricity Division. Other projects in this group include

Measurements for Complex Electronic Systems and Strategies for Testing SoftwareEmbedded Systems. Expertise from these areas has been utilized to develop

instrument models that can estimate the influences of environmental and signal

parameters for each instrument type. Measurements are performed to determine

parameter coefficients for each class of instrument and the extent to which these

parameter influences interact. Correction algorithms optimize performance. Software

developed for use through Internet connections permits either a DMM or calibrator to

be used as a reference to calibrate other instruments at the partner's laboratory.

Initial Comparison of Standards

To facilitate standards comparison, a test system consisting of a DMM, multifunction

calibrator, environmental monitors, controlling software, computer, and the

audio/video link, is set up at NIST and the partner's laboratories. A NIST-calibrated

DMM is used to calibrate a partner's multifunction calibrator, using their normal test

procedures. The same instrument is then calibrated using NIST procedures and

software operating through an Internet connection. Test parameters are monitored

during both tests to optimize the DMM performance, and the results obtained from
41

these partner- and NIST-controlled tests can be compared and significant differences

resolved. This is the most important step in the process, where the partner's test

procedures can be evaluated more thoroughly than a conventional MAP allows.

Level I monitor

A monitor program is established once the measurement systems have been

analyzed and normalized to yield consistent results. Tests can then be performed,

under NIST control, to verify that the DMM and calibrator are within the desired

tolerance. Measurements also provide new data for instrument models, which can be

used to predict when out of tolerance' conditions are likely to occur, requiring

recalibration at NIST.

Level II monitor

To verify lower level measurements (like those made by the partners to support their

manufacturing processes), an instrument from their workload can be tested using

NIST test procedures. This test can be compared to the most recent test performed

by the partner to identify possible problems in the test procedure and to verify

assigned uncertainties. This verification process can be used to confirm test

procedures and standards at every echelon in the partner's measurement chain.

The NIST tests will be operated through a high speed communications line providing

an audio/video link for real-time trouble shooting and consultation, and a data link

permitting rapid data analysis. Once proven, the procedure will be opened to other

interested partners who are willing to invest in the test and communication

equipment. Most customers who might use this service already own the necessary

test equipment. The communications equipment will be the major hardware expense.

However, this impediment should disappear with time as improvements are made in

standard Internet capabilities.

Benefits

As the number of calibration systems grows, a database that better determines the

long-term performance of various hardware/software systems is being developed. A

network of 30 to 40 partners with similar test systems that are periodically monitored

by NIST staff (through an Internet connection) to determine the health of each

system relative to the network is possible. With password access, comparison of

customers instrument performance to others within the network can occur (without

identifying their owners). Carried further, the database could be opened to all

customers of instruments and standards tested at NIST. Done properly, this concept

could expand the NIST scope and value to U.S. industry without compromising

NIST’s impartial role in this measurement arena.
42

PROJECT TITLE: Use of Next Generation Internet and Intelligent

Collaboration and Visualization Technologies to

Build NAMT Collaboratories

LEAD NIST OU: Information Technology Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1998

Overview

The NAMT has been created as a distributed facility that can be shared with industry,

academia, and other government agencies, and within NIST. The NAMT enables the

operation of an information-based collaboratory that facilitates joint research, training,

and demonstrations among NIST and its partners and customers. The testbed

computing and communications infrastructure is central to NIST’s ability to

externalize and leverage its unique resources and capabilities through the

Information-Based Manufacturing Program.

The computing and communications infrastructure of the NAMT has successfully

supported full collaboration and access to resources in various capacities for the

collaboratory both within NIST and among non-NIST partner organizations. The

capabilities of this collaboratory are also evolving toward new communications

technologies and computing environments that are emerging out of the Internet

networking and collaboration research communities. Details of the technologies of

the NAMT, including asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networking which forms the

foundation of the NAMT network backbone, can be found in [1].

Experience with the NAMT has led to the following conclusions:

• Capabilities based upon native ATM tend to be limited to single sites. ATM as a

technology and ATM infrastructures and services must make very significant

advances before ubiquitous interconnection of native ATM devices is possible.

• Advances in switching and routing have demonstrated that LAN switching and IP

routing technologies are capable of operating at speeds comparable to ATM at

potentially much lower costs.

• Even if ATM remains a viable layer 2 technology on campuses and within wide

area networks, the ubiquitous use of Internet Protocols (IP) and advances in IP

performance and services are likely to hinder the desire to use ATM end-to-end.

The focus of the evolution of government and academic research networks is on

internetworking technology (i.e., IP).

• Speed alone is not "quality of service", (QoS) although it is often assumed to be.

Most of today’s "challenging applications" could be accommodated by 10Mbs, or

certainly 100Mbs, technologies. The difficult issues of performance QoS surround

the allocation of resources on communication components that are shared and

over committed. In addition, the support of such services as multicast, security,

and real-time transport protocols are vital to the support of future applications.

Most of the significant advances in these other aspects of QoS have occurred in

Internet technology.
43

• A focus on developing a portable, potentially publicly available, teleconferencing

environment for the Information-Based Manufacturing Program collaboratory

greatly enhances the potential for collaboration outside of NIST.

• To facilitate development of collaboratories, computing and communication

functionality and tools cannot be vertical/stand-alone. Collaborative

manufacturing applications require the integration of audio/video transport,

shared workspaces, distributed objects, archival and playback functions, floor

control, and multicast data in many and varied ways. Evolving toward a

networking/application environment that supports the composition of common

components greatly facilitates rapid prototyping of collaborative applications.

The ITL Advanced Networking Technologies Division (ANTD) is involved in several

ongoing projects in Next Generation Internet (NGI) and Intelligent Collaboration and

Visualization (ICV) technologies. These projects focus on topics that include:

• protocols and architectures for provision of QoS controlled IP services

• end-to-end network security technology and security management protocols

• architectures for IP and ATM integration

• development of NGI testbeds and wide area network connectivity to advanced

research networks

• encoding, transmission, and synchronization of multi-media data streams

• test and measurement tools for advanced Internet and ATM protocols

• testing and evaluation of ICV collaboration tools / environments

• development of collaboration tools / environments

While the ANTD is working productively in these areas, it lacks significant

applications of its own for these technologies. The availability of a challenging target

networking and application environment provides a valuable testbed and goal for

several of these efforts. The collaboratory enabled by the NAMT represents such an

environment. By collaborating with the NAMT projects and goals, the ANTD is

gaining a valuable local testbed for its networking research.

Goals

There is a natural synergy between many of the research issues that the ANTD is

pursuing and the long-term goals of the projects of the Information-Based

Manufacturing Program. This project is leveraging this natural synergy between the

NAMT computing and communications effort and the ANTD efforts in NGI and ICV

technologies. This project is:

• establishing a distributed NGI and ICV testbed in conjunction with wide area NGI

testbed activities

• focusing on manufacturing applications in the evaluation of NGI and ICV

technologies
44

• prototyping and evaluating advanced Internet technology and ICV tools to

replicate collaboration capabilities enabled by the NAMT, but making them

available to a much wider community

The following outlines the technical approach.

• NGI Testbed – A distributed NGI testbed has been established. This testbed is

interconnected with other federal NGI research networks.

• NGI Test and Measurement Technologies – Application benchmark suites have

been developed in cooperation with NASA, focusing on manufacturing

applications in developing requirement characterizations and testing

methodologies. ANTD tools measure and analyze the QoS requirements of

NAMT applications, and distributed test tools are capable of executing

benchmark suites on technology under evaluation.

• Evaluation of NGI Networking Technologies - In cooperation with NASA and

several potential vendors of advanced Internet technologies, the project is

conducting testbed deployments and evaluations of advanced IP switching and

routing technologies and IP/ATM integration architectures. Evaluation focuses on

the performance/scaling requirements for manufacturing applications using NIST

developed test and measurement tools to support evaluations.

• Pilot Deployment and Evaluation of ICV Technologies – A prototype ICV software

infrastructure is being deployed based upon the University of California at

Berkeley’s Multimedia Architecture that Scales across Heterogeneous

environments (MASH) toolkit, replicating NAMT-enabled collaborative

applications using advanced IP and ICV technology. NAMT-enabled applications

in local and wide area research network environments are being tested and

evaluated in both workstation and Windows PC environments. Methodologies

and tools to instrument collaborations based upon the MASH Toolkit are being

developed and tested, and these tools are being used to characterize the

resource requirements and usage profiles of manufacturing collaborative

applications.

• Prototype Development / Deployment of Advanced Collaborations – The MASH

Toolkit is being used as the foundation to prototype / deploy more advanced

collaboration capabilities for NAMT-enabled applications.

Benefits

The Information Based Manufacturing Program has been working to direct its future

computing and communication infrastructure in a direction that is in line with the

broader NGI and collaboration research communities. This project has resulted in

prototype collaborative manufacturing applications that readily permit collaboration

with industry and academia over tomorrow’s commercial Internet. The ITL ANTD

has, as a result of this project, the availability of the Information-Based Manufacturing

Program collaboratory applications and networking environment as a means for

furthering research in this area.
45

PROJECT TITLE: Verification of IT Solutions for Small and Medium

Size Manufacturing Enterprises

LEAD NIST OU: Manufacturing Extension Partnership

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1998

Overview

Large US manufacturers are among the world leaders in the application of

information technologies. Studies and focus groups suggest that while small and

medium size manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) are investing large amounts of

capital in IT consulting services, they're also purchasing piecemeal applications that

are inappropriately scaled for their businesses. To compound the problem, SMEs are

not training their staffs appropriately to use the IT solutions in which they are

investing. Many IT hardware and software solutions sit idle, are used inappropriately,

or are not used to their maximum advantage.

Large firms have acquired IT implementation expertise through investments in

internal IT staffs in conjunction with obtaining development and integration services

of large national consulting firms and IT vendors. These avenues are typically not

affordable to SMEs, who turn to local consultants and Value Added Resellers (VARs)

for their IT solutions. These providers are generally less capable of providing the level

of expertise required to integrate and support an efficient IT solution for the SME.

Overall, SMEs are successfully implementing information technologies more slowly

than large firms. This is contributing to an increasing disadvantage in the SMEs

competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Finding a solution to this problem is critically important to the competitiveness of U.S.

SMEs for the following reasons:

1. Lower trade barriers and the explosion of internet technologies have accelerated

international competition, and supply chains of large OEMs are extending

international competition to U.S. SMEs occupying the lower and mid regions of

the supply chains.

2. Companies that can not effectively utilize information technology in a supply chain

environment will be less able to participate in major sectors of manufacturing.

3. Foreign trading partners provide their SMEs with extensive support to organize

and use information technology.

4. Manufacturing is extremely competitive. Companies that do not perform well in

the areas of price, quality, timeliness, service and innovation will fail. Effective

application of information technology in the SME environment can

• help lower the SME's costs

• help the SME improve the timeliness of product development and delivery to

the marketplace
46

• help the SME enhance product quality

• help the SME innovate its products and processes

Without the successful integration of new information technology, many U.S. small

and medium-sized manufacturers may be forced out of business as supply chain

integration and electronic commerce extend world wide through Internet-based

technologies. The vast majority of SMEs attempt to access new information

technologies through a bewildering, complex and unstable marketplace. Unlike large

manufacturers SMEs cannot afford to hire internal IT staff, national consultants, or

turn to large vendors for advice.

The growing information technology workforce shortage, being cited by many as

reaching national crisis proportions, is making it even more difficult for SMEs to

obtain IT skilled workers. It is risky for SMEs to hire vendors or VARs for fear of

having their product lines exclusively imposed, which may not be the right solution for

the SME's business. The inability of the SMEs to obtain an impartial recommendation

from a knowledgeable source in which they can trust results in high risks and many

times diminished benefits to their businesses.

Goals and Benefits

The situation just described creates the need for the NIST MEP to offer unbiased and

well tested IT services on which SMEs can rely. MEP centers can provide an

impartial assessment of product offerings best suited for a given SME's

manufacturing environment, and assist in delivering the appropriate integration and

support services. There is a wealth of knowledge and expertise pertaining to

manufacturing enterprises within the NIST labs that can be of great benefit to MEP in

defining state of the art information technology solutions for SMEs.

This project leverages the NAMT computing and communications infrastructure to

draw upon this expertise and support the piloting of information technology solutions

within operational scenarios with small manufacturers to verify the suitability and

effectiveness of those solutions within the SME environment.

This project provides the capability to demonstrate performance efficiencies that

SMEs can achieve through the application of new IT solutions. It provides the basis

for the NIST MEP to develop IT product and service guidelines for MEP centers. The

project is developing an ongoing testing capability to pilot prototype configurations of

maturing information technologies from the NIST laboratories within a collaboratory

environment to verify their maturity and readiness for deployment by the MEP

system. This testing also provides a pipeline for feeding industry requirements,

especially those from the SME sector, back to the NIST laboratories to help focus

research activities on industry needs.
47

PROJECT TITLE: Interface Standards and Internet Technologies for

Robotic Arc Welding

LEAD NIST OU: Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory,

Boulder, Colorado

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1998

Overview

This project is addressing issues facing the rapidly growing and developing robotic

welding industry. An industrial panel at an industry workshop held at NIST in 1995

strongly recommended that NIST help develop interface standards and data

exchange standards between the various components in a robotic welding cell. The

problems encountered in integrating many specialized components are limiting the

range of applications that can benefit from automated arc welding.

Most manufacturers tend to buy a welding cell from a particular integrator. The

integrator delivers a welding power supply, robotic arm, part actuator, a

programmable system controller, and, occasionally, a process sensor. The interfaces

between the programmable system controller and the other components of the

welding cell are usually proprietary, forcing the user of the welding cell to make future

purchases only from that integrator. Users usually choose the best technology that is

available at the time of the purchase of welding cells for a specific welding operation.

This often leads to a number of different kinds of power supplies and robot arms,

each with its own controller. This multiplicity leads to additional training and

maintenance costs. Further, lack of standard interfaces make it difficult for suppliers

of innovative sensors to have their products integrated into welding cells.

Many manufacturers that use robotic-arc welding cells have plants across the nation.

The welding engineers in one plant often face the same problems as the engineers in

another plant. Effective communication about the problems usually requires travel by

one or more of the engineers. Also, when a new part is to be welded, the welding

engineer picks the process variables usually through experiments in the welding

laboratory. Transferring the optimal process parameters to the production floor is not

always straightforward because of differences between the equipment on the floor

and in the lab (again the need for interface and data standards). If the development

engineer can remotely access the welding cell on the manufacturing floor while

developing the process in the laboratory, setup costs can be reduced and time to

tune the process would be shortened.

Most assembly lines in this country do not produce a quantitative measure of the

quality of the parts that are being manufactured on a part-by-part basis. This is true of

the robotic welding assembly lines. If quality data is collected, it is often a laborious

process that can consider only a small number of parts. If a welding cell is collecting

quality information via process sensors on every part, it only makes sense that this

be made available in the most convenient format possible. There is no appropriate

mechanism, however, to get this information to the engineers; therefore, valuable
48

data on the process quality (generated in real-time as the products are being

produced) is generally not being used.

Goals and Benefits

The goals of this project are:

• to develop and validate interface standards for robotic weld equipment

• to use Internet technologies to allow for collaboration in weld cell programming,

remote welding, and process monitoring

• to develop and demonstrate an intelligent welding cell that can be used as a

national test bed for sensor developers, arc welding power supply manufacturers,

and robotic arm makers

In addition to interface and data standards, some specific needs also being

addressed are:

• better communication between production control and the shop floor

• better programming tools (including simulation)

• better sensors for the welding process

• ease of transferring data and remote access to control processes

• the availability of welding quality data

• performance of real-time process controllers

The computing and communications infrastructure provided by NAMT, especially the

high-performance network, has been key to the success of this effort.
49

PROJECT TITLE: Internet-Based Calibration Services for Radiation

Processing Industries

LEAD NIST OU: Physics Laboratory

YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1998

Overview

NIST employs the alanine-electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) dosimetry

technique for calibrating industrial radiation sources. This technique is widely

recognized as the best of the available methods for relative high-dose measurements

and is currently used by not only NIST, but also all major international metrology

laboratories. This technique is based on relative EPR measurements of the

concentrations of stable free radicals induced by radiation in alanine. The

concentration is unambiguously related to the absorbed dose. Therefore, it is

possible to assess the absorbed dose of a test alanine pellet by comparing the

intensity of its EPR signal with the intensities of the same signals from identical

pellets irradiated to precisely known doses with a standard source.

Very high precision is achieved by EPR; the overall uncertainty of this dosimetry

method is less than 2% (2σ) [12]. In combination with the extremely wide range of

doses covered by this technique, independence of the results of dose rate, operation

simplicity, and a number of other favorable features, this high accuracy makes the

alanine-EPR method unparalleled in high-dose radiation measurements.

Goals and Benefits

The objective of this project has been the creation of a system to be used for NIST to

provide fast, remote calibration services of high-dose radiation sources against the

U.S. national standard gamma-radiation source using the Internet. The Internetbased system can deliver immediate calibration results to the industry customer ondemand at a lower cost than the current NIST service. The calibration results can be

rapidly incorporated into the product dose-map model to ensure the highest quality

manufacturing.

The typical procedure for calibrating a source for a customer comprises sending

unirradiated alanine pellets from NIST to the customer, who irradiates them with the

industrial radiation source to be calibrated. The irradiated pellets are returned to

NIST, the EPR signals are measured at NIST, compared with the signals from pellets

irradiated with the NIST standard calibration source, and the dose values are

calculated. Finally, a NIST Certificate of Calibration containing the NIST-interpolated

dose values is sent to the customer. This process takes several days and

considerable labor at NIST, which makes the cost of the calibration relatively high

and prevents customers from frequent use of this NIST service. In some cases, U.S.

regulatory agencies require only that the industrial process be tied to a national

standard, not the U.S. (NIST) standard. Consequently, many U.S. companies have
50

sought to reduce their cost by using foreign calibrations, since the turnaround times

are similar.

Automating this operation on the basis of modern technologies and commercially

available products is an integral part of this project. Relatively small EPR

spectrometers are available commercially that are designed specifically for dosimetry

purposes. These instruments can exhibit the necessary high accuracy of

measurements in combination with a significantly reduced cost. These spectrometers

can be used in parallel at a customer's laboratory and at NIST for concerted

measurements. High-quality alanine pellets are also available commercially. These

can be used for the calibrations in question and are available both for the interested

customers and NIST directly from the company that manufactures them. Finally,

there is the Internet, which provides an easy link between the EPR spectrometer and

computers at NIST and the identical computer-controlled EPR spectrometer at the

customer's laboratory. The entire redesign of the source calibration process by

combining these means is a focus of this project. This will make the process faster,

less laborious, much cheaper and, consequently, much more accessible for present

and potential customers.

The Internet-based transfer calibration process being developed in this project can

be described as follows. The industrial site is first be connected to the NIST

calibration facility via Internet and fiber optic link. The industrial facility accesses the

Internet program, requests a calibration, and begins by irradiating pre-supplied

dosimeters. The Internet calibration program controls their EPR spectrometer and

instructs the industry technician to perform the required measurements in a step-wise

manner. The raw data is transferred and evaluated by the program and a provisional

certificate of calibration is generated for the customer. The clear advantage is that

these calibration data can be used immediately in the industrial process. After

appropriate quality checks are made at NIST, an official certificate is issued (this step

is to fulfill the regulatory requirement of a signed calibration certificate, and does not

slow the application of the calibration data by the customer). The Internet calibration

program provides industry with on-demand calibrations, immediate turnaround times,

lower cost, and improves the quality of the manufacturing process.

The Internet-based calibration service is being established in a series of progressive

stages. The first stage has been the establishment of a testbed system within NIST.

This system is built in consultation with industrial partners to facilitate its immediate

implementation upon transferal. Radiation processing facilities operate non-stop and

do not have the luxury to test and develop dosimetry systems. A fully-functioning

testbed system can be used to demonstrate and train industry partners. The system

is being provided to companies representing each of the three major high-dose

radiation applications: food irradiation, medical device sterilization, and materials

processing.
51

REFERENCES

1. “National Advanced Manufacturing Testbed,” Stieren, D., Densock, R., and Luce,

M., NISTIR 6383, U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards

and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, August 1999.

2. National Collaboratories: Applying Information Technology for Scientific

Research, Committee on a National Collaboratory, National Research Council

Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications, National

Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1993.

3. SIMnet Design and Internet Deployment Guide,” Schneeman, R., NISTIR 6452,

U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology,

Gaithersburg, MD, December 1999.

4. Methods for Performance Evaluation of Computer Numerically Controlled

Machining Centers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Standard B5.54,

New York, New York, 1992, reaffirmed 1998.

5. Test Code for Machine Tools, ISO Standard 230-1, American National Standards

Institute, New York, New York, 1996.

6. “Enhanced Machine Controller Program Summary,” U.S. Department of

Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology, Manufacturing

Engineering Laboratory, http://www.mel.nist.gov/projs/isd/emc.html

7. “NIST Construction Metrology and Automation Program,” presentation given to

Program Managers of the National Science Foundation by Dr. William Stone,

U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology

Building and Fire Research Laboratory, Gaithersburg, MD, March 1999.

8. “Virtual Die Design for Information-Based Metal Forming,” presentation given to

the Director and Deputy Director of the National Institute of Standards and

Technology by Dr. Timothy Foecke, U.S. Department of Commerce National

Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, November 1997.

9. “Design, Manufacture, and Calibration of Brachytherapy Sources,” presentation

given to the Director and Deputy Director of the National Institute of Standards

and Technology, by Dr. Christopher Soares, U.S. Department of Commerce

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, November

1997.

10. “Building and Fire Research Laboratory Research Update,” U.S. Department of

Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD,

Volume 3 Number 3-4, Winter 1998, http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/bfrlnews/v3n3.html
52

11. “Tele-Calibration of Gas Flow Meters, Espina, P., 1999 NCSL Workshop and

Symposium Proceedings, National Conference of Standards Laboratories,

Boulder, CO, 1999.

12. “Remote Calibration Services for the Radiation Processing Industry,” presentation

given to the Director and Deputy Director of the National Institute of Standards

and Technology, by Dr. Marc Desrosiers, U.S. Department of Commerce

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, February

1999.