[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 99 (Tuesday, May 21, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25480-25481]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-12746]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Announcement of an Opportunity To Join a Cooperative Research and 
Development Consortium for the Manufacturing Engineering Tool Kits 
Project

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

[[Page 25481]]

invites interested parties to attend a meeting on June 10-11, 1996 to 
discuss setting up a cooperative research consortium. The goal of the 
consortium is to develop an integrated tool kit for the manufacturing 
industry. Parties interested in participating in the consortium should 
be prepared to invest adequate resources in the collaboration and be 
firmly committed to the goal of developing an integrated tool kit.
    The program will be within the scope and confines of The Federal 
Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-502, 15 U.S.C. 3710a), 
which provides federal laboratories, including NIST, with the authority 
to enter into cooperative research agreements with qualified parties. 
Under this law, NIST may contribute personnel, equipment and 
facilities--but no funds--to the cooperative research program.
    Members will be expected to make an in-kind contribution to the 
consortium's efforts in the form of test parts, product data, process 
data, manufacturing expertise, and personnel. The program is expected 
to last 18 months. This is not a grant program.

DATES: Interested parties should contact NIST to confirm their interest 
and learn the exact times and location at the address, telephone number 
or FAX number shown below no later than July 7, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Metrology Building, Room A127, National Institute of 
Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Swee K. Leong, Telephone: 301-975-
5426; FAX: 301-258-9749.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Participating companies will contribute 
product data, process data and a sample test part containing typical 
machining features that will be of similar size and complexity as those 
found on the company's product. National Institute of Standards and 
Technology (NIST) will use this information to develop test cases. NIST 
will use the data to integrate and demonstrate software and hardware 
systems within the Manufacturing Engineering Took Kit project. The 
project will produce a virtual manufacturing system to demonstrate how 
leading edge technology could be applied to automate the creation of NC 
programs for machining operations, to conduct virtual NC tape try out, 
and to validate a manufacturing data package. The collaborative effort 
would allow participating companies to evaluate these leading edge 
technologies and systems more thoroughly at NIST.

    Dated: May 14, 1996.
Samuel Kramer,
Associate Director.
[FR Doc. 96-12746 Filed 5-20-96; 8:45 am]
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