Suppliers in the future may share the information with customers to prove that they can make parts to a required degree of precision. Another potential use of a performance database is for virtual machine tooling. This technology, which has only reached an early stage of development, combines a computer-aided manufacturing file with test information about an individual machine. Esterling said he is waiting for additional data and more indications of interest from machine tool operators before he invests more time in the simulation program. Katter suggested that standardization might lead to automatic compensation by machine tools for their errors.
Machine tools contain error compensation tables, but in different formats.
Compensation for inaccuracy is now done manually. One executive said the consortium members hope that, once a standard has been devised, the vendors may adopt it painlessly, by writing it into the normal upgrades of their software. Another Movement on Tap Katter said there is another movement afoot, to standardize not only test data, but also machine tool spec sheets and add that information, too, to electronic databases. Suppliers' descriptions of machines now contain a variety of information, Katter said, but they are inconsistent. They don't all have the same information, and as in the test data files, it is not presented in the same manner.