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NIST and Manufacturing |
The scientists and engineers working in the Manufacturing Engineering
Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology envision
a future in which manufacturers design, make, and monitor products
with intelligent processes utilizing advanced information technologies,
sometimes from atomic scratch. As for the atomic side of the manufacturing continuum, NIST researchers in MEL have been developing M-cubed, or the Molecular Measuring Machine. It will have the capability of locating and measuring atomic-scale features on surfaces the size of your palm. Such measurements will be necessary for electronics technologies of the 21st century. On the massive side of the continuum, NIST engineers pioneered development of laser technology that now is being used increasingly to measure automobile bodies, jumbo-jet wings, and even ship hulls. And MEL is everywhere in between these extremes on projects ranging from the machining of pistons with unprecedented uniformity by researchers in the Automated Production Technology group, to intelligent processing methods whereby sensors and computers monitor processes in real-time and then make on-the-fly adjustments that reduce rejection rates and improve product quality, to the Manufacturing Systems Integration group's work on the information technologies that will allow widely distributed participants to bring an idea all of the way from conception to an end-product on the shelf. MEL also is host to the National Advanced Manufacturing Testbed, whose goals are to provide the infrastructure to enable companies to rapidly design and manufacture products and to speed U.S. industry's evolution toward distributed and virtual manufacturing. A significant proportion of NIST's Advanced Technology Program is working with manufacturers to bring their advanced, high-risk research ideas with enormous potential payoffs from the mere idea phase to a point where the manufacturers can confidently determine whether to make the complete investment necessary to render the idea into real factory practice. In addition to a number of individual ATP projects, the ATP sponsored the following focused programs that center on manufacturing technology:
That still is not all. Through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program, NIST has stretched out a hand of assistance and advice to the nation's 381,000 medium and small sized manufacturers via a network of centers across the country. The centers serve as gateways to state-of-the-art technologies and practices for getting today's manufacturers up to speed for the ever quickening competition of the marketplace. Besides the ATP and MEP, NIST also runs the Baldrige National Quality Program, which rapidly has become a nationally recognized program in industry, including the manufacturing sector, that stimulates the adoption and development of innovative and best practices. The Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory also is there in a thousand different ways partly stemming from its multifarious roles in the development of ever more sensitive, precise and accurate analytical procedures for detecting and monitoring all manners of atoms, molecules and larger assemblies of matter. It is there in another thousand different ways stemming from its many roles in measuring chemical and physical properties important to manufacturers. Indeed, each of the following five CSTL Division is intimately involved with U.S. manufacturing companies. Biotechnology |