ATP FOCUSED PROGRAM:

              Materials Processing for Heavy Manufacturing

                   FY 1995 NIST Funding: $15 million
           Estimated FY 1995-1999 NIST Funding: $145 million

Potential for U.S. Economic Benefit.

    Consider this business scenario. You have just developed a new
    surface treatment to make metal parts less vulnerable to wear,
    corrosion, and fatigue. However, the material processing is too
    difficult and, therefore, unattractive to end users, such as heavy
    off-road equipment manufacturers, at a price they are willing to
    pay. Yet, only market demand by those very same end users can
    justify your company to commit research and development resources to
    make the surface treatment simpler and affordable. Epilogue: the
    technology remains a laboratory curio despite its promise to greatly
    increase the durability, reliability, and ease of maintenance of
    vehicles, machinery, power-generation equipment, and other
    big-ticket items.

    Members of the heavy manufacturing "food chain" -- materials
    suppliers, materials processors, processing equipment manufacturers,
    component manufacturers, and original equipment manufacturers --
    estimate that up to $25 billion in additional market share would
    follow early in the next century if they could more systematically
    break through this kind of problem. These are the industries that
    compete for $1 trillion worth of global infrastructure work, which
    supports a $100 billion annual worldwide market in heavy off-road
    equipment that is expected to double early in the next century. They
    compete to supply equipment for large power plants, a $45 billion
    worldwide market each year, which is growing at a rate of 2 percent
    per year. The same set of industries competes for the annual $60
    billion domestic market in vehicular engines, power trains, and
    chassis of vehicles, which also is growing at a 2-percent annual
    rate.

Technology Challenge.

    The primary technical goal of the cost-shared, $145 million,
    five-year ATP focused program is to develop and demonstrate
    innovative materials-processing technologies that will help U.S.
    companies in the heavy manufacturing sector make longer lasting,
    more reliable, and more efficient products, features that will give
    their products a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Truck
    engines that need overhauls only after 1,600,000 km (1 million
    miles), drive trains that require only half as much maintenance and
    repair, and a 2-percent increase in power-generation efficiency are
    among the specific goals. One versatile tactic for achieving these
    and other ends is to develop surface treatments and coatings that
    make ceramic and metal components more resistant to wear, corrosion,
    fatigue, or temperature-mediated degradation.

    Another key technical goal is to significantly reduce manufacturing
    costs, a factor that will enable U.S. manufacturers to offer
    passenger cars, light trucks, and heavy equipment at prices that
    will make them especially attractive in the rapidly growing and
    highly competitive markets of developing countries. Some of the
    major strategies for lower manufacturing costs are the elimination
    of processing steps, preventing waste and pollution, and reducing
    manufacturing cycle time. One specific tactic to increase efficiency
    is to implement "intelligent processing" methods in which on-line
    monitoring and real-time process control enable manufacturers to
    tune their process continuously to maximize efficiency and quality
    rather than relying mostly on costly post-manufacturing inspection
    and bearing the high rejection rates that often follow. A way to
    reduce manufacturing time is through more intensive process modeling
    and rapid prototyping techniques, which also can make it possible to
    concurrently engineer several process steps rather than having to
    wait for the completion of earlier steps before focusing on later
    ones. Among tactics to prevent, control, and minimize waste and
    pollution is to convert steel waste into cement and concrete
    feedstock and to recover iron from the dust and slag of steel
    making.

Industry Commitment.

    An extensive series of workshops and working group meetings began in
    November 1993, involving many companies distributed among the heavy
    manufacturing industries. By the following summer, over 40 companies
    either individually or jointly submitted white papers to NIST
    outlining specific projects suited for an ATP focused program as
    well as expressing commitments to share the costs of seeing the
    projects through to successful completions with the ultimate goal of
    moving these technologies to the market. The companies include both
    large and small materials suppliers, component manufacturers, and
    original equipment manufacturers. Some of these companies already
    have formed R&D alliances for such projects as developing specialty
    materials for the power industry and processing waste dust in
    electric furnaces of the steel industry, and they would like to
    develop more alliances.

Significance of ATP Funds.

    The unique contribution that the ATP can make in materials
    processing for heavy manufacturing is to support projects whose
    success would simultaneously reduce manufacturing costs and yield
    products that are better in quality, efficiency, durability, and
    other factors that persuade or dissuade customers to buy. These
    projects typically fall under the high-risk category that companies
    cannot pursue amid more immediate challenges. While there is a
    significant government investment in materials technologies for
    specific applications -- aerospace, for example -- there is no
    concerted government program that addresses the technology
    challenges to be met by this focused program. In addition, this ATP
    focused program will forge new forms of vertical integration among
    companies, thereby creating versatile technology development and
    commercial infrastructures that will outlast the actual ATP program.

For information about eligibility, how to apply, and cost-sharing
requirements, contact the Advanced Technology Program:

        (800)-ATP-FUND [(800)-287-3863]
        email: atp@micf.nist.gov
        fax: (301) 926-9524

        A430 Administration Building
        National Institute of Standards and Technology
        Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001

For technical information, contact:

        John Gudas, Program Manager
        Ph: (301) 975-3214
        e-mail:  gudas@micf.nist.gov
        facsimile:  (301) 926-9524

December 1994