FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:             Mark Bello, NIST
March 2, 1994                      (301) 975-3776

                                   Patricia Greeson
                                   Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant
                                   (615) 576-4220

                                   TN-5969

                  NIST AND DOE OFFER U.S.-BASED PRECISION
                      MEASUREMENT SERVICE TO INDUSTRY


     Once available only from foreign laboratories, a precision
measurement service for manufacturers of automobiles, aircraft,
farm equipment, and other large products is now being offered in
the United States, thanks to a growing collaboration between the
National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department
of Energy's Centers for Manufacturing Technologies at the Oak
Ridge Y-12 Plant.

     Starting immediately, Y-12 staff in Oak Ridge, Tenn., will
calibrate end standards and step gauges up to 1.35 meters long to
a certified accuracy of 0.7 micrometer per meter--equivalent to
about one-hundredth of the diameter of a human hair.  Though
varying in appearance and composition, step gauges are akin to
long rulers with precisely determined total and incremental
lengths.  For end standards, only the total length is calibrated.

     Manufacturers use these standards as in-house references to
verify the accuracy of their own measurement machines, such as
those used to inspect the dimensions of finished parts and
assemblies of parts.  As a quality-assurance check, manufacturers
periodically have their reference standards calibrated to ensure
measurement accuracy and reliability.

     Dennis Swyt, chief of NIST's Precision Engineering Division,
says the new domestic service will provide calibrations "at a
level of accuracy, cost and delivery equal or superior to that of
the best foreign suppliers."

     For example, Germany's standards laboratory--the
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, or PTB--charges U.S.
customers about $3,500 (plus overseas shipping charges) to
calibrate a 1-meter step gauge to an accuracy of 1 micrometer.
Turnaround time is about 90 days, according to Swyt.

     For a fee of about $3,000 (plus domestic shipping), Swyt
says, the NIST Y-12 service offers a 30-percent improvement in
accuracy and a turnaround time of 30 to 45 days.

     The service combines NIST's measurement expertise and Y-12's
advanced technological capabilities, including a high-precision,
large-volume Moore M60 coordinate measuring machine.  The mammoth
machine is housed in a room in which the temperature can be
controlled to within 0.01 degree Celsius.

     The accuracy of measurements performed at Y-12 are certified
by NIST, the nation's primary measurement and standards
laboratory.  The measurements are directly linked--or traceable--
to national standards. To establish this traceability, NIST
measurement experts helped Y-12 staff characterize the facility's
CMMs, establish a formal quality system, and implement the
statistical process controls that NIST laboratories use to assure
measurement accuracy.  As a result of these and other steps,
measurements performed at Y-12 will be NIST certified.

     Initially, the new service will be available for
one-dimensional end standards and step gauges up to
1,350 millimeters, as compared with NIST's previous maximum of
750 millimeters.  Plans call for extending the upper limit to
1,600 millimeters.  As the Y-12 centers' capabilities are
characterized more fully, services may be expanded to two- and
three-dimensional measurements for calibrating large grid and
ball plates.

     In partnership with the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, NIST and Y-12 also are proceeding with plans to
develop a National Gear Metrology Center, which will provide
advanced measurement services critical to the manufacture and
quality assurance of precision gears.  Housed at the Y-12 Plant,
the center recently received a $3 million grant from the Defense
Department's Technology Reinvestment Project.

     The center and the new measurement service respond directly
to U.S. companies' requests for enhanced precision-measurement
services to support their manufacturing-improvement and
technology-development efforts.  For example, a vice president at
a major U.S. manufacturing company told NIST that his firm
"cannot afford the cost and time of continuing to send reference
artifacts to Europe for certification."  He termed the lack of a
domestic service for calibrating long step gages as
"unacceptable."

     In December 1992, NIST and the DOE Oak Ridge Centers for
Manufacturing Technologies signed an interagency agreement
pledging the two organizations to "pursue all avenues of
collaboration" that can help to improve the nation's
"technological standing."

     A non-regulatory agency in the Commerce Department's
Technology Administration, NIST promotes economic growth by
working with industry to develop and apply technology,
measurements and standards.

     The Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant is one of three facilities managed
by Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc. for the U.S. Department of
Energy.  Major technology transfer activities for the Y-12 Plant
and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are carried out through the
Centers for Manufacturing Technologies.

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