Troy, New York - April 21, 2003 - STEP Tools, Inc. announced today it will participate in the 2003 National Tooling and Manufacturing Association (NTMA) Technical Conference. Dr. Martin Hardwick, president and CEO of STEP Tools, will present a paper "Reducing CNC Programming Costs using STEP-NC." The presentation will be held during the first session on Monday, June 2, 2003 from 10:15 - 11:15 am, at Mandalay Bay Conference Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. This Technology Conference is NTMA's newest event and is designed to give precision manufacturers an understanding of cutting edge technologies, and how to leverage this knowledge to gain a competitive edge in a global economy. For more information on the event, visit: www.ntma.org.
STEP (STandard for Exchange of Product model data) is a comprehensive ISO standard for CAD design data that includes geometry, topology, tolerances, relationships, attributes, assemblies, configuration, and more. STEP-NC is an extension of STEP that annotates product design data with manufacturing information such as tooling, stock, manufacturing features, and process sequence. The result is full fidelity 3D design data ready for downstream production.
Dr. Hardwick will accentuate the advantages of STEP-NC based automatic machining, smart computing, inspection, and simulation in manufacturing. Hardwick will discuss how the technology will reduce CNC programming and machining times, eliminate drawings on the shop floor, and decrease set-up time and data preparation. He will also explain how STEP-NC and CNC-independent control data with tolerances will move manufacturing into a new era of productivity, safety, reliability, and CNC machine tool usability and interoperability.
The paper will also include STEP-NC's role in product data integration, based on a full fidelity STEP-NC model used as direct input to a CNC machine tool. The comprehensive STEP-NC model can provide the comprehensive data needed for the long term archival needs of many industries. STEP Tools spearheads the development of STEP-NC effort in North America, and is a highly visible participant in the global STEP community of over 200 independent product data specialists. Dr. Hardwick is the international team leader of the STEP Manufacturing group.