CAM-I Announces Dimensional Measuring Interface Standard Revision 4.0 Approved as the New American National Standard.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2001

An important new version of an inspection standard that allows inspection equipment to communicate directly with a broad range of manufacturing software systems has been adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

The Dimensional Measuring Interface Standard (DMIS) version 4.0, adopted by ANSIS Board of Standards Review on April 17, 2001, is expected to become the common language used between most CAD systems and hundreds of thousands of coordinate measuring machines in operation in factories throughout the world.

The DMIS standard was developed by the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing International, Inc. (CAM-I), an international, not-for-profit consortium of companies, consultancies and academics who have elected to work cooperatively in a pre-competitive environment to solve problems that are common to the group. "DMIS 4.0 will spark a revolution in manufacturing when inspection machines can constantly feed data back to the design software that was used to create products," says Woody Noxon, CAM-I President. "Product design teams will work seamlessly with manufacturing engineers using a common inspection language. Reportedly, this process can yield a time savings in offline programming as high as 90%."

DMIS is a bi-directional communication standard for inspection data between computer systems and inspection equipment. The approval of DMIS 4.0 comes after five years of work by the DMIS National Standards Committee (DNSC) to upgrade and improve the capabilities of the previous DMIS standard, version 3.0. DMIS 4.0 contains some 335 upgrades and system enhancements. These improvements include the addition of major and minor words, high-level language extensions such as macro declarations, program declaration, variable assignments, data types, and intrinsic functions; component-based sensor support; CAD interaction, and more explicit language.

DMIS users around the world have asked for its international standardization, and DMIS 4.0 has now been officially submitted to ISO for consideration as an international standard. The European DMIS Users Group has been instrumental in the improvement and development of DMIS version 4.0; therefore, the new standard already contains improvements addressing international requirements.

DMIS version 4.0 will be the first release of the standard in electronic format. The new standard will be available on CD and in hardcopy form. For information contact Bailey Squier, Director Technology and Standards, 3301 Airport Freeway, Suite 324, Bedford, Texas 76011. Phone: [phone] Ext. 114; Email: [e-mail].