DP Technology offers full support of STEP-NC. (Presstime Notes).

DP Technology, Camarillo, CA, developer of the ESPRIT CAM software system, announces its full support for the deployment of the STEP-NC standard. DP now offers complete backing for the Model Driven Intelligent Control of Manufacturing project (MDICM) of NIST's Advanced Technology Program to develop and deploy a digital input standard for CNC machines. Chuck Mathews, VP-marketing, and Mark Palma, product manager, have joined the ATP Industrial Review Board, which comprises leading U.S. and Canadian metalworking companies.

STEP-NC is an extension of the Standard for Product Data Exchange that annotates the ISO standard for CAD design data with manufacturing information for CNC systems. Utilizing STEP-NC, an integrated CAD/CAM system can create instructions about stock, part features and tool requirements and feed these instructions to a CNC machine with an on-line CAM system at the machine tool control.

The goal of the STEP-NC is encompassed by the Super Model project, an initiative to create one, super, and publicly available data specification for manufacturing processes. The Super Model project estimates that STEP-NC will reduce tome in defining parts programs by 35 percent, reduce the number of drawings that have to be sent from design to manufacturing by 75 percent and reduce time to manufacture parts for small to mid-sized job lots by 50 percent.