STEP Tools, Inc. Opens STEP-NC Manufacturing Center at the U.S. Army's Watervliet Arsenal
Open House and Demonstration Planned for November 19, 2003 from 3PM to 6PM;
Press Conference Scheduled for 2:30PM
Troy, New York - October 27, 2003 -
STEP Tools, Inc. the
forerunner in developing STEP and STEP-NC integration software for
the global marketplace, announced today the opening of its new
STEP-NC Manufacturing Center at the U. S. Army's Watervliet
Arsenal, the oldest American manufacturing arsenal located in
Watervliet, NY, just north of the state capital at Albany. The
announcement follows a formal agreement reached between STEP
Tools, the Arsenal and the Arsenal Business & Technology
Partnership, a private not-for-profit development corporation
created to bring new employers and new technology research and
development efforts to the Arsenal site.
STEP Tools' offices will be located at the Metal Processing Manufacturing Division, Building 20, at the Watervliet Arsenal Campus. STEP Tools will host an Open House and Reception for special guests at their new STEP-NC Manufacturing Center on November 19, 2003 from 3PM to 6PM. A formal demonstration of the technology will be held from 3PM to 3:45PM. A Press Conference and Dedication of the new Manufacturing Center is scheduled for 2:30PM at the Watervliet Arsenal. All members of the press are cordially invited to this event. Please RSVP by Friday, November 14, 2003 via email: paula@steptools.com or by calling 518-687-2848.
"We are very pleased to announce the opening of our new STEP-NC Manufacturing Center at Watervliet Arsenal," said Blair Downie, Vice President of International Sales and Services. "STEP Tools is eager to demonstrate our STEP-NC product line, and show how this technology will propel manufacturing into a new level of automation, safety and usability. The manufacturing community has been anticipating a major breakthrough in manufacturing automation, and eagerly monitoring the progress of STEP-NC technology. Large and small industrial companies can come and see first hand how this progressive technology can empower their machining operations.
The STEP-NC Manufacturing Center at the Watervliet Arsenal will serve as the focal point for "hands on" exploration of STEP-NC in a real world manufacturing environment. The shop floor and demonstration area is comprised of CNC machine tools, CAD/CAM/CAE systems, and a high speed Internet connection. Manufacturing companies will be able to view the latest developments in STEP-NC, a design-to-manufacturing system enabling numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools to be driven by product design data.
Watervliet Arsenal's world class manufacturing facility is equipped with machining centers, mills, profilers, and lathes to machine most any part configuration, including high-volume production of both small parts and heavy manufacturing. With more than 1,200 machine tools (including 200 numerically controlled machine tools), Watervliet Arsenal can handle 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-axis turning, boring, drilling and milling jobs. The arsenal also provides state-of-the-art rapid prototyping of virtually any part configuration of any material.
In December 2003, STEP Tools will move their headquarters to a building purchased by the company at 14 1st Street in downtown Troy, NY. The building will house their Research & Development Center, and is located directly across the Hudson River from their Watervliet offices. STEP Tools is internationally renown for their expertise in ISO STEP product data standards. In 2003, STEP Tools introduced their first-to-the-market software products to support STEP-NC Implementation Programs and flagship users of this vital, emerging technology.
About STEP and STEP-NC Standards
STEP (STandard for Exchange of Product model data) is a comprehensive ISO standard for CAD design data. STEP-NC, the manufacturing extension of this standard, annotates the design information with manufacturing data. STEP became a full ISO standard in 1994, and since then, all of the leading CAD software vendors have implemented STEP data translation. It is estimated that more than one and a half million CAD stations now contain STEP data translators. STEP-NC is on its way to becoming a Draft International Standard in 2004.
About Watervliet Arsenal
The U.S. Army's Watervliet Arsenal is the nation's oldest and, in many ways, newest, manufacturing arsenal located in Watervliet, NY. Founded in 1813 to support the War of 1812, the arsenal soon became America's "Cannon Factory."
It is America's sole manufacturing facility for large caliber cannon in volume. A 10-year $350-million renovation program completed in 1992 has made Watervliet Arsenal one of the most sophisticated, automated heavy manufacturing and machining centers to be found anywhere. One of the most extensive metals processing facilities in the entire Northeast is located at Waterliet Arsenal. With federal legislation allowing the arsenal to participate in commercial contracts, this unique national resource can be shared with the non-government community. For more information, visit their website at http://www.wva.army.mil.
About Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership
The Arsenal Business and Technology Partnership is a not-for-profit development corporation created to bring new private employers and new technology research and development to the Arsenal site. For more information on the Partnership call (518) 266-6006 or visit http://www.arsenalpartnership.com.
About STEP Tools, Inc.
STEP Tools, Inc. is a leading international supplier of professional
STEP software toolsets (based on ISO standards) for application
software developers, design firms and manufacturing companies in
diverse industries. The STEP Tools product line is used by the world's
foremost firms to leverage STEP and STEP-NC technology to facilitate
the sharing of engineering product information. Over one million end
users utilize product data applications built with ST-Developer, the
company's flagship product. The company offers a suite of software
solutions in several languages that integrate with existing tools and
database systems, and also provide cross-platform compatibility and
ease-of-use for streamlined development. The emerging STEP-NC
technology is yielding process improvements including a 35% reduction
in path planning time, a 75% reduction in paper drawings generated for
the shop-floor, and a 50% improvement in machining time for small to
mid-sized job lots. For late-breaking information, contact STEP
Tools, Inc. by calling (518) 687-2848, email: info@steptools.com or visit www.steptools.com.
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