TECHNOLOGY OF THE YEAR AWARD

[Martin Hardwick]

Dear Friends of STEP

I am very pleased to announce that STEP Tools has won a
prestigious INDUSTRY WEEK (circulation 200,000) Technology
of the Year Award for 2003. This extremely important award
will kick-start our efforts in 2004 as we release the DIS
of the standard and teams begin to use it to take advantage
of the reduced programming complexity and increased
productivity provided by STEP-NC.

http://www.industryweek.com/CurrentArticles/Asp/articles.asp?ArticleId=1524

Of course we are not yet finished. To quote someone- this is not
the end, or even the beginning of the end, just the end of the
beginning. Today our processes are working well for ordinary 3D
parts (as anyone who comes to our new manufacturing facility at
Watervliet Arsenal can testify). We need to get them working for
more complex parts, we need to get more organizations using STEP-NC
and we need to get it embedded directly onto the CNC controls.
All this is possible. It is only a question of making what we have
started better and better, piece by piece, part by part.

Therefore, today is a day for celebration and I would like to thank
everyone who has helped make it possible. Including the NIST ATP
program who funded our initial R&D, the members of our Industrial
Review Board whose advice was critical for setting the right 
direction. Our worldwide STEP partners in Europe, the Far East
and the USA for working with us on the standard. Our Software
development partners- Honeywell FM&T, CNC Software, Gibbs and
Associates and DP Technology. Our local partners- Watervliet
Aresenal, Benet Laboratories and RPI for providing an environment
that let us do the work. And last but not least, the incredible
employees of STEP Tools for all the work they have done to resolve
the issues and make it all possible.


Martin Hardwick
President STEP Tools, Inc.
Team Leader ISO TC184/Sc4 Wg3/T24 STEP-Manufacturing
Professor of Computer Science, RPI

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