Don Bell (WR-ALC), Sam Easley (Boeing), Ben Thompson (FRC-East), Rick Jarman (NCMS),
Rich Curless (MAG Industries), Lisa Phelps (Boeing)
Members of Volumetric Accuracy for Large Machine Tools (VALMT) project team collect the Defense Manufacturing Excellence Award at the 2009 Defense Manufacturing Conference. It is the seventh such award for NCMS. The Defense Manufacturing Excellence Awards are presented by the National Center for Advanced Technologies (NCAT) for outstanding cooperative efforts on technology development between government, industry and academia.
The VALM project team pioneered an innovative process in establishing a new methodology in volumetric error compensation for large machine tools. The costs for current assembly practices of measuring and fitting are substantial; reducing the amount of reworking of machined parts during onsite vehicle assembly will save the Department of Defense (DOD) and the commercial aircraft industry millions of dollars.
