Research center assisting domestic manufacturers.

• Author: Kennedy, William

In response to growing concerns about the state of U.S. manufacturing industries, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) created the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining.

The federally funded, non-profit research center, based in Latrobe, Pa., was formed to test and develop advanced machining and manufacturing processes.

Murtha secured $1.5 million in federal funding for the NCDMM in the Defense Department's fiscal year 2003 budget, with an additional $3.4 million approved for 2004. Key to the NCDMM concept is the participation of "alliance partners"--U.S.-based companies with advanced expertise in specific aspects of the manufacturing process. Companies team up to address specific manufacturing issues.

To date, about 20 companies have signed on as partners. "Depending on the application, we assemble a different set of alliance partners. We select the best ones for each program," said Mark Huston, director of the NCDMM. A list of all of the alliance partners is available at www.ncdmm.org.

The center increasingly is providing support in major military programs. A case in point is the machining of high-strength, lightweight materials such as titanium and composites, which are becoming more prevalent in military vehicles and equipment.

The NCDMM is assisting the Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, at the Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., with the machining of titanium components developed for a lightweight version of the 155 mm howitzer;

Tooling and process improvements reduced the time needed to machine one component from 400 to 120 hour's, which saved $14,000 per part. Army engineering technician Bill Bakula said working with the NCDMM "brings us up to date with all the new techniques, which we will definitely be able to apply to other projects."

Department of Defense contracts require that large manufacturers subcontract a portion of their work to smaller shops, and NCDMM helps those smaller shops to take on contracts they couldn't handle in the past.

"Many of the locations I've visited are not using state-of-the-market technology, let alone state of the art," said Huston. "It's not that they don't want to be using today's technology; often it's that they don't have time to address it, to learn what's out there and how to most effectively apply it.

The NCDMM has begun "rapid response programs" that take between six weeks and six months to accomplish. The basic goal is to provide at least a 30 percent improvement in...