[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 99 (Tuesday, May 22, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23637-23638]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-10913]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


NIST Consortium for Metrology of Additive Construction by 
Extrusion (MACE)

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an

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agency of the United States Department of Commerce, is establishing the 
Metrology of Additive Construction by Extrusion (MACE) Consortium and 
invites organizations to participate in this Consortium. The Consortium 
will study the measurement science needs for the successful adoption of 
additive manufacturing by the construction industry. Participation in 
this Consortium is open to all eligible organizations, as described 
below. Participants will be required to sign a Cooperative Research and 
Development Agreement (CRADA).

DATES: NIST will accept responses for participation in this Consortium 
until May 15th, 2018. The Consortium's activities will commence on June 
1, 2018 (``Commencement Date''). Acceptance of participants into the 
Consortium after the Commencement Date will depend on eligibility, as 
determined by NIST based on information provided, and the availability 
of NIST resources.

ADDRESSES: Information submitted in response to this notice and request 
for additional information about the Consortium can be directed via 
mail to the NIST Consortium Manager, Dr. Scott Jones, Materials and 
Structural Systems Division of NIST's Engineering Laboratory, 100 
Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-8312, or via electronic mail 
to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information about 
opportunities to join the MACE Consortium, or about the terms and 
conditions of NIST's Cooperative Research and Development Agreement 
(CRADA), please contact Jeffrey DiVietro, CRADA Officer, National 
Institute of Standards and Technology's Technology Partnerships Office, 
by mail to 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 2200, Gaithersburg, Maryland 
20899, by electronic mail to [email protected], or by telephone 
at (301) 975-8779.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Additive construction by extrusion (ACE) has 
the potential to revolutionize construction by eliminating the need for 
formwork and enabling architectural or structural designs that cannot 
be achieved by standard practices. As ACE is in its early stages of 
development, this Consortium will study the measurement science needs 
for the successful adoption of ACE by the construction industry. The 
objective of this consortium will be to identify and then translate 
cementitious material measurements to in-line or in-process 
measurements for quality control and quality assurance of the ACE 
process. The MACE consortium will undertake the following tasks over a 
three-year renewable period:
    Task 1 will focus on correlating off-line measurements of fresh and 
hardening cement paste with measures of print quality. The objectives 
will be to determine material performance characteristics that are 
critical to the success of ACE.
    Task 2 will focus on developing in-situ and in-process measurements 
that can be used to provide feedback into the control of the ACE 
process. The objective will be to implement material property 
measurements in line to the ACE process.
    Task 3 will focus on scaling paste and mortar measurements to the 
concrete scale, including a proper consideration of field issues. This 
includes, but is not limited to, hardened property measurements; 
studies on curing practices and finishing procedures; and development 
of numerical simulations of material deposition. The objectives will be 
to measure hardened properties of 3-D printed structures and 
investigate how paste and mortar measurements can inform concrete-based 
ACE through the use of numerical simulations.
    No proprietary information will be shared as part of the 
Consortium.

Process

    Interested parties with relevant ACE capabilities (see below), 
products, and/or technical expertise to support this Consortium should 
contact NIST using the information provided in the ADDRESSES section of 
this notice.
    Eligibility will be determined by NIST using the information 
provided by an organization in response to this notice based on the 
information requested below, and upon the availability of necessary 
resources to NIST. An eligible member must be involved in current or 
future efforts to advance ACE, either through commercial technology 
development or academic research.
    An organization responding to this notice should provide the 
following information to NIST's Consortium Manager by email.
    1. Description of organization's interest in ACE and current 
activities prompting the development of ACE.
    2. Topics of interest from the statement of work. There is no limit 
on the number of areas of participation.
    3. List of interested party's anticipated participants.
    4. For non-profit institutions, anticipated in-kind donations and 
cost equivalency.
    A responding organization should not include any business 
proprietary information in its response to this request for 
information. NIST will not treat any information provided in response 
to this request as proprietary information.
    NIST will notify each organization of its eligibility. In order to 
participate in this Consortium, each eligible organization must sign a 
CRADA for this Consortium. All participants to this Consortium will be 
bound by the same terms and conditions. Participation fees will be at 
least $20,000 annually. For non-profit institutions, in-kind donations 
equivalent to the membership fee may be accepted, subject to the 
discretion of NIST and justification of cost equivalency. NIST does not 
guarantee participation in the Consortium to any organization.

    Authority: 15 U. S. C. 3710a.

Kevin A. Kimball,
Chief of Staff.
[FR Doc. 2018-10913 Filed 5-21-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-13-P