BIS Issues Critical Technology Assessment of Five Axis Simultaneous Control Machine Tools

The Bureau of Industry and Security has posted its critical technology assessment of five axis simultaneous control machine tools.

BIS' assessment focuses on machine tools for milling and for grinding having five or more axes that can be coordinated simultaneously for "contouring control" (i.e., mills, grinders, mill/turns, and machining centers). It also examines the health and competitiveness of U.S. machine tool manufacturers and distributors, and identifies issues relevant to domestic and foreign machine tool procurements by the Department of Defense and its contractors necessary to produce and support critical defense systems.

Machine tools subject to this assessment are controlled for national security, non-proliferation, and anti-terrorism reasons under Export Control Classification Numbers 2B001.b.2 and 2B001.c.2 of Supplement No.1 to 15 CFR Part 774. BIS' technology assessment does not analyze machine tools that only perform turning operations (i.e., lathes) that are subject to control under ECCN 2B001.a.

BIS Finds Foreign Availability of Certain Machine Tools, U.S. Losing Market Share

Highlights of BIS' conclusions from its assessment include (partial list):

Foreign availability of certain five axis simultaneous control mills, mill/turns, and machining centers controlled by ECCN 2B001.b.2 (but not grinders controlled by ECCN 2B001.c.2) exists to China and Taiwan, which both have an indigenous capability to produce five axis simultaneous control machine tools with linear positioning accuracies comparable to the U.S.

U.S. export license processing times, especially to China, are longer than those of other Wassenaar Arrangement members, placing U.S. exporters at a competitive disadvantage

Compared with other exporting countries of this technology, the U.S. is losing market share to its European and Asian competitors, particularly South Korea

A potential vulnerability exists with regard to sensitive data (e.g., designs) stored in the computerized numerical controllers (CNCs) of machine tools connected to the Internet

BIS Recommends EAR Modification to Facilitate Export of Machine Tools

Highlights of BIS' recommendations include (partial list):

The EAR should be amended to facilitate the export of five axis simultaneous control mills, mill/turns, and machining centers of certain precision accuracies controlled by ECCN 2B001.b.2 with foreign availability to controlled countries under license exception or similar-type authorization, and work with international partners (via the Wassenaar Arrangement and Nuclear Suppliers Group) to modify the existing multilateral export control of five axis simultaneous control machine tools by adding a linear positioning accuracy control parameter, while working towards a better capability measure of this technology (e.g., volumetric accuracy)

Producers and distributors should be encouraged to identify or develop anti-tampering and anti-diversion features for their machine tools that can be utilized to mitigate concerns of machine tool misuse or diversion after export to facilitate interagency review of license applications to sensitive destinations

Communication between U.S. companies and U.S. export licensing officials should be improved to decrease processing times of license applications for exports destined to China

Awareness should be heightened among U.S. government end-users and contractors, especially those that machine parts for defense-related components, of the risk of unauthorized access to and exfiltration of CNC data

BIS' assessment (dated July 2009) available at http://www.bis.doc.gov/defenseindustrialbaseprograms/osies/defmarketresearchrpts/final_machine_tool_report.pdf.