There is a nice article in Mold Making Technology called, "Kennametal Takes Leadership Role Supporting MTConnect® and ISO 13399".
Tom Muller at Kennametal and Kennametal are huge supporters of MTConnect and this article does a nice job of talking about the importance of working with other standards to continue to enhance MTConnect.
ISO 13399 is very important standard that we have adopted at MTConnect. Below is some high level info on ISO 13399.
As wikipedia states: "The official title of ISO 13399 is Cutting tool data representation and exchange.
ISO 13399 is an International Standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of industrial product data. The objective is to provide a mechanism that is capable of describing product data regarding cutting tools, independent from any particular system. The nature of this description makes it suitable not only for neutral file exchange, but also as a basis for implementing and sharing product databases and archiving, regarding cutting tools.
Typically ISO 13399 can be used to exchange data between CAD, CAM, CAE, PDM/EDM and other CAx systems.
The usage of the ISO 13399 standard will simplify the exchange of data for cutting tools. Expected results are lower cost for managing the information about tools and a more accurate and efficient usage of manufacturing resources. The ISO 13399 has been developed with contributions from AB Sandvik Coromant, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Kennametal Inc, and Ferroday Ltd."
Below is from the Mold Making Technology article:
"Cutting tools can be an extremely valuable data source for shops to monitor, collect, and study, says Tom Muller, senior manager, Innovation Ventures Group, at Kennametal Inc. He chairs the MTConnect Institute’s working group on cutting tools and reported to the conference on ISO 13399 – Cutting Tool Data Representation and Exchange. Noting that MTConnect is a protocol and that ISO 13399 is an international standard, Muller demonstrated that MTConnect does not have to go into the standards development business."
The article goes on to state, "Since ISO 13399 already defines and standardizes such cutting tool attributes as cutting diameter, edge angle, body diameter, overall length, functional length, and functional width, among many others, MTConnect can simply adopt the ISO 13399 definitions and achieve a consistent language for exchanging data between machine tools, tool data management systems, presetters, and even CAD/CAM systems. Shops can literally monitor a customer’s project from art to part, efficiently gathering data from every step."
