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Baldrige
Awards
Four
U.S. Firms Recognized for Quality and Business Excellence
Two
manufacturers, one service company and one small business have
been named the recipients of the 2000 Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award. The companies (and Baldrige category) are: Dana
Corporation-Spicer Driveshaft Division, Toledo, Ohio (manufacturing);
KARLEE Company Inc., Garland, Texas (manufacturing); Operations
Management International Inc., Greenwood Village, Colo. (service);
and Los Alamos National Bank, Los Alamos, N.M. (small business).
No awards were given in the education and health care categories.
This
is the first time that a water treatment company and a bank have
been honored. The two manufacturing recipients, Spicer Driveshaft
and KARLEE, make driveshafts and precision sheet metal/machined
components, respectively.
The
award was established by Congress in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness
of U.S. businesses by promoting quality awareness, recognizing
quality and performance achievements of U.S. organizations, and
publicizing successful performance strategies. The award is not
given for specific products or services. Since 1988, 41 companies
have received the Baldrige Award.
Baldrige
Awards may be given in manufacturing, service, small business,
education and health care. The companies are expected to receive
their Baldrige Awards at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., later
this year.
Go
to the NIST web site at www.nist.gov and click on “News,” or call
(301) 975-2762, for details on the 2000 Baldrige Award and the
recipient companies. Further information on the Baldrige National
Quality Program is available at www.quality.nist.gov
or by calling (301) 975-2036.
Media
Contact:
Jan
Kosko, (301) 975-2767
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Information Technology
Here’s
Looking at Digital Cinema, Kid
While
it may not be coming to a theater near you just yet, digital cinema
is the wave of the future. Digital cinema (also known as D-Cinema),
which can produce stunning visual results, involves making movies
by using electronic technologies instead of film. Several movies,
such as Toy Story 2 and Fantasia 2000, already have
been released in selected theaters in D-Cinema format.
As
engineers continue to refine the technologies, digital manipulation
of content is expected to play an increasing role in motion picture
production and the projection of movies in theaters. NIST and
the National Information Standards Organization are sponsoring
a conference on Jan. 11-12, 2001, on digital cinema that will:
- articulate
a vision for D-Cinema;
- identify
technological and business barriers to achieving that vision;
and
- develop
strategies for breaching the barriers, including voluntary industry
standards, technology development and research.
Among
the business issues to be covered at the conference is how copyright
laws can be applied to movies that are stored and distributed
electronically. Technical discussions will explore topics such
as how D-Cinema affects the quality of a projected image. Highlighting
the event—which will be held at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg,
Md.—will be actual D-Cinema presentations.
Speakers
will include representatives of leading entertainment companies
such as Disney, IMAX, Dolby and Panasonic. Target audiences include
those involved in post-production and production; mapping and
motion imagery; theater management; and software, storage, and
display technologies.
Information
about the Digital Cinema 2001 Conference and Show, “A New Vision
for Movies,” is available on the World Wide Web at http://digitalcinema.nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Thermophysics
TRC:
Déjà vu All Over Again
In
1942, NIST established a Thermodynamics Research Center to provide
thermophysical data as background for the development of new refinery
technologies. In 1955, the center moved to the Carnegie Institute
of Technology in Pittsburgh and then, in 1961, migrated to Texas
A&M University in College Station, Texas. Now, 58 years after
its founding, the center has come “home” to NIST, specifically
to the Physical and Chemical Properties Division in Boulder, Colo.
The
center, which still provides data for the oil industry, now offers
much more. Its hard-copy outputs include two series of tables
on hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbons, six categories of spectral
data and a series of reference books. It also provides more than
a dozen commercial databases of thermophysical properties, including
a Source Database and a Table Database. TRC produces customized
data evaluation reports covering certain compounds and properties,
along with providing industrial consortia with unlimited access
to all TRC products (including those on the Internet).
Looking
to the future, TRC hopes to establish a very fast method of compiling
data. Presently, critical data evaluation can take two to three
years to complete, by which time the data can be out-dated. Dynamic
compilation of data is based on a very efficient data entry operation
and allows the user to produce critical data compilation “to order.”
TRC also hopes to establish an exchange with 20 world data centers,
electronically expediting the delivery of data from producers
to users.
For
more information, contact TRC Director Michael
Frenkel, NIST, MC 838, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 497-3952.
Media
Contact:
Fred
McGehan, (Boulder) (303) 497-3246
Public
Safety
Government
Team Addresses Nation’s Aging Wire Systems
Modern
life is virtually unimaginable without electricity and the wire
systems that carry and distribute it. Electric wiring is critical
to the operation of virtually all homes, workplaces and modes
of transportation. Poor design, use of defective materials, improper
installation or other problems with wiring can lead to catastrophe.
Risks increase as wire systems age due to the cumulative effects
of environmental stresses (such as heat, cold, moisture or vibration),
inadvertent damage during maintenance and the “wear and tear”
of constant use.
For
the past three months, wire safety experts from 17 different federal
agencies, including NIST, analyzed government science and technology
initiatives concerned with the issue of aging wiring. Known as
the Wire Safety Interagency Working Group, the team is a subgroup
of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee
on Technology. On Nov. 15, 2000, the working group submitted a
report to President Clinton that assesses wire safety issues in
the nation, describes the current practices of federal agencies
in managing the aging of wiring, outlines specific science and
technology initiatives aimed at aging wiring, and recommends strategies
for improving wire system safety.
The report’s recommendations include a national change in
the perception of wiring (an end to treating wiring as a “fit
and forget” commodity); increased data collection and sharing
between industry, academia and the government; the creation of
standardized tools that detect conditions leading to system failures;
the development of rapid, reliable repair processes and methods
of automated replacement of wire systems; increased training in
the installation, inspection and maintenance of wire systems;
and the development of advanced wire technologies and materials
(such as wireless, microelectronic, multiplexing and fiber-optic
systems).
The report, Review of Federal Programs for Wire System Safety,
is available at http://ostp.gov/NSTC/html/nstc_pubs.html.
Media
Contact:
John
Blair, (301) 975-4261
World
Trade
New
‘Recognition Arrangement’ Could Lower Export Barriers
World
trade could begin shedding some red tape on Jan. 31, 2001—the
starting date for a recently signed “mutual recognition arrangement”
among accreditation bodies in 28 economies.
Under
the arrangement, NIST’s National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation
Program and 36 counterpart organizations in North America, Europe,
Asia, Africa and South America agree to use the same international
standards and guides when accrediting testing and calibration
laboratories. If a laboratory is judged to be competent by any
one of the signatories, then test results issued by the accredited
laboratory will be accepted by all. This mutual recognition is
intended to reduce the amount of duplicative testing that many
businesses now encounter when selling products and services in
various foreign markets.
The
arrangement comes under the umbrella of the International Laboratory
Accreditation Cooperation. Headquartered in Australia, the 23-year-old
organization is devoted to harmonizing laboratory accreditation
procedures and to boosting industry, consumer and government confidence
in laboratory testing and calibrations. Belinda Collins, head
of NIST’s Office of Standards Services, is ILAC’s immediate past
chairwoman.
More
than 750 laboratories are accredited by NVLAP in 18 major fields,
including computer security, electronics testing, ionizing radiation
dosimetry, and time and frequency measurements. Goods or services
tested by any one of these laboratories should be accepted more
readily by authorities in economies represented by the signers
of the ILAC arrangement.
Besides
NVLAP, two other U.S.-based accreditation bodies—the American
Association for Laboratory Accreditation and the ICBO Evaluation
Service—signed the arrangement.
For
more information on NVLAP and the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement,
contact Jeffrey
Horlick, (301) 975-4016, or visit the NVLAP web site at http://ts.nist.gov/nvlap.
A downloadable copy of the ILAC MRA is available on the ILAC web
site at www.ilac.org/downloads/ilacmra.pdf.
Media
Contact:
Mark
Bello,
(301) 975-3776
Law
Enforcement
Fourth
Revision of Body Armor Standard Issued
Ballistic-resistant
armor (more commonly, but incorrectly called bulletproof vests)
has saved the lives of more than 2,500 law enforcement officers
since 1975. That year, the first bullet-resistant soft body armor
meeting new national standards—developed three years earlier for
the National Institute of Justice by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology’s Office of Law Enforcement Standards—was
issued to 5,000 officers in 15 major cities.
OLES
recently marked a significant milestone in this story when it
completed the fourth revision of the performance standard for
the ballistic resistance of personal body armor. The revised standard
updates the test methods for measuring ballistic resistance and
improves test consistency. A formal compliance test program, sponsored
by NIJ, is under way so that body armor can be certified to the
revised standard.
The
NIJ has published the revision as NIJ Standard-0101.04.
For
technical information, contact Kirk
Rice, (301) 975-8071. For a copy of NIJ Standard-0101.04,
go to www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/183651.htm
on the World Wide Web.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
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