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Manufacturing Assistance

Two Organizations to Provide MEP Services in Alaska, Nevada

Alaska Manufacturers Association and Nevada Manufacturing Assistance Partnership have been selected by NIST to provide manufacturing and business expertise and services to small manufacturers in Alaska and Nevada as affiliates of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership. NIST will provide $800,000 to AKMA and $750,000 to Nevada MAP in funding. Through state and local funding, fees for services and industry contributions, AKMA will put in funding of $1.6 million while Nevada MAP will add $1.5 million.

AKMA and Nevada MAP were selected through a competitive process based on their knowledge and identification of target firms in Alaska and Nevada, technology resources, technology delivery mechanisms, and management and financial plans. The review included site visits to verify application data and clarify questions that may have arisen during evaluation.

Last February, the Industry Network Corp. relinquished management of MEP centers in these two states as well as in Arizona, Hawaii and New Mexico. In the interim, the Maine MEP has been acting as a caretaker and managing services to smaller manufacturers in these states. NIST currently is evaluating proposals for organizations to manage MEP services in Arizona, Hawaii and New Mexico.

For further information, contact David Arnsdorf at AKMA, (907) 565-5655, and David Wulit at Nevada MAP, (775) 784-1935.

MEP is a nationwide network of 400 manufacturing extension centers and field offices providing a wide variety of expertise and services to small manufacturers (under 500 employees) in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. More information can be found at www.mep.nist.gov or manufacturers can reach the center serving their area by calling (800) MEP-4MFG (637-4634).

Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767

 

Manufacturing Assistance

Mountain Products Is Climbing High with NIST MEP Help

As a small screen printing company, Mountain Products L.P. produces a wide variety of graphics primarily for corporate identification, including architectural decals and signs, labels and overlays.

Based in Houston, Mountain Products wanted to purchase additional machinery to do more work in-house and reduce outsourcing. But, Susan Westrope, general manager of the company, and others were concerned about disrupting existing workflow and finding a way to fit the new equipment into the already crowded facility. The company contacted the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, an affiliate of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership nationwide network, for help in assessing their plant layout and recommending more efficient ways to work.

TMAC specialists not only solved the problem of where to put the new machinery but also recommended ways for much smoother workflow.

“One of the biggest benefits to come out of the process is what the employees learned,” said Westrope. “We now think very thoroughly about each workflow project,” she said.

Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767

 

Materials Science

Designer Polymers to Aid Recycling

Thanks to NIST materials researchers, U.S. chemical manufacturers are gaining a better understanding of how to tailor polymer blends to optimize specific properties like strength, toughness and surface textures. Additionally, improved polymer processing may lead to easier recycling of plastics by manufacturers.

Polyolefins made with metallocene catalysts are a versatile class of polymers that promises to help protect the environment while lowering the cost of engineering or structural plastics. Such materials are used in making bumpers for auto-mobiles, as well as in a wide variety of other applications. While previously used only in inexpensive “commodity” products, the use of improved catalysts for processing polyolefins now allows engineers to design these plastics with very specific chemical structures that improve strength, chemical stability or other properties.

The fact that polyolefins now may be processed with a very wide range of properties makes them prime candidates for increasing the proportion of plastics used in cars and trucks that can be recycled. In recent years, the average car has contained as many as 30 different types of plastics. Unlike the steel or aluminum in cars, the large number of different, incompatible plastics has made recycling these materials very difficult. NIST researchers hope that improving knowledge of polyolefin processing and properties will make it possible to use this one type of plastic for many auto parts, thereby substantially increasing the percentage of car materials that are lightweight and also can be recycled.

For more information, contact Charles Han, (301) 975-6772, charles.han@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Mark Bello, (301) 975-3776

 

 

Fire Research

NIST Floor Burn Experiments Could Aid Investigators

Why would anyone want to repeatedly set floors on fire? Researchers at NIST’s Building and Fire Research Laboratory are doing just that in order to examine burn patterns on non-porous and carpeted flooring. The project, funded by the National Institute of Justice, has revealed that the amount of liquid fuel spilled and the spill size can be determined by the burn pattern. Accurate estimates of both are important to arson, accident and other fire
investigators.

So far, the NIST large-scale fire tests have shown that the quantity of spilled gasoline is directly related to the burn pattern for non-porous flooring materials. On the other hand, the burning was more complicated for carpeted floors. Significant amounts of the spilled gasoline remained in the areas where the carpet materials melted.

A report from this study, “Flammable and Combustible Liquid Spill/Burn Patterns,” may be downloaded from www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs.

Media Contact:
John Blair, (301) 975-4261

 

 

Electronics

China Looks at NIST-Facilitated Broadband Wireless Access Standards

Broadband wireless—a technology that provides voice, video and high-speed Internet service without cables to commercial and residential buildings—is starting to come into use around the world. To facilitate an industry based on this innovative technology, a NIST staff member has been leading a global effort to develop the IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access interoperability standards.

One clear sign of the effort’s growing impact was a recent conference called by a government agency in the People’s Republic of China to investigate the potential of IEEE 802.16 standards as Chinese national standards. NIST’s Roger B. Marks, chair of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group, was keynote speaker at the Beijing conference. He explained the details of the standards and encouraged the participants to contribute toward their finalization.

China’s acceptance of the 802.16 standards would significantly broaden the broadband wireless market, ensure quality manufacturing of the relevant equipment and lower prices for everyone. Individuals with more than 120 companies are developing the standards, and many are interested in offering wireless products for sale in China. Finalization of the first of the 802.16 interoperability standards is expected by the end of the year.

For more details on the Beijing conference, see http://nwest.nist.gov/nwestnews32.html, or contact Roger Marks, National Wireless Electronic Systems Testbed, NIST, MC 813, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 497-3037; marks@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Collier Smith, Boulder, (303) 497-3198

 

 

Awards

Two NIST Projects Honored as Among 100 Best Technologies

Research and Development Magazine recently recognized two NIST technologies as among the 100 most innovative in the United States. The agency’s recipients of the 2001 R&D 100 award are the developers of a device to help the blind access electronic books and the developers of the most accurate and precise analytical method yet for determining the mercury content of fossil fuels, as well as other industrial, environmental and clinical samples.

Working in the Convergent Information Systems Division of NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory, John Roberts and his team have been refining a device that transforms the text of e-books and other electronic data (such as e-mail, web pages and other text-based applications) into the patterns of raised dots used by sightless persons to read. What makes the NIST reader unique—and potentially inexpensive to manufacture—is that it uses only three actuators—the mechanical devices that form Braille letters—instead of the hundreds found in current commercial Braille readers. The project team included, over several years, Oliver Slattery, Brent Swope, Dave Kardos, Edwin Mulkens, Volker Min, Gina Rodgers and Michael Sutton.

Researchers Stephen Long and Robert Kelly in the Analytical Chemistry Division of NIST’s Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory won NIST’s second R&D 100 award in 2001.

Their project solves one of the most important and long-standing problems in environmental and health sciences—the accurate and reliable determination of mercury, a priority pollutant. Mercury, highly toxic to humans and other higher organisms, has been one of most difficult elements to assess by existing methods. Long and Kelly’s new analytical process yields concentration data of the highest accuracy and precision, while being simple and relatively rapid to conduct. The first use of the technique has been the certification of mercury in seven coal Standard Reference Materials for use by industry. Future applications include determination of mercury in crude oil and refined petroleum products, urine and blood, and industrial waste.

This year’s winners are featured in the September 2001 issue of R&D Magazine.

Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025