FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:             G 94-46
June 16, 1994

Contact:  Michael E. Newman        EXPANSION OF MANUFACTURING
          (301) 975-3025           EXTENSION CENTER TO BENEFIT
                                   NYC SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZE
          Carol Hamilton           BUSINESSES
          (202) 482-6001

     U.S. Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown today toured a New
York City machine tool company to highlight a manufacturing
outreach program that is expanding to provide technology services
and information to more small and medium-sized companies in the
city.

     Secretary Brown examined operations and met with employees
at Clipper Diamond Tool Co., a 38-employee manufacturer of
precision superabrasive and diamond cutting tools and grinding
wheels, which today is a prime example of a thriving, successful
American small business.  But it wasn't always that way.

     Just three years ago, Clipper was in trouble.  High property
costs, outdated manufacturing and office operations, and loss of
business to foreign competition threatened to permanently close
the doors to the 50-year-old company.

     The key to Clipper's modernization and revitalization, was
the helping hand it received from the Industrial Technology
Assistance Corp., a New York City-based, government-sponsored
technology outreach center that is part of the New York
Manufacturing Extension Partnership.  Affiliated with a national
network of manufacturing extension centers -- the Manufacturing
Extension Partnership managed by the Commerce Department's
National Institute of Standards and Technology -- the New York
MEP provides services to help improve the productivity and
competitiveness of the state's 28,000 small and medium-sized
manufacturers (46 percent of which are in New York City).

     Secretary Brown said, "In a competitive global marketplace,
technological leadership is the surest ticket to economic
success.  Continuing government support for manufacturing
extension services like the New York MEP will help companies like
Clipper adapt to new technologies, network into the forefront of
technological change and succeed in both domestic and export
markets."

     The New York MEP is the result of four recent awards from
the Technology Reinvestment Project, the federal government's
program to provide funds for dual-use (military and civilian)
technology development, deployment and utilization.  The TRP
awards in New York State were used to expand the extension
services provided by the former Northeast Manufacturing
Technology Center, one of the seven original manufacturing
extension centers established by NIST and now being incorporated
under the New York MEP banner.  Specifically, the expansion
includes the operation of four regional New York MEP centers in
New York City, Fishkill, Endicott and Amherst.              

     Secretary Brown's tour and discussions at Clipper is the
first of two events in New York State to recognize the formation
of the New York MEP.  The second will be a signing ceremony
between Secretary Brown and New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo
tomorrow, June 17, at the New York MEP headquarters in Troy, N.Y.
     
     The New York MEP is a cooperative program between the New
York State Science and Technology Foundation and NIST's MEP.  It
is one of 28 extension programs funded through the TRP, bringing
the current number of centers in the national MEP to 35.  Plans
call for 100 centers in the nationwide manufacturing extension
network by 1997.

     For more information on the New York MEP, contact Jeanne
Selmer at (518) 283-1010.

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