FIRMS OF ALL SIZES RELY ON NIST MEASUREMENT SERVICESMore than 45,000 SRMs were sold in fiscal year 1994
Nothing is more basic to many industries than accurate measurements of the temperature of their processes, materials, equipment, and products -- from metallurgical furnaces to kitchen ovens to jet engines. In the United States alone, up to 100 million new thermocouples are put into service annually. All of U.S. industry relies on NIST for the tools needed to ensure the accuracy of the billions of electrically based temperature measurements made with the ubiquitous devices. A key one is Monograph 175, a publication produced by a diverse team of NIST researchers and technicians. Containing tables and mathematical formulas, Monograph 175 enables makers and users of thermocouples to translate and interpret the electric signals emitted by their devices, to troubleshoot problems, and to compare measurements with confidence. The correlations between temperature and voltage measurements are the results of NIST evaluations that are too time consuming, too technically difficult, and too expensive for individual companies to undertake on their own. This monograph "is the global authority" on thermocouple measurements, says the chief engineer of Ohio's Marlin Manufacturing Corp., a supplier of thermocouples. The president of JMS Southeast, Inc., a North Carolina temperature-measurement company, recently described NIST's services as "invaluable to the quality of our industry and its continuous pursuit of consistently reliable and more accurate temperature-sensing devices."
Researchers at Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. have to make many measurements in low-pressure environments that simulate the conditions of orbit and outer space. They perennially have relied on the know-how and specialized equipment of NIST's vacuum metrology group to calibrate their own gauges, used in work at the company's vacuum chambers. "The entire [NIST] vacuum group is a jewel in the U.S. crown," says Klaus Jaeger, Lockheed's manager of metrology.
"This is a well-focused project," says Martin Suchoski, senior project engineer at the General Motors Technical Project. "We have usable results, and they are going to be applied." In 1994, NIST, GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Giddings and Lewis teamed up to incorporate a NIST-developed computer model into a state-of-the-art piston turning machine. A demonstration at the end of the project's first phase showed that the model could reduce variations in piston size by as much as 80 percent. Sponsored by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, the collaboration is continuing, with work now focusing on applying the model to machines used on the manufacturing floor. Other results stemming from the collaboration already have been incorporated into the high-performance Giddings and Lewis machine tool.
Higher quality products, more reliable and more flexible processes, fewer rejected parts, speedier product development, more efficient market transactions, higher levels of inter-operability among machines, factories, and companies. These are some of the practical advantages that U.S. companies realize from the NIST laboratories' research, services, and standards-related activities. The ultimate U.S. reference point for measurements with counterpart organizations throughout the world, the laboratories provide companies, entire industries, and the whole science and technology community with the equivalent of a common language needed in nearly every stage of technical activity. In furthering the technical aims and capabilities of U.S. industry, the NIST laboratory program serves as an impartial source of expertise, developing highly leveraged measurement capabilities and other infrastructural technologies that are:
The $265 million federal investment in the NIST laboratories in FY 1995 amounts to less than 0.2 percent of the some $180 billion that the nation will spend on research and development this year. Yet, like the oil that lubricates the moving parts of an engine, measurement services and other outcomes of NIST's in-house technical activities lead to capabilities essential to the operation and productivity of the entire R&D enterprise. These NIST-delivered capabilities also are integral to the many downstream technical activities needed to transform inventions and discoveries into marketplace realities and competitive advantages that lead to economic growth.
In a typical industry, measurements of hundreds of variables underpin processes leading from research to prototype to manufacturable product to marketplace transaction and after-sales support. For example, semiconductor manufacturing, which NIST supports through its newly expanded Semiconductor Metrology Program and an array of services resulting from 40 years of collaboration with the industry, is so measurement intensive that testing alone accounts for about 30 percent of the cost of making a complex integrated circuit. In young and emerging industries, such as biotechnology, advanced materials, and optoelectronics, the difficult transition from commercially promising discovery or lab-bench innovation to market-ready product often depends upon new measurement capabilities that help reduce the experimental to routine manufacturing practice.
Responsive to the needs of industry and expert in key areas of science and engineering, NIST's laboratory program spans electronics and electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering, chemical science and technology, physics, materials science and engineering, building and fire research, computer systems, and computing and applied mathematics.
The laboratories' customer base is as diverse as U.S. industry itself. In 1994, several thousand U.S. companies directly used NIST measurement services. In turn, many times that number acquired inspection tools, control equipment, and other products or services from companies whose direct link to NIST helps them realize high levels of measurement accuracy and quality in their operations and commercial offerings. Firms with such demanding measurement requirements come in all sizes and from all manufacturing sectors. They range from manufacturers of scientific instruments to makers of machine tools, from manufacturers of earth-moving equipment to builders of satellites, and from developers of new biotechnology products and advanced materials to suppliers of steel and concrete.
FIRMS OF ALL SIZES RELY ON NIST MEASUREMENT SERVICES
More than 45,000 SRMs were sold in fiscal year 1994
Large and small firms tap the laboratories' technical expertise in many ways. For example, in 1994, the laboratories:
THROUGH CRADAS NIST LABORATORIES WORK WITH INDUSTRY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS OF MUTUAL CONCERN
Data presented by fiscal year
Far more numerous than formal interactions are the multitude of daily phone calls, electronic-mail exchanges, and on-site consultations -- at NIST, companies, and trade associations -- during which laboratory personnel and their industry counterparts consult on problems and technical needs. These interactions range from quick exchanges of technical advice to participation in industry-led technology road-mapping efforts to formal evaluations of an industry's measurement capabilities and needs. Through their participation in professional societies and technical groups, NIST scientists and engineers often function as catalysts and conveners, galvanizing collective responses to technical barriers confronting many companies.
Cooperation and collaboration are key to achieving widespread adoption of new measurement capability. Much of the laboratories' work is conceived and carried out with industry, ensuring that results will be available in a form that companies can apply. For example, 22 companies are collaborating with NIST materials scientists in recently begun efforts to improve understanding of soldering conditions, to develop process controls, and to develop environmentally superior alternatives to lead solder. The reliability of electronic products depends greatly on the quality of solder joints connecting components to circuit boards. The electronics industry now faces serious quality control challenges that the collaboration is tackling. As the number of solder joints on circuit boards continues to grow and the size of the joints shrinks further, the industry's need for improved materials, methods, and controls increases commensurately.
Examine the operations of any U.S. manufacturing company and you are likely to find evidence of the NIST's laboratories' technical contributions. The results of NIST's work have become embedded into the technology infrastructure of many U.S. industries, enabling the production and delivery of products and services that drive the economy. For example:
Several hundred laboratory projects are under way at NIST during a single year. Some relate to the evolving needs of mature industries, such as steel, machine tools, automobiles, and chemical processing. Others concentrate on the technical challenges confronting emerging industries, such as those sprouting from advances in nanotechnology, or the ones facing established high-technology sectors undergoing rapid technological change, such as microwave communications. In the past two years, NIST has stepped up efforts to address the infrastructural needs of the biotechnology and information technology industries as well as others pursuing commercial prospects in young, rapidly developing areas of technology.
The examples of recent technical accomplishments described below are a small sampling of laboratory activities. They illustrate, however, the ways in which NIST is carrying out its mission to provide infrastructural support to U.S. industry, today and tomorrow. They also exemplify the ways in which modest investments in critically needed measurement methods and technologies open the way to advances in research, improvements in processes and products, and other benefits reaped by companies, industries, and, ultimately, the economy.
Advanced measurement capability enables the discovery of fundamental phenomena that later become the basis for innovation and commercial opportunities -- better products and services, improved processes, and even entirely new markets and manufacturing methods. With this capability, researchers can "see" and quantify new phenomena; without it, researchers may be blind to new scientific or technological opportunities or fail to understand their potential significance. Frequently, discoveries and inventions result from new measurement capability, which then helps to quicken the pace of progress by providing a common basis for comparison and communication among scientists.
Designing and manufacturing products without measuring is like driving without lights on unfamiliar roads, on a foggy night. There's a slight chance that you'll reach your intended objective, or destination, but the odds favor delays, mishaps, and even failure or calamity. Tools developed by the NIST laboratories are fundamental to making cost-competitive, high-quality products -- the successful conclusion to efforts begun in the R&D laboratory. NIST's efforts to meet the nation's measurement and standards-related needs often lead to entirely new measurement technologies. In the hands of industry, these public-good innovations are fashioned into solutions to process- and quality-control problems.
Especially for manufacturers of high-technology products, accurate and reliable measurements are necessary antes for gaining access to markets and, then, to customers. At the market level, they may be required to demonstrate compliance with national and international standards. At the customer level, measurements are needed, first, to reach agreement on product specifications, such as purity of materials, and, second, to prove that the delivered products meet those specifications. Delays in establishing compliance can result in costly inefficiencies for suppliers and their customers. NIST promotes market efficiencies through measurement and standards-related services that provide an accepted means for assessing and demonstrating conformance and for resolving technical disagreements.
NIST HAS STEPPED UP EFFORTS TO REDUCE TECHNICAL TRADE BARRIERS
As the first link in the chain of measurements disseminated throughout the entire economy, NIST strives for measurement capabilities well beyond the state of the art in industry. Through its future-looking research, NIST develops the tools and fundamental understanding that will help it anticipate and respond to measurement needs arising from advances in science and technology and intensifying international competition.
AGGREGATE RATES OF RETURN FROM TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT
NIST laboratories' R&D and services have yielded high returns.
The economic return studies on NIST research and services were done by
Charles River Associates (1981), Link (1991,1995), and TASC (1994). Studies
of private-sector economic impact were done by Mansfield et al. (1977)
and Tewksbury et al. (1980); university study by Mansfield (1991).
In the early 1980s, NIST began efforts to measure and quantify the economic returns on the agency's research and services. The results, summarized in the table, provide another perspective on the value U.S. taxpayers realize on their investment in NIST. Conducted by independent researchers under contract to NIST, studies have estimated the aggregate -- or "spillover" -- rates of return to the economy and society generated by specific projects. The estimates are conservative, based on quantifiable benefits realized by companies and consumers. Important qualitative benefits, such as enabling industry standards or opening new avenues of research, are not included.
The eight economic impact studies completed thus far yield a median rate of return of 167 percent. Across all project areas, the return rate ranges from 63 percent to 428 percent, indicating significant benefits flow back to U.S. society and the economy. These rates compare favorably with those reported in studies of returns on other public investments in technology and on private-sector R&D investments. Recent NIST economic impact studies are summarized below.
NIST Power and Energy Calibration Services. Illustrating how NIST measurements fan out across industry and markets, the Institute maintains the U.S. standard for the watthour and conducts research to improve the measurement accuracy of the 2,000 standard watthour meters used to calibrate the more than 2 million watthour meters sold in the United States each year. In all, U.S. utilities monitor more than 100 million watthour meters that record customers' power usage, totaling more than 2,700 billion kilowatt hours annually and generating industry revenues exceeding $180 billion. Through its research, NIST has enabled a tenfold increase in the measurement accuracy of watthour meters, reducing the uncertainty to 0.005 percent. The result has been an increase in the accuracy of customers' bills, which translates into even greater assurance that consumers are charged only for the power that they actually use. This improvement and other benefits due to the traceability of meter measurements to national standards have produced sizable returns to U.S. taxpayers. A 1994 analysis estimates that total benefits exceed costs by a ratio of 41 to 1. The estimated spillover rate of return was 428 percent.
Integrated Services Digital Network. ISDN is an evolving worldwide communications infrastructure that will enable high-speed digital transmission of all forms of information (data, graphics, video, voice, images, etc.) over existing telephone lines, providing immediate access to the Information Highway. Many providers of telecommunication services credit the North American ISDN Users' Forum, organized by NIST in 1988, with fostering agreement on standards that will help to drive impending growth in the ISDN market. In convening providers of telecommunication services, equipment vendors, and prospective ISDN users, the forum promotes interoperability among emerging and planned ISDN applications. With NIST participating as a neutral facilitator and technical consultant, the forum has completed 15 implementation agreements, criteria for 12 conformance tests, and 13 application profiles. Although the forum has not yet resulted in significant, "bottom-line" impacts on industry to date, past and future outputs are expected to help expand the ISDN market. Representatives of nine companies that provide local telecommunication services estimate the annual rate of market growth from 1995 through 1999 to range from 25 percent to 250 percent. The median response was 75 percent, which would result in a total of about 4.9 million ISDN customers nationwide by the year 2000, as compared with an estimated 300,000 customers in 1994. Without NIST's continued involvement in the North American ISDN Users' Forum, according to these representatives, the market would not grow as rapidly. Without NIST, the annual rate of growth is estimated to be 40 percent, yielding an estimated 1.6 million users by the year 2000. An analysis projects that sizable benefits will be realized through ISDN-enabled capabilities fostered by NIST's participation in the forum. Given the anticipated growth of the ISDN market, the analysis estimates that expenditures supporting NIST's continued involvement in the fo rum will generate a prospective spillover rate of return of 156 percent.
Optical Fiber Standards. The basic measurement technology and technical assistance in developing industry standards that NIST provided the optical fiber industry in the 1980s resulted in a rate of return to NIST-conducted research of 423 percent. Over the period studied, NIST provided technical support to the industry as it promulgated 22 standards for this complex area of technology. A 1991 economic impact study noted that while the direct economic benefits to the industry were primarily from substantial reductions in market transaction costs, an important indirect effect of the NIST work was "a much faster rate of growth for the optical fiber market and hence for the U.S. optical fiber industry." Said the president of the Telecommunications Industry Association: "Without the NIST assistance and leadership, the U.S. fiber optics industry would not be in the competitive position it is today."
Electromagnetic Interference. The problem of interference among electronic and electrical devices has grown enormously with the proliferation of these devices. A 1991 study of the economic impact of NIST research in electromagnetic compatibility/interference metrology conducted over the previous decade found that organizations using NIST's research improved research efficiency and reduced transaction costs. Based on these cost-saving benefits, the study showed an estimated spillover rate of return of more than 260 percent for this program.
Methods to Prevent Failures of Integrated Circuits. As semiconductor devices become increasingly dense (a state-of-the-art microprocessor, for example, contains more than 3 million transistors), design and manufacturing challenges also become increasingly severe. NIST work with the U.S. semiconductor industry in the 1980s to develop improved methods to test for a specific problem -- electromigration -- that causes the thin metal wires connecting integrated circuit components to fail was the subject of another 1991 economic impact study. Benefits to this industry, including reduced production and transaction costs as well as improved research efficiencies, led to an estimated rate of return of 117 percent.
Improvements enabled by NIST laboratory research and services usually are realized in incremental steps, rarely in vast strides, by firms and industries. Yet, NIST's contributions are integral to many industries. Demonstrating that metrology is, as one writer has put it, the "sub-division of science that underlies and assists all others," infrastructural technologies developed by the NIST laboratories are embedded inconspicuously and seamlessly into U.S. companies' operations and ways of doing business.
As a result, the aggregate economic benefits generated by the laboratories' work are large. The quality of the 80 million tons of steel shipped by U.S. producers, for example, depends on the more than 125 NIST Standard Reference Materials that undergird the industry's quality-control procedures. In the optical fiber industry, NIST- facilitated standards have been credited with fostering market growth, reducing costs, and bolstering the competitiveness of U.S. companies. Similarly, assurance that patients' levels of radiation exposure do not exceed safety limits in each of the more than 250 million X-rays and radiopharmaceutical procedures performed every year begins with the high-accuracy measurements and services provided by NIST and then disseminated throughout the healthcare industry. In these and other industries, the NIST laboratories provide highly leveraged technical assistance, yielding benefits that multiply as they spread from its immediate customers to industries, the economy, and all of society.