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In This Issue:
FQA Final Rule Published; Implementation Date Extended
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Fasteners
FQA Final Rule Published; Implementation Date Extended
The amended final rule for the Fastener Quality Act of 1990--the national program to protect public health and safety by ensuring that certain nuts, bolts and other fasteners used in critical situations (such as attaching aircraft engines to fuselages) conform to specifications--has been published by NIST (see the Federal Register, April 14, 1998). In addition, the act's implementation date is being extended 60 days until July 26, 1998. The final rule:
defines the procedures by which fastener manufacturers can use Quality Assurance Systems/Statistical Process Control--an in-process quality inspection of fasteners--after May 14, 1998, as evaluation by an accredited testing facility;
- allows manufacturers to test fastener lots for FQA compliance starting May 14, 1998, in order for them to replace their non-FQA-compliant inventory with compliant stock;
- continues the policy of allowing manufacturers to sell as non-FQA-compliant, any fasteners in inventory (all fasteners produced after July 26, 1998, must be tested by an accredited laboratory or produced by an approved QAS/SPC manufacturing facility); and
- permits manufacturers who operate QAS/SPC fastener production lines that have not been completely certified by July 26, 1998, to list their operation as provisionally certified, as long as specific conditions are met; the official certification must be completed by May 25, 1999.
For more information on the FQA, contact Subhas G. Malghan, (301) 975-5120; or Jogindar S. Dhillon, (301) 975-5521; fax for both: (301) 975-2183. Additional information is available on the FQA page of NIST's World Wide Web site at http://www.nist.gov/fqa/.
Media Contact:
Michael Newman (301) 975-3025
MEP
With Center's Help, HBM's Sales Tip the Scales in U.S. and Europe
HBM Inc., a small manufacturer in Marlborough, Mass., wanted to increase its sales, particularly in Europe, but first needed to increase production capacity. HBM employs 165 people making precision measurement equipment used in a wide variety of applications ranging from delicatessen scales to medical equipment. The company turned to the Massachusetts Manufacturing Partnership, an affiliate of the nationwide Manufacturing Extension Partnership, for assistance.
Working with Profitlink, a private consultant, MMP performed a comprehensive analysis of HBM's operations, including plant layout and machine design.
After implementing changes recommended by MMP, the company has improved productivity and decreased lead time allowing HBM to produce and distribute more products faster. As a result, sales have grown by more than $1 million, and HBM's European exports have increased by 30 percent. In addition, the company retained 10 jobs and created six new ones.
The NIST MEP is a nationwide network of manufacturing extension centers helping smaller manufacturers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico solve problems. Smaller manufacturers can call (800) MEP-4-MFG (637-4634) to reach the MEP center serving their region, or check out the MEP World Wide Web site at http://www.mep.nist.gov.
For further information on HBM Inc. or the MMP, contact Louis DeFrancis-Block at (617) 727-8158.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko (301) 975-2767
Manufacturing
NIST, CAM-I Chart Program of 'Leveraged' Research
NIST's Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory and the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing-International, a Texas-based research organization with more than 40 company members, have targeted six projects for closer collaboration. A particular focus of these "leveraged" research programs will be technologies and standards supporting scalable flexible manufacturing--the ability to rapidly configure production and support operations to accommodate any manufacturing volume or to respond to any market opportunity.
CAM-I recently launched a major SFM initiative, while NIST's MEL has stepped up efforts aimed at enabling greater interoperability among equipment, systems, databases and other elements of modern manufacturing operations. At both CAM-I and NIST, efforts address the needs of individual companies and the challenges involved in organizing and coordinating multicompany enterprises.
At a recent review attended by 35 representatives of the consortium, five MEL projects were identified as complementary to the goals of CAM-I's SFM initiative. These projects include work to develop prototype standards for open architecture machine tool controllers and an ongoing collaboration that is creating an integrated toolkit of software applications to support factory-layout decisions and other manufacturing engineering functions.
CAM-I also singled out NIST efforts to create a common language for describing manufacturing processes as likely to benefit several of its research programs. In addition, MEL has agreed to participate in a CAM-I project to develop standards intended to improve the capabilities of dimensional measurement systems and to increase the reliability of inspection.
For more information, contact Mark Luce, NIST Office of Manufacturing Programs, (301) 975-2159, or Bailey Squier, CAM-I, (817) 860-1654.
Media Contact:
Mark Bello (301) 975-3776
Time
Satellite Signals Improve Clock Synchronization 100-Fold
Those who need to synchronize widely separated clock systems to better than a billionth of a second have only a few methods available, but a technique being developed at NIST's Time and Frequency Division offers a new level of precision.
Tests between clocks separated by up to 2,000 kilometers have shown that they can be synchronized with an error as small as the clocks' own timekeeping errors--in the case of the best clocks, as low as 50 to 80 picoseconds (one-trillionth of a second) over the course of a day.
Such precision is needed by scientists in radio astronomy, deep-space tracking and guidance of spacecraft, and international coordination of timekeeping systems.
The new method uses signals from Global Positioning System satellites in a manner borrowed from the geodetic community (which is devoted to precise distance measurements on Earth). Instead of being based on the time code transmitted by the satellites, the technique uses the carrier frequency by which the code is sent. The carrier frequency is about 1,000 times higher than that of the time code, and thus can be resolved up to 1,000 times better in theory. So far, in practice, results are about 100 times better than using the time code and seem to be limited by the accuracy of the clocks being compared.
Copies of two papers (nos. 10-98A and 10-98B) describing the work may be requested from Sarabeth Harris, MC 104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3328, (303) 497-3237.
Media Contact:
Collier Smith (Boulder) (303) 497-3198
Standards
The New SRM Catalogs Are In!
Manufacturers and analytical laboratories in nearly every industrial sector rely on NIST Standard Reference Materials as specialized measurement tools. So, for many in U.S. industry, the issuance of an updated NIST SRM Catalog is a significant event that parallels the eagerly awaited arrival of a department store catalog by a home shopper. After all, both are trusted sources for the items that keep things running smoothly.
The newest edition of the NIST SRM Catalog includes recently developed materials--such as those designed to validate analytical measurement results needed to ensure compliance with nutrition labeling laws--as well as long-relied-upon standards--such as NIST's Cast Iron SRM, which has changed little since the agency's predecessor, the National Bureau of Standards, adopted it from the American Foundrymen's Association in 1906.
Each SRM includes a physical sample that has been well characterized and analyzed by NIST scientists and a certificate that gives analytical values, handling instructions and other details about the SRM. One example of an ever popular SRM is Lipids in Frozen Human Serum (SRM 1951a), which helps medical laboratories report accurate values for cholesterol tests.
To request a copy of the new 180-page NIST Standard Reference Materials Catalog and price list, phone (301) 975-6776, fax a request to (301) 948-3730 or send e-mail to srminfo@nist.gov. Information about NIST SRMs also is available on the World Wide Web at http://ts.nist.gov/srm.
Media Contact:
Linda Joy (301) 975-4403
Optoelectronics
Document Recycles Multimode Optical Fibers Expertise
Single-mode optical fibers have been preferred by the optical communications industry for some time because their wider bandwidth can transmit information faster. Multimode optical fibers, however, are staging a comeback, particularly in local area networks where their limited length-bandwidth product is not necessarily a drawback.Many younger optical fiber engineers have spent most of their careers dealing with single-mode fibers and are not as familiar with multimode fibers.
To help remedy this situation, NIST has published a Bibliography of NIST Publications on Multimode Optical Fibers. It is hoped that the publication will familiarize today's engineers with earlier NIST work on the metrology of multimode fibers and related components--much of which was carried out in collaboration with the Electronic Industries Association and its offshoot, the Telecommunications Industry Association.
What readers of the new bibliography will find is that many of the measurement problems facing today's users of multimode fibers are identical to those encountered 20 years ago.
For a copy of the bibliography, contact Sara Metz, MC 815, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3328, (303) 497-5187.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder) (303) 497-3246
Administration
Smith Named to Head Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
Leslie E. Smith, a nearly 30-year veteran of NIST, has been appointed as the director of the agency's Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory by NIST Director Ray Kammer. Dale Hall, acting MSEL director since March 1997, will resume his duties as the lab's deputy director.
Smith began work at the National Bureau of Standards (NIST's predecessor until 1988) as a summer student after high school. He joined the agency in 1969 on a permanent basis as a physical chemist and has served NIST in a number of key roles since then. These include chief of the Polymers Division; director of the NIST Program Office; acting associate director of NIST; and, most recently, a second tour as chief of the Polymers Division.
A native of New York City, Smith earned his bachelor of science in chemistry from the Case Institute of Technology and his doctorate in chemistry from the Catholic University of America.
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman(301) 975-3025
U.S. Department of Commerce
Technology Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Editor: Michael Newman
HTML conversion: Crissy Wines
Last updated: April 14, 1998
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