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Fasteners
Report Recommends More
Focused, Less Burdensome FQA
A report submitted to Congress from the Commerce Department on Feb. 24, 1999, recommends four
amendments to the Fastener Quality Act of 1990. If Congress determines that it is
appropriate to continue to regulate fasteners, the proposed amendments will make the act
implementable and ensure that compliance will impose the least possible burden on
industry.
The five-month Commerce Department FQA study, 
which was requested by
law in August 1998, relied heavily on comments and data received from hundreds of fastener
manufacturers and end users, industry associations, government agencies and universities.
Analysis of the information led the study managers to conclude that the number and
magnitude of problems with fasteners had dropped to a fraction of what they were when the
act was created a decade ago. Among the reasons identified for this quality improvement
were advances since 1990 in fastener manufacturing technology and better procedures for
military and federal procurement of fasteners.
To address the remaining areas
where fasteners may still be a public safety problem, the report recommends that:
- coverage should be limited to only
high-strength fasteners--those possessing a minimum tensile strength 830 megapascals
(120,000 pounds per square inch), the generally accepted level for
"high-strength" steel fasteners throughout the industry;
- fasteners should be deemed FQA
compliant if they are manufactured in a facility registered (by a NIST-approved body) to
use such a system;
- companies be allowed to transmit
and store electronically all reports on fastener quality provided there are
reasonable means of authentication of the source of the document and reasonable protection
against alteration; and
- Congress enact an amendment to
Title 18 of the United States Code specifically directed at fraud in public and private
commercial transactions involving fasteners.
The complete text of the Commerce
Department FQA Study report can be found on the World Wide Web at www.nist.gov/fqa.
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025 
Millennium Bug
Y2K Help Center Is
Open for Business
Small manufacturers and other small
businesses looking for free help in finding and assessing problems caused by the year 2000 computer problem now can
contact the Y2K Help Center for Small Business by calling (800) Y2K-7557 (925-7557),
sending electronic mail to y2khelp@nist.gov, or
visiting the center's web site at y2khelp.nist.gov.
The Y2K Help Center will provide
technical support to users of Conversion
2000: Y2K Self-Help Tool, developed by NIST's Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The
Y2K Self-Help Tool software, available in both Microsoft Access™ and Excel™, can
help small businesses conduct an inventory of equipment, identify core business systems
and rate their importance to the survival of the business; develop contingency plans; and
plan and manage remediation projects. The Y2K Help Center also can provide information on
databases of Y2K compliance information.
The Y2K Self-Help Tool is
available on the Y2K Help Center web site or from MEP centers around the country by
calling (800) MEP-4MFG (637-4634).
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767
Web Design
Conference Goal:
Making the Web a Lot Less Tangled
Making World Wide Web sites more accessible
and more useful to average, non-technical people has many benefits. For example, companies
whose web sites are particularly attractive and easy to navigate often have an advantage
over competitors in the electronic commerce arena. In contrast, web sites that confuse
customers in a labyrinth of links may lose business to firms with easily traversed pages.
Within an organization, solid web
design also makes a difference. Internal web sites where information is easily accessed,
understood and retrieved can help improve employee efficiency, increase production, foster
collaboration and raise morale. Difficult-to-use sites can lead to higher costs,
production mistakes and worker frustration.
To address this new area of
research, NIST is hosting the Fifth Conference on Human
Factors and the Web on June 3, 1999. The theme for the meeting is "the future of
Web applications." It will provide a forum for sharing information among a community
of human factor engineers, designers and developers from industry, academia and government
agencies. Among the possible topics for discussion are: usability studies of dynamic,
customizable web sites; innovative applications, especially for electronic commerce and
enterprise-wide operations; case studies of legacy systems re-engineered for the web;
database-enabled sites and transaction-based applications; usable design with new web
technologies such as XML and Java; tools for web usability testing and evaluation; and
accessibility.
AT&T Labs, Bell Atlantic
Corp. and Oracle Corp. are co-sponsoring the conference, which will be held at the NIST
facility in Gaithersburg, Md.
More information about the
conference is available on the web at www.nist.gov/hfweb
or by sending electronic mail to hfweb@nist.gov. The
final conference program will be available on the web site by April 20, 1999.
Media Contact:
Philip Bulman, (301) 975-56616
Thermophysics
Databases Now On
the Job to Help Keep Gas Flowing
Engineers in the natural gas industry will
be interested in a new paper from NIST that describes
three computerized databases which provide thermophysical properties for pure fluids,
mixtures of fluids, and a predictive package emphasizing hydrocarbon systems.
The pure fluids database, known
as the NIST12 Database, includes natural gas components such as methane, ethane, propane,
and iso- and n-butane. Each fluid is represented by a highly accurate equation of state;
correlations also are provided for viscosity, thermal conductivity and dielectric
constant. A separate program for helium covers both the superfluid and normal fluid
states. The DOS-based, interactive database is menu driven and user friendly.
The NIST14 Database provides
accurate thermophysical properties of 17 pure fluids and their mixtures. This database
emphasizes accurate density calculations, yet provides excellent results for other
properties. NIST has been working on new models for mixture properties, and these will be
incorporated into future versions of NIST14.
The NIST4 Database (NIST
SUPERTRAPP) emphasizes prediction of thermophysical properties for a large number of fluid
systems that have not been adequately measured to establish standard property surfaces.
The interactive, DOS-based database allows calculations for 192 pure fluids and their
mixtures of up to 20 components. The fluids include hydrocarbons up to carbon-24, as well
as common impurities such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen sulfide. The
FORTRAN source code for property prediction also is included, so that a user may link it
with other software.
Copies of the databases may be
ordered from the Standard Reference Data Program,
NIST, 100 Bureau Dr., Stop 2310, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-2310; (301) 975-2208; srdata@nist.gov. Copies of paper 3-99 explaining the
databases are available from Sarabeth Harris,
MS104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3337; (303) 497-3237.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
Optoelectronics
New Transfer
Standard Improves Calibrations for Optical Meters
Scientists in NIST's Optoelectronics Division,
Boulder, Colo., have developed and evaluated a transfer standard for the calibration
of optical fiber power meters over the wavelength range of 750-1800 nanometers. The
transfer standard is an optical-trap detector consisting of two germanium photodiodes and
a mirror. The photodiodes and mirror are contained in a package that is thermally stable
and accepts a variety of optical fiber connectors. Benefits of this transfer standard
versus previous standards include high optical-to-electrical conversion efficiency,
reasonable cost and improved spatial uniformity.
"As a transfer standard, the
detector is robust and convenient to use in different laboratories," the scientists
report. They will continue to evaluate the standard to establish a calibration history and
to determine the effects of aging on the photodiodes and mirror.
More information on the standard
is available from John H. Lehman, (303)
497-3654. A paper, no. 2-99, explaining the standard is available from Sarabeth Harris, MS104, NIST, Boulder, Colo.
80303-3337; (303) 497-3237.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
Awards
Two NIST
Researchers Honored as PECASE Recipients
President Clinton named two NIST
researchers on Feb. 10, 1999, as recipients of the third annual Presidential Early Career
Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States
government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers.
Sharon C.
Glotzer, a physicist in the Polymer
Blends and Processing Group of the Material
Sciences and Engineering Laboratory, and Anthony J.
Kearsley, a research mathematician in the Mathematical
and Computational Science Division of the Information
Technology Laboratory, were among 60 U.S. researchers chosen for the 1999 PECASE
award.
Glotzer's research interests
include theory and computer simulations of phase transitions and pattern formation in
polymer blends; dynamics of supercooled glass-forming liquids, complex fluids and
frustrated materials; and computer simulations of fluids and materials. Kearsley's
mathematical modeling interests include optimization, inverse problems and optimal
control.
Both scientists receive five-year
research grants to further their studies in support of critical government missions.
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Manufacturing
NGA Supports 'Year
of the Small Manufacturer
At its recent winter meeting in Washington,
D.C., the National Governors' Association approved a resolution supporting 1999 as the
Year of the Small Manufacturer.
Gov. Thomas Carper of Delaware,
chairman of the NGA, said, "The nation's governors proudly acknowledge 1999 as the Year of the Small Manufacturer
in recognition of our nation's small manufacturers whose vitality and dedication to the
American spirit of free enterprise have done so much for the prosperity of this country's
economy."
Secretary of Commerce William
Daley, who declared 1999 as the Year of the Small Manufacturer on Feb. 8, 1999, said,
"I am proud to be a partner with the states in recognizing these companies'
extraordinary contributions to the economic strength and well-being of the United
States."
Throughout the year, NIST's Manufacturing Extension Partnership and its
nationwide network of centers are planning a number of events to celebrate the
achievements of small manufacturers. Event dates and details will be posted on the MEP web
site: www.mep.nist.gov.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767
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