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ATP
Study Shows
Small Firms Ambitious, Aggressive in Pursuing Projects
A
new
study of more than 400 companies participating in Advanced
Technology Program projects in 1997 finds that small companies
hold their own in competition with large, even multinational firms
in the merit-based R&D funding program—often by emphasizing ambitious,
far-reaching projects with numerous potential applications. Larger
firms, on the other hand, are more likely to be pursuing new or
improved process technologies or complex systems-integration tasks.
Most companies, regardless of size, report that they are ahead
in their R&D schedules as a result of their ATP project. This
is particularly true for those working on single-company projects,
where 97 percent of small firms and 95 percent of larger firms
report some acceleration in their R&D.
The
study was based on data from the ATP's business reporting system
and examines how well small firms compete against larger firms
in ATP competitions, how effective their commercialization strategies
are for ATP-sponsored technologies, and the effect the ATP funding
has on their R&D programs.
In
general, says study author and ATP economist Jeanne Powell, "ATP-funded
small firms appear to exhibit characteristics of successful small
firms described in the business literature. For example, their
emphasis on ‘new to the world' solutions and aggressive performance
goals, and their pursuit of large numbers of applications, indicate
that they are risk takers and that they are pursuing quality and
innovativeness, and emphasizing organizational flexibility, rather
than improvements in cost, price and economies of scale."
After
comparable periods of ATP funding, says Powell, small firms with
their shorter planning horizons had done as well or better than
larger firms in producing prototypes, setting up pilot production,
beginning production and earning revenues, even though ATP funding
does not support product development.
Copies
of Powell's study, Business Planning and Progress of Small
Firms Engaged in Technology Development Through the Advanced Technology
Program (NISTIR 6375), are available from the ATP Economic
Assessment Office, (301) 975-4332.
Media
Contact:
Michael
Baum, (301) 975-2763 
Chemistry
Brochure
Highlights CSTL Research and Services
Anyone
in industry, academia or government working on chemical measurements
or needing a chemical standard will want the newest brochure from
NIST's Chemical Science and
Technology Laboratory, CSTL ... at a glance. The brochure
gives a brief overview of NIST and describes the organization
of CSTL with contact names and phone numbers for each division.
Information on measurement standards, chemical and process data,
and measurement science is presented in greater detail with examples
of recent accomplishments and ongoing projects.
The
brochure discusses specific projects, including the new mitochondrial
DNA Standard Reference Material from CSTL's
Biotechnology Division; the NIST WebBook, a quick source of
chemical data; and research to characterize self-assembled monolayers,
which shows promise in sensors for genetic analysis, health care,
toxicology, forensics, industrial processing and environmental
monitoring.
To
request a copy of CSTL ... at a glance, contact the laboratory
office by phone: (301) 975-3143, fax: (301) 975-3845 or e-mail:
cstl@nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Linda
Joy, (301) 975-4403
Trade
U.S., Japan
Sign Pact for ‘Good Measure'
Adding
momentum to recent initiatives to reduce measurement-related barriers
to international trade, NIST and Japan's Agency of Industrial
Science and Technology agreed on Nov. 2, 1999, to undertake joint
efforts to demonstrate the equivalence of measurement capabilities
in both organizations.
Signed
by NIST Director Raymond G. Kammer and AIST Secretary Koji Kajimura,
the new "implementing arrangement" enables NIST's
Measurement and Standards Laboratories and AIST laboratories
to cooperate on efforts to realize the pact's aims. NIST and three
AIST units—the National Research Laboratory of Metrology, Electrotechnical
Laboratory, and National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research—will
develop an agenda of research and other activities in areas such
as measurement standards and calibrations.
In
1998, the value of merchandise traded between the United States
and Japan totaled $180 billion. Regulatory and voluntary standards
unique to one country or the other may compel exporters to submit
their products for additional testing so that they can demonstrate
compliance with the governmental or customer requirements of the
importing nation. The inability to show that measurements made
on either side of the Pacific Ocean are comparable sometimes leads
to duplicative testing, adding to the cost of imported goods.
The
NIST-AIST agreement is similar to one signed early last month
by NIST and the executive body of the 15-nation European Union.
Both will further a global effort to achieve "mutual recognition
of national measurement standards." This effort was initiated
by an agreement signed on Oct. 14, 1999, by 38 nations during
the international Conference on Weights and Measures. All three
agreements aim to help establish the technical means for a global
chain of measurement traceability, intended to streamline procedures
for proving compliance with product requirements in export and
domestic markets.
For
more information on the NIST-AIST "implementing arrangement for
cooperation in the fields of metrology and measurement standards,"
contact Magdalena
Navarro, Office
of International and Academic Affairs, (301) 975-2130.
Media
Contact:
Mark
Bello, (301) 975-3776
Materials
International
Effort Starts ‘Cracking' Down on Reactor Embrittlement
At
a recent conference held at NIST's Boulder, Colo., laboratories,
researchers from university and government laboratories in the
United States, Europe and Japan described their programs for developing
non-destructive techniques for detecting embrittlement in the
steels used for nuclear reactor pressure vessels. Experts believe
that this embrittlement occurs when small amounts of copper—used
as an alloy to increase the strength and hardness of steel—decrease
the fracture toughness of the steel in pressure vessels following
long-term exposure to neutrons.
Reports
at the conference detailed how researchers in the participating
nations are using very sophisticated microscopy techniques to
determine the mechanisms of embrittlement on the atomic level
and lay the foundation for developing non-destructive testing
procedures. At the end of the three-day workshop, attendees began
to develop a roadmap to guide future research. The hope is that
mutually agreed-upon non-destructive evaluation methods can be
introduced into the maintenance programs of existing nuclear power
plants in order to increase their safety and extend the life of
their pressure vessels.
For
more information on the results of the conference, contact George
Alers, NIST, MS 853.06, Boulder, Colo. 80303; (303) 497-7899.
For the latest NIST research paper on this subject, Nondestructive
Characterization of Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels: A Feasibility
Study (NIST Technical Note 1500-4), contact Sarabeth
Harris, NIST, MS 104, Boulder, Colo. 80303; (303) 497-3237.
Media
Contact:
Fred
McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
Composites
Permeability
Database Now Available Online
Industrial
researchers, engineers and others who manufacture polymers now
have free, online access to a valuable resource once sold only
on diskette. The NIST Standard Reference Database on Reinforcement
Permeability Values is now available on the World Wide Web at
http://srdata.nist.gov/permeability/.
Though
databases containing information on structural and other properties
of composites exist, the NIST Standard Reference Database on Reinforcement
Permeability Values is the first of its kind to support the design
and implementation of liquid composite molding, which is an important
manufacturing technique for modern reinforced polymers.
Permeability
is the most important parameter governing resin flow through a
composite preform mold because it can be used to compute flow
behavior easily in large complex molds. Taking flow measurements
is often difficult and the number of different preform materials
is quite large. This database currently serves as a repository
for permeability measurements, containing more than 100 data points
measured at NIST for different woven, random, stitched and unidirectional
glass fabrics. Fiber volume percentages range from about 10 percent
to over 55 percent.
Version
2 of the database will be released shortly on the web with a much
larger number of records.
For
more information, contact Richard
S. Parnas, Polymer
Composites Group, Materials
Science and Engineering Laboratory, (301) 975-5805, or Joan
Sauerwein, Standard Reference
Data Program, (301) 975-2208.
Media
Contact:
Michael
E. Newman , (301) 975-3025
Electromagnetics
Bibliographies
of Electronics-Related Work Now Available
Each
year the optoelectronics, electronics and electromagnetic research
programs of the NIST Boulder,
Colo., laboratories publish bibliographies of technical work
in those programs dating back to 1970. The 1999 edition of those
bibliographies is now available.
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