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Baldrige
Awards
Four U.S.
Firms Recognized for Quality and Business Excellence
Two
manufacturers and two service companies were named the recipients
of the 1999 Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award today. The companies (and Baldrige
category) are: STMicroelectronics
Inc.-Region Americas, Carrollton, Texas (manufacturing); BI,
Minneapolis, Minn. (service); The
Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. L.L.C., Atlanta, Ga. (service); and
Sunny Fresh Foods, Monticello,
Minn. (small business/manufacturing).
Sunny
Fresh Foods is the first food manufacturer to be honored. The
Ritz-Carlton previously won in the service category in 1992, making
it only the second company to receive two Baldrige Awards. Solectron
Corp. won in 1991 and 1997.
No
awards were given in the new education and health care categories.
Named
after a former Secretary of Commerce, the MBNQA was established
by Congress in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness of US businesses
by promoting quality awareness, recognizing quality and performance
achievements of US organizations, and publicizing successful performance
strategies. The award is not given for specific products or services.
Since 1988, 37 companies have received the Baldrige Award.
Baldrige
Awards may be given in manufacturing, service, small business,
education and health care. President Clinton and Commerce Secretary
William Daley are expected to present the Baldrige Award to the
1999 recipient companies at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., early
next year.
Go
to the NIST web site at www.nist.gov,
and click on "News"
or call (301) 975-2762 for further information. Further information
on the Baldrige National Quality Program is available at www.quality.nist.gov
or by calling (301) 975-2036.
Media
Contact:
Jan
Kosko, (301) 975-2767 
Chemistry
Laser Light
Pulses Make New Ultrasensitive Chemical Detector
Its
components are exquisitely simple: a tiny translucent cube, two
adjacent prisms, a laser and a detector, yet this system represents
a powerful new way to detect chemicals. Although applications
are years away, it eventually could lead to miniature detectors
for explosives or chemical weapons. Developed at NIST, the method
can sense trace amounts of a chemical present in the vicinity
of the device, says Andrew Pipino, the chemical physicist who
invented the technology.
Described
in a recent Physical Review Letters article (Oct. 11, 1999),
the system is a new approach to cavity ring-down spectroscopy.
In this case, the cavity is a solid cube made of ultrapure fused
silica with four ultrasmooth surfaces. One of the surfaces is
curved to refocus circulating light as it travels around in the
square path defined by the cube's four faces. A laser pulse tunnels
into the cube and loops around the path, sustained entirely by
total internal reflection for a distance of over a kilometer before
its intensity degrades.
The
time it takes the light to degrade (or ring-down) is altered in
the presence of a chemical capable of absorbing the light as it
passes briefly outside the cube in the form of an evanescent (fading)
wave. Changes in the ring-down time can be used to identify and
quantify specific molecules.
Companies
are invited to apply for a license to use this new technology.
All licensing inquiries should be directed to J.
Terry Lynch, (301) 975-2691, fax: (301) 869-2751.
Media
Contact:
Linda
Joy, (301) 975-4403
Y2K
Embedded
Systems Need ‘End-to-End' Checkups
Secretary
of Commerce William M. Daley recently urged American businesses
to redouble their efforts to test for year
2000 computer problems that are hidden away in a variety of
machines other than computers. Thorough testing of these "embedded
systems" is a wise safety measure, Daley said.
"Ferreting
out all the Y2K connections in the systems that run manufacturing
plants, provide services to consumers, and control a host of operations
that we all rely on is a tough job. We urge businesses to be especially
vigilant in testing embedded systems," Daley said.
Embedded
systems use computers or computer chips to control, monitor or
augment a process. Such systems are found in everything from elevators
to manufacturing plants.
NIST
and Century Corp., a computer consulting firm, have assessed the
range of testing methods industry is using. They conclude that
it is possible that many important systems have not been tested
adequately. NIST strongly recommends that all critical systems
be tested literally from end to end.
"Managers
of these systems should, as a last resort, rely on assurances
from suppliers and others that the individual components of a
system are Y2K compliant," Daley said. "I want to reinforce the
message that I and others, including the President's Y2K Council,
have been delivering about taking appropriate actions in readiness
and contingency planning," he said.
A
research article that includes guidelines for testing embedded
systems by NIST and Century Corp. is available on the NIST web
site at www.nist.gov/y2k/embeddedarticle.htm.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Computer
Security
It's Official:
Triple DES Is Now a Federal Standard
Upon
NIST's favorable recommendation, the Secretary of Commerce has
revised the Data Encryption Standard, which federal agencies and
many other organizations use to scramble sensitive information.
The revision involves using the DES algorithm in three successive
operations, a technique known as Triple DES.
The
revised standard applies to federal agencies that use encryption
to safeguard sensitive, unclassified information. The original
version of the DES standard was first approved in 1977 and has
since been revised several times.
Under
the latest revision of the standard, agencies buying cryptographic
products will be required to purchase equipment that supports
the use of Triple
DES for new systems. Additionally, agencies should be developing
plans to phase out the use of single DES in existing systems.
Triple
DES offers a higher level of security than single DES. In September
1998, NIST alerted agencies to the option of using Triple DES
to provide greater security than single DES.
Triple
DES is intended to bridge the gap between DES and the future Advanced
Encryption Standard, which is under development by NIST's
Information Technology Laboratory. The AES is being designed
to provide strong cryptographic security well into the 21st century.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Electromagnetic
Fields
New
High-Power RF Measurement System Developed
To
meet the demand for higher power calibrations, NIST has developed
a new system for measuring up to one kilowatt of radio-frequency
power in the range from 2 to 1,000 megahertz. The technique makes
use of calibrated low-power sensors, called bolometers, and a
calibrated chain of up to five 10-dB couplers. The couplers reduce
the high-power level to be measured down to the one to 10-milliwatt
level of the sensors.
A
comparison of results from the new system with those of NIST's
older low-frequency measurement system shows that there is good
agreement in the area of overlap, up to 30 megahertz. Analysis
indicates that overall, the typical uncertainty is between 1 percent
and 2 percent, with a small increase above 850 megahertz.
The
new system and a mathematical analysis of its operation and uncertainties
is described in Technical Note 1510, Switched-Coupler Measurements
for High-Power RF Calibrations, available from Sarabeth
Harris, MC 104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3328; (303) 497-3237.
Ask for paper no. 47-99.
Media
Contact:
Collier
Smith (Boulder), (301) 975-5661
Conformity Assessment
Guidelines
Aim for Better Coordination, Management
NIST
is proposing first-ever conformity assessment guidelines to help
federal agencies improve management and coordination of testing,
inspection, certification and other activities to determine whether
products or services meet regulatory or procurement requirements.
Comments
on the proposed guidelines will be accepted until Jan. 18, 2000.
Published in the Nov. 3, 1999, of the Federal Register,
the four-page document can be downloaded from NIST's conformity
assessment web site at ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/210/216/216.htm.
Under
the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995,
Congress assigned NIST responsibility for coordinating efforts
to improve the federal standards and conformity assessment activities.
About
80 agencies and other federal units have regulatory or procurement
responsibilities. Many have developed their own schemes for evaluating
processes, products and services against their requirements. The
proposed guidelines focus on federal agencies' eliminating unnecessary
duplication and complexity in their conformity assessment activities
and making greater use of private-sector and state programs in
this area. The guidelines call for more systematic evaluation
of the effectiveness of conformity assessment practices, mutual
recognition of the results of other agencies' testing procedures,
and harmonization of requirements for quality and environmental
management systems. Broader, more effective sharing of audit results
and related information are among other recommendations that NIST
proposes.
In
addition to saving time and money, a less complicated system would
benefit trade negotiations and respond to industry's call for
streamlining testing requirements in the United States and other
countries.
For
more information on NIST's Proposed Guidance on Federal Conformity
Assessment Activities, contact Maureen
Breitenberg, Global Standards Program, (301) 975-4031.
Media
Contact:
Mark
Bello, (301) 975-3776
Fluidics
Thermodynamic
Properties of Nitrogen Available in New Formulation
Nitrogen
has been one of the most important reference fluids for tests
of physical models and for calibrations of experimental equipment
and meters for measuring fluid flow. More than 14,000 experimental
data points for many types of thermodynamic properties are available
in the fluid region of nitrogen. Together with water, argon, methane,
ethylene and carbon dioxide, nitrogen belongs to the group of
substances possessing the most extensive published data sets.
A
new formulation for the thermodynamic properties of nitrogen has
been developed by researchers at NIST and three other institutions.
It replaces a reference equation of state that has been in use
since 1973. Because of changes in density calculations between
the two equations, it will have an impact on the buying and selling
of liquid nitrogen and other cryogenic fluids.
The
range of validity of the new equation of state for nitrogen is
from the freezing line to 1,000 kelvins at pressures to 2,200
megapascals. In addition to the equation of state, ancillary functions
are given for the vapor pressure, the densities of the saturated
liquid and vapor, the ideal gas heat capacity and the melting
pressure. Other institutions participating in the new formulation
include the University of Bochum, Germany; the College of Engineering,
University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho; and the DuPont FluoroProducts
Laboratory, Wilmington, Del.
For
more information, contact Eric
Lemmon, NIST, MS 838.08, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3328; (303)
497-7939. A graphical user interface containing the new reference
equation of state along with Fortran sub-routines implementing
the new equation and standards for other fluids is scheduled to
be released in the spring of 2000 from the NIST Standard Reference
Data Program. To learn more, check out www.nist.gov/srd
on the World Wide Web at
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