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ATP

Cooperative Research Brightens Future of Fiber-Optic Networks

Genoa Corp. (Fremont, Calif.) recently unveiled a semiconductor chip roughly a square millimeter in size that soon may revolutionize the design of local communication networks, bringing the speed and capacity of fiber-optic networks dramatically closer to the individual consumer. Genoa’s new device is the world’s first single-chip linear optical amplifier, developed as part of a research project under the NIST Advanced Technology Program.

Fiber-optic networks are used increasingly for communications because they can move “firehose” quantities of data at literally lightning speed. But there are drawbacks; working with light is not easy. One significant problem is the need to periodically boost or amplify the optical signal along its path. An electrical-based network would use a transistor, but until now there were no optical “transistors.” Networks use devices about the size of a video cassette, generally hand-assembled at low production rates, costing tens of thousands of dollars each. Amplifier cost and complexity has severely limited the use of optical networks except in long distance applications.

Genoa’s chip represents a new technological approach. The “linear optical amplifier,” a semiconductor device with a tiny built-in laser, can simultaneously amplify dozens of different wavelengths—“broadband”—without distortion. Packaged, it’s about the size of a sugar cube, 100 times smaller than contemporary amplifiers, and at production-level quantities the price is expected to be a tiny fraction of the current technology. The LOA chip is expected not only to enable greater local use of optical networks but to expand their capabilities.

More information on the Advanced Technology Program is available on the web at www.atp.nist.gov. More information on Genoa Corp. and the LOA chip is available at www.genoa.com.

Media Contact:
Michael Baum, (301) 975-2763

 

 

Small Business

Ferris Wheel Maker Gets on MEP Ride to Productivity

Since introducing the first portable ferris wheel in 1900, the Eli Bridge Co. of Jacksonville, Ill., has been providing the United States and the world with the rides that many of us consider an essential part of summer. However, while it takes great pride in the quality and modern craftsmanship of its manufacturing, Eli Bridge’s system for tracking costs and inventory was out-of-date and inefficient, costing the small company time and money.

For help, the company contacted the Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center, an affiliate of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership. After meeting with Eli Bridge president and CEO Patty Sullivan (great-granddaughter to company founder W.E. Sullivan) and assessing the company’s entire operation, IMEC specialists helped the company select and install a new software tracking system. As a result, Eli Bridge reduced costs by $100,000 and created five new jobs.

MEP is a nationwide network of 400 manufacturing extension centers and field offices providing a wide variety of expertise and services to small manufacturers (under 500 employees) in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Small manufacturers may reach the nearest NIST MEP center by calling (800) MEP-4MFG (637-4634). Information about the program is available on the web at www.mep.nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767

 

Materials

New International Standards Activity in Polymer Mass Spectrometry

A new technical working area—TWA 28—in quantitative mass spectroscopy of synthetic polymers has been formed within the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (known as VAMAS) to explore the development of a standard method for determining the molecular mass distribution of synthetic polymers (plastics).

With recent advances in mass spectrometry, it is now possible to measure the molecular mass of some biological and synthetic polymers. The distribution of the molecular chain lengths—the number of small and long ones—affects the processing of materials and the properties of the final product. The first step is to identify the mixture of chains. A variation of time-of-flight (refererred to as ToF) mass spectrometry called matrix assisted laser desorption ionization has the potential to be an absolute method for measuring the molecular mass of polymers. MALDI ToF mass spectrometry uses laser ablation to produce charged polymers in the vapor state, which allows the direct measurement of the mass distribution.

The VAMAS activity brings together leading laboratories in Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada and the United States in a collaborative research project that will develop the test protocols and establish the systematic measurement uncertainties of the MALDI method. NIST is chairing the new working area.

For more information on the new VAMAS activity, contact NIST’s Charles Guttman, chair of TWA 28, at (301) 975-6729, charles.guttman@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Pamela Houghtaling, (301) 975-5745

 

 

 

Standards

Grant Will Help Advance National Standards Strategy

The American National Standards Institute will use a recently awarded $500,000 annual grant from NIST to support international standardization and conformity assessment activities influencing international trade and regulations and to help advance the aims of a recently adopted U.S. National Standards Strategy.

In line with key objectives of the NSS, including work to “improve processes internationally to more closely reflect our [United States] principles and vision” and to "provide an outreach program to show those outside the United States the value of U.S. technology, standards and processes,” ANSI says it will allocate NIST grant funds to initiatives such as outreach and education. Monies also will be used to identify opportunities to ensure that US technology, standards and standards-development processes receive fair consideration from other nations and regions.

Education initiatives will include training sessions for US participants in standards bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission, and for representatives of developing nations that trade with the United States. ANSI also will provide training to acquaint other nations with the US standards and conformity assessment system. Another activity will help standards personnel in developing countries acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to host the secretariats (or administrative headquarters) of committees that develop standards for international use. The Western Hemisphere and Asia-Pacific region will be the primary focus of these efforts.

The NSS, which was developed by public and private-sector representatives of the standards community under ANSI’s leadership, was approved on Aug. 31, 2000.

For more information, contact Walter Leight, NIST Office of Standards Services, (301) 975-4010, walter.leight@nist.gov. At ANSI, contact Stacy Leistner, (212) 642-4931, sleistne@ansi.org; or Joseph Tretler, (212) 642-4977, jtretler@ansi.org.

Media Contact:
Mark Bello, (301) 975-3776

 

 

 

Welding

NIST Says ‘More Attention Must Be Paid to Repair Welds’

A new paper from NIST suggests that more attention must be paid to weld repairs in order to avoid failures due to problems such as stress-corrosion cracking. Even at the outset, a welded joint has a higher risk of failure from degradation of base material near the weld because of the welding process itself. This risk of failure is increased if repair welding is performed.

“Therefore, the welding, quality control and quality assurance technologies need to be developed to more stringent requirements if we want to avoid the conditions for failure, and so achieve higher reliability for welded construction,” reads the report prepared by Ivan Samardzic, a visiting scientist from Croatia, and Thomas Siewert of NIST. Their paper discusses possible difficulties that could occur during repair welding of high-strength steel used to manufacture pressure vessels for the storage and transport of liquefied gases. The crux of these problems, they report, is the complex temperature variations that occur during the welding repair which “can cause significant degradation of the welded-joint zone.”

Repair welds are usually short, so their temperature fields are more complex than long welds. The degradation is most severe at weld starts and stops, but also can occur at other locations along the weld and for different stress conditions. Much of the report concerns degradation in properties at the weld starts and stops.

For a copy of paper no.18-01, contact Sarabeth Harris, NIST, MC104, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 497-3237; sarabeth@boulder.nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Fred McGehan Boulder, (303) 497-3246