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Quality
2002 Baldrige
Award Honors Three, Including First in Health Care
On
Nov. 21, 2002, President
George W. Bush and Commerce Secretary Don Evans announced the
three winners of the 2002
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s premier
award for performance excellence and quality achievement. For the
first time in the history of the Baldrige Awards, a winner was named
in the health
care category.
The
Baldrige program is managed by the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) in conjunction with the private sector.
The
2002 Baldrige Award recipients are: Motorola
Inc. Commercial, Government and Industrial Solutions Sector, Schaumburg,
Ill. (manufacturing category); Branch-Smith
Printing Division, Fort Worth, Texas (small business category);
and SSM
Health Care, St. Louis, Mo. (health care category).
The
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is given to U.S. organizations
that have exemplary achievements in seven areas: leadership, strategic
planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human
resource focus, process management, and results.
All
applicants for the Baldrige Award undergo a rigorous examination process
that involves a minimum of 300 hours of review by an independent board
of examiners primarily from the private sector. Final-stage applicants
receive about 1,000 hours of review and are visited by teams of examiners
to clarify questions and verify information. Each applicant receives
a report citing strengths and opportunities for improvement.
The
award promotes excellence in organizational performance, recognizes
the quality and performance achievements of U.S. organizations, and
publicizes successful performance strategies. It has five categories:
manufacturing, service, small business, education and health care.
The award is not given for specific products or services. Since 1988,
49 organizations have received the Baldrige Award.
The
three 2002 Baldrige honorees are expected to receive their awards
in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., early next year.
For
details on the 2002 Baldrige Award recipients as well as links to
information on the Baldrige National Quality Program, go to www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/baldrige2002.htm.
Media
Contact:
Jan
Kosko, (301) 975-2767
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Honors
NIST’s
Gebbie Receives Service to America Medal
Katharine
Gebbie, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) Physics Laboratory, was presented with the Career
Achievement Medal during the ceremony for the first annual Service
to America Medals on Nov. 13, 2002. Co-sponsored by the Atlantic
Media Company (publishers of Government Executive, National Journal
and The Atlantic Monthly) and the Partnership for Public Service,
the awards “pay tribute to America’s dedicated federal
workforce, highlighting those who have made significant contributions
to our country. Honorees are chosen based on their commitment, innovation
and creativity, as well as the impact of their work on addressing
the needs of the nation.”
Gebbie
is being recognized for building a world-class organization in the
NIST Physics Laboratory. Among the laboratory’s many accomplishments
are two Nobel Prize winners for physics in 1997 and 2001.
Gebbie
joined NIST in 1968 as a physicist in the Quantum Physics Division
of JILA, a cooperative enterprise between NIST and the University
of Colorado at Boulder. Before being appointed director of the newly
formed Physics Laboratory in 1991, she served as chief of the Quantum
Physics Division and acting director of the Center for Atomic, Molecular
and Optical Physics.
Media
Contact:
Laura
Ost, (301) 975-4034
Thermometry
NIST Innovations
to Improve Industrial Temperature Measurement
How
hot (or cold) is your industrial proc-essing environment? Thermodynamic
temperatures are difficult to measure, and new techniques are continually
being developed to make the mathematical formulas in the International
Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90) more closely represent the laws
of nature. Recent innovations by the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) Physics and Chemical Science and Technology
(CSTL) laboratories are among the advances working toward new and
improved reference thermometers for industry and research.
One of the new
CSTL techniques uses acoustic thermometry, which involves measuring
the speed of sound waves in a basketball-sized acoustic resonator
filled with gas, and then using this value and fundamental physical
properties to calculate temperature. The result will be a two-fold
reduction in uncertainty in future temperature scales—over the
range 273 to 800 Kelvin (roughly from 0 degrees Celsius to 530 degrees
Celsius)—improving NIST’s calibrations of the standard platinum
resistance thermometers widely used in industry.
In an effort to
reduce uncertainties at much higher temperatures, NIST’s Physics
Laboratory is developing sensors and methods to improve radiation
(or non-contact) thermometry. The sensors under development, called
absolute pyrometers, are calibrated in a process that determines optical
power by comparison to electrical power. Planned improvements in radiation
thermometry will be achieved by accurately measuring the temperature
of a “blackbody” (a test source that absorbs almost all
radiant energy with no reflection) operating at the freezing point
of a particular metal.
These techniques
were among the many topics discussed at the recent 8th International
Temperature Symposium, which was co-sponsored by NIST and the Instrumentation,
Systems, and Automation Society. The symposium has been held about
every 10 years since 1919. Participants from 32 countries made more
than 210 presentations on real-world measurement problems, new techniques
and improved understanding of established techniques. Proceedings
from the meeting will be published in the near future.
For more information,
contact Dean Ripple, (301) 975-4801, dean.ripple@nist.gov.
Chemistry
Seventh
Edition of Popular NIST Refrigerant Database Released
The
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released
the latest version of one of its most widely used standard reference
databases, NIST SRD 23, Version 7.0, Reference Fluid Thermodynamic
and Transport Properties (known as REFPROP). The first six editions
of the database were recognized as the de facto standard in the refrigeration
industry, as well as for research labs, for providing the critical
data needed to evaluate new refrigerants and optimize the energy efficiency
of heat pumps and other refrigeration equipment.
REFPROP
7.0 is based on the most accurate pure fluid and mixture models currently
available. It features 39 pure fluids and mixtures with up to 20 components,
including most of the commonly used refrigerants and their mixtures,
the ammonia/water mixture, and mixtures of constituents of air. Fortran
routines are provided to calculate thermodynamic and transport properties
given a wide variety of input conditions. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
is available that combines the power of Fortran with the cell manipulation
offered by Excel. A separate graphical user interface, designed for
the Windows operating system, provides a convenient means of accessing
the models. An online help system provides user instructions and information
screens that display fluid constants and documentation for the property
models.
To
purchase or learn more about REFPROP 7.0, go to www.nist.gov/srd/nist23.htm.
Media
Contact:
Fred
McGehan Boulder, (303) 497-7000
NIST Research
Papers: ‘The Future is Full of (Laser) Light’
It
is not always easy to look into the future. But in the case of physics,
the future is definitely full of light, as in lasers and optics.
Recent developments in the measurement of optical frequencies at
the infrared and visible levels have opened up new avenues for research.
One practical result may be the development of super-accurate atomic
clocks based on optical frequency measurements rather than the microwave
frequency measurements that are the basis of today’s state-of-the-art
timekeeping devices (such as the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock that
is accurate to one second in 30 million years).
Two
recent research papers from the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) outline this bright future. They state that
a “remarkable synergy” has been formed between precise
optical frequency measurements and ultrafast (femtosecond, or one-quadrillionth
of a second) laser science. The result has been the control of the
frequency spectrum produced by mode-locked lasers which consists
of a “comb” of sharp lines. If the comb is broad enough,
it is relatively straightforward to determine the absolute frequency
of all of the comb lines. The authors state this development has
“revolutionized” optical frequency measurements and led
to demonstrations of optical atomic clocks based on optical frequency
transitions.
Additionally,
the researchers state, “the comb technology is having a strong
impact on time-domain applications, including control of the
carrier-envelope phase, precision timing synchronization, and synthesis
of a single pulse from independent lasers.”
“Precision
absolute optical frequency metrology and synthesis is becoming a
common laboratory tool,” they conclude.
For
a copy of these papers (36-02), contact Sarabeth Harris, NIST, MC104,
Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 497-3237; sarabeth@boulder.nist.gov.
For technical information, contact Jun Ye, NIST, MC 848, Boulder,
Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 735-3171; ye@jila.colorado.edu.
NEMI Recognizes
NIST Contributions to U.S. Electronics Success
The
National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI), an industry-led
consortium whose mission is to assure global leadership of the
North American electronics industry, recently honored two National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers for their
important contributions.
Barbara
Goldstein of NIST’s Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Laboratory was the inaugural recipient of the Outstanding Individual
Leadership Award for the initiative she has taken in leading NEMI’s
efforts in factory integration and supply chain communication
since 1996. In 1997, she helped launch NEMI’s Factory Information
Systems working group, which she continues to co-lead.
This
working group spawned projects that have developed seven American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards, more than 10 consortia-based
standards (within a project known as RosettaNet), and is continuing
to work to harmonize conflicting approaches to design data exchange.
The resulting standards have been integrated into commercial offerings
and system integration strategies at several major electronics
manufacturers.
Carol
Handwerker of NIST’s Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
was honored for her work as leader of the Alloy Group in NEMI’s
Lead-Free Assembly Project. American electronics manufacturers
use about 10,000 tons of tin-lead solder annually. Government
regulations are moving toward banning lead in electronics equipment
and requiring manufacturers to pay for disposal of lead-bearing
products as hazardous waste.
To
remain competitive in the global marketplace, American manufacturers
teamed up with NIST to develop economical ways to produce lead-free
assemblies. The project was launched in 1998 to focus on lead-free
alloys, associated industrial processes and reliability measures.
The
NEMI project included development of an industry-standard lead-free
alloy, and demonstration of the viability of manufacturing circuit
board assemblies with existing tools and equipment with that alloy.
Extensive reliability testing showed that lead-free components
with the NEMI-
recommended alloy were more reliable than their tin-lead competitors.
As a result, manufacturers are starting to shift to lead-free
products.
Editor: Michael E. Newman
Date created: 11/25/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov
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