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Plastics
ATP Partner Thinks
Big by Going Small with Nanotech Materials
Nanotechnology
is delivering on its promise of improved performance in products ranging
from dental adhesives to flame-retardant components for military ships.
This is possible through the use of novel nanotechnology materials
that can be manufactured affordably, thanks to support from the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program
(ATP).
Polyhedral
Oligomeric SilSesquioxanes (POSS®), made
by Hybrid Plastics Inc. (Fountain Valley, Calif.), enable the design
of additives that make plastics that are unusually lightweight, durable,
heat tolerant and environmentally friendly. POSS® combines organic
and inorganic materials in molecules with an average diameter of 1.5
nanometers (about 60 billionths of an inch. They can be used as either
additives in or replacements for traditional plastics.
First
developed by the U.S. Air Force for aerospace applications, POSS®
originally cost as much as $5,000 per pound and took up to three years
to produce. In Hybrid Plastics’ three-year ATP project (active
from 1998-2001), the company simplified and redesigned the process
chemistry. This reduced production costs 100-fold to about $50 per
pound. The small start-up company began making the materials commercially
in 1998, and now has more than 250 customers.
Current
applications of POSS® include dental adhesives, in which a strengthened
resin provides a strong interface between teeth and restorative material,
and resins with reduced flammability for use in composite structures
on naval ships. In addition, tests have shown that POSS® materials
are much more resistant to radiation damage and erosion than conventional
polymers used in space vehicles and platforms.
To
learn more about the ATP, go to www.atp.nist.gov.
For more information on Hybrid Plastics™ and POSS®, go to
www.hybridplastics.com.
Media
Contact:
Michael
E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
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Quality
Learn
from First Baldrige Health Care Recipient at March Conference
The
upcoming Quest for Excellence XV conference will be the first opportunity
to learn about the exceptional practices and results of the 2002
recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, including
the first winner in the health care category, SSM Health Care of
St. Louis, Mo. The other two awardees are Motorola Inc. Commercial,
Government, and Industrial Solutions Sector of Schaumburg, Ill.
(manufacturing category) and Branch-Smith Printing Division of Fort
Worth, Texas (small business category).
During
the three-day conference (Mar. 30-Apr. 2, 2003), senior leaders
and others from each of the three 2002 Baldrige Award recipients
will give presentations and answer questions about their best practices
and lessons learned on their journey to performance excellence.
A free, pre-conference workshop will provide information about the
Baldrige criteria for performance excellence and help attendees
begin a self-assessment process using the criteria.
The
conference is being held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington,
D.C. The advance registration fee, due by March 2, is $995. The
fee after March 2 is $1,145. A discounted fee for education faculty
is $650 (advance) and $800 (regular). For further information, call
(301) 975-2036 or visit the Baldrige National Quality Program Web
site at www.quality.nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Jan
Kosko, (301) 975-2767
Health
NIST, UW Research
May Lead to New Breast Cancer Detection Methods
Other
than skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer
among women in the United States. More than 180,000 women are diagnosed
with breast cancer each year.
Research has led
to progress against breast cancer—better treatments, a lower
chance of death from the disease and improved quality of life. Diagnosis,
however, has not changed for years, relying on traditional physical
exams and mammograms. Now, a research project being conducted by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Electronics
and Electrical Engineering Laboratory and the University of Wisconsin-Madison
is developing the technology necessary for making probes that may
lead to more accurate methods for detecting and diagnosing breast
tumors.
The electric and
magnetic properties that comprise healthy human breast tissue are
affected by conditions that include age, body fat and a woman’s
cycle. Considering this complex base of information, the NIST and
UW-Madison researchers determined the characteristics for coaxial
probes that can be used to measure these properties accurately.
The probes consist
of flangeless, open-ended coaxial lines that are operational over
a frequency range from 1 to 25 gigahertz. The development of this
technology is an important first step toward the future use of probes
to discern between the properties of healthy tissue and malignancies.
For more information
on the research, contact Christopher L. Holloway, (303) 497-6184,
holloway@boulder.nist.gov.
Manufacturing
March
Forum to Address Key Issues for Manufacturing Community
A
plethora of important issues confronting the manufacturing community
will be addressed at an upcoming national forum organized by the National
Academies and sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST). The event, “New Directions in Manufacturing,”
will be held March 27-28, 2003, at the National Academy of Sciences
in Washington, DC
Among
the topics to be discussed:
-
Why is it important for the nation to care about manufacturing?
-
How does manufacturing impact society as the US economy becomes more
service oriented?
-
What are the economic, societal and quality-of-life implications of
US manufacturing jobs moving overseas?
-
Will information technology, nanotechnology, lean manufacturing or
other recent innovations dramatically improve US manufacturers’
bottom line?
-
What is the role of manufacturing in national and homeland security?
The
forum is intended to reinforce the importance of manufacturing to
the US economy and national security, and to convey excitement about
modern manufacturing technologies to policy makers and leaders. Forum
participants will include executives and researchers in diverse sectors
of the economy, users of manufactured products, government policy
makers and investors.
The
agenda, which is still being developed, will include sessions on the
importance of manufacturing, economic perspectives, globalization
and international issues, the impact of the information revolution,
and challenges and opportunities in new technologies.
Information
about forum registration and updates to the agenda can be found at
www.nationalacademies.org/bmaed.
Click on “New Directions in Manufacturing.”
Media
Contact:
Laura
Ost, (301) 975-4034
March Conference
to Address Challenges to Chipmakers
Leading
researchers from around the world will gather at the University
of Texas in Austin when the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) co-sponsors an international conference on the
technical challenges confronting the semiconductor industry.
The
five-day conference (March 24-28, 2003), Characterization and Metrology
for ULSI technology, will include sessions on metrology breakthroughs
expected to help shape the future of the semiconductor industry.
Among the research topics to be covered are: innovative manufacturing
techniques, recent developments in lithography, novel diagnostic
approaches, and advances in computer modeling and simulation.
Co-sponsoring
the conference with NIST are the University of Texas at Austin,
the National Science Foundation, International SEMATECH, the American
Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, the Electrochemical
Society, the American Vacuum Society and the Semiconductor Research
Corp.
Advance
registration for the conference is open until March 7, 2003. More
information, including a complete agenda and electronic registration
form, may be accessed at www.eeel.nist.gov/812/conference.
Team with
NIST’s Phan: Pentagon Structure Limited 9-11 Damage
Analysis
by a team of six of the nation’s prominent structural, fire
protection and forensic engineers—including National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) research structural researcher
Long Phan—concluded that the 60-year-old Pentagon in Washington,
DC, possessed a resilient structural system that curtailed the
damage done by the intentional crash of a hijacked plane on Sept.
11, 2001.
Released
on Jan. 23, 2003, by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE),
The Pentagon Building Performance Report showed that following
the 9-11 crash, the structural system redistributed the weight
of the building and its contents among the columns left standing,
thereby limiting the collapse of floors above the point of impact.
The
team concluded that the Pentagon’s structural performance
validates measures to reduce collapse resulting from unlikely
events. These measures include continuity, redundancy in design
and construction, and spirally steel-reinforced concrete columns
that absorb energy from a lateral load.
To
order a copy of The Pentagon Building Performance Report,
go to www.asce.org.
Satellite
Measures Sun’s True Power with NIST Help
 |
| NIST-calibrated
instruments aboard a new satellite launched by NASA should
help scientists gain important information about the sun's
effect on the Earth's atmosphere and climate.
|
Scientists
expect to gain important information about the sun’s effect
on the Earth’s atmosphere and climate from sophisticated
instruments—all calibrated by NIST or relying on components
measured by NIST—successfully launched on a satellite Jan.
25, 2003.
The
Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) has a five-year
assignment to provide precise and accurate daily measurements
of the sun’s radiant power (or light intensity). The satellite
will collect data on both total light output and amount of optical
radiation at particular wavelengths in the ultraviolet (UV)
to near-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Two
NIST-calibrated instruments will take spectral readings of the
UV intensity. NIST also calibrated an assortment of small photodiodes
for another instrument that will measure extreme ultraviolet
radiation (EUV) and low-energy X-rays. For additional instruments,
NIST performed accurate measurements of the areas of optical
apertures, which are used to define the conditions for various
solar irradiance measurements.
The
calibrations were performed at NIST’s Synchrotron Ultraviolet
Radiation Facility (SURF III), which offers specialized beamlines
with unique
calibration equipment and a highly accurate radiometric standard.
More
information about the mission can be found at http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce/index.html.
Editor: Michael E. Newman
Date created: 1/28/2003
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov
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