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A team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), George Mason University, and the University of Maryland has made nano-sized sensors that detect volatile organic compounds—harmful pollutants released from paints, cleaners, pesticides, and other products—that…
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Interested in improving your organization’s excellence? Then sign up for one of the two 2011 Baldrige Regional Conferences. This year, they’re being held in Missouri and Alabama.
Senior leaders from the seven organizations selected for the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige…
(GBMP: Boston) -- Conference agenda details have been released for the 7th Annual Northeast Shingo Prize Conference being held at the Mass Mutual Convention Center, in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Oct. 5–6, 2011. This year’s theme, “Made Lean in America,” emphasizes how continuous improvement and…
(FARO Technologies: Lake Mary, FL) -- FARO Technologies, a leading provider of portable measurement and imaging solutions, along with the University of South Florida (USF) has announced that they will partner to provide terrestrial laser-scanning training to purchasers of FARO Laser Scanners.…
(NVision: Coppell, TX) -- NVision Inc.’s Engineering Service Division is now offering product-defect analysis, which can potentially be introduced in product liability litigation to prove a manufacturer innocent of producing a defective or harmful product. The company has partnered with Materials…
(Electro Standards Laboratories: Cranston, RI) -- The Model 4215 Dual-Channel Smart Load Cell Indicator, Catalog No. 304217, measures and controls strain-gauge, transducer-based systems. Model 4215 features TEDS-Tag Auto Load Cell ID. It can be used in systems that test jet engine thrust. The unit…
(Harvard Computing Group: Devens, MA) -- Harvard Computing Group has released an integrated software solution for Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) compliance. Built on Excel, Visio, and TaskMap, SOX Expert TaskMap Edition is the first result of Harvard Computing’s collaboration with SOX XPress LLC, a long-time…
A new microspectrometer architecture that uses compact, disc-shaped resonators could address the challenges of integrated lab-on-chip sensing systems that now require a large, off-chip spectrometer to achieve high resolution.
Spectrometers have conventionally been expensive and bulky bench-top…
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- The 2010 Quality Leader of the Year Award was presented to Bennie Fowler, group vice president of Global Quality and New Model Launch, Ford Motor Co., at the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Automotive Division annual awards event held on June 21, 2011, at the Automotive Hall…
Just when you think that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has to stick to the script by quoting chapter and verse of current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs), it gets very progressive and offers straight talk about corporate commitment and leadership.
I have reported before that the FDA…
By way of background, I am a senior citizen but not too technically challenged. I know how to operate my HD television and the DVR; I have a cell phone and understand how to use the speaker phone; OnStar is in my car along with a TomTom GPS. As a way to connect to the past, though, I do have a Sony…
There is a new international standard published June 9, 2011, that might just warrant your attention. This standard’s purpose is help organizations follow a systematic approach to improving energy performance, including energy efficiency, energy use, and consumption. It applies to variables that…
(AMN Healthcare, San Diego) -- Health care facility administrators and physicians report that the most serious obstacle they face in forming Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) is physician alignment, according to a new survey.
The survey, conducted by AMN Healthcare, the largest health care…
(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- A book newly published by Quality Press, the publishing arm of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), sheds light on how a quality framework in compliance with standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) can have a major effect on improving…
(AIAG: Warrendale, PA) -- AIAG, a nonprofit, member-supported organization that works with a range of manufacturing companies and service providers to help them operate at peak performance, is partnering with the SAE International to launch a joint global-sourcing engineering certificate program.…
(Mecmesin: Slinfold, West Sussex) -- The new Vortex-xt torque tester has been designed for quality control managers who need a simple, accurate, yet rugged torque-testing system for the production floor or quality control laboratory.
With the Vortex-xt, static and rotary torque tests are…
(ISO: Geneva) -- Leaders of the international groups of experts that develop ISO International Standards recently gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, for a two-day, highly interactive conference to improve even further the efficiency and usefulness of the solutions and benefits ISO offers to business…
(Nanosolar: San Jose, CA) -- Thin-film solar innovation leader Nanosolar Inc. today announced new efficiency benchmarks of 11.6 percent for the Nanosolar Utility Panel and 13.9 percent for its printed CIGS (Copper, Indium, Gallium, Selenium) solar cells, as measured by the Fraunhofer Institute for…
In “Why Companies Fail Quality Audits” (Manufacturing Engineering, May 1996), Robert M. Bakker cites control of documents as one of the three major sources of QS-9000—now ISO/TS 16949—nonconformances, and there is indeed plenty that can go wrong, even with an electronic system. Conflicting…
As I was recently going through some old papers, I came across a letter that my good friend and fraternity brother, Ron Sparling, and I had sent to the general manager of a General Motors Corp. (GM) division where another close friend and fraternity brother had worked.
Our fraternity brother, Mark…
Across the life cycle of delivering a product to market, engineers face many obstacles. They often find themselves spending a lot of time reworking or repairing parts that fail inspection but may fit and function properly when assembled; or, they might pass inspection but do not fit with other…
(ANSI: New York) -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has announced that the highly anticipated energy management system standard—ISO 150001—from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is now available at ANSI’s webstore.
With world energy prices soaring and…
(ReverseEnineering.com: La Jolla, CA) -- ReverseEngineering.com, a PTC Partner Advantage partner, has released its plug-in for PTC’s Creo Elements/Pro, which allows users to scan faster while maintaining high-quality products. The plug-in allows engineers and designers to digitize data from…
(FARO Technologies: Lake Mary, FL) -- FARO Technologies Inc., a global provider of portable measurement and imaging solutions, has launched a new customer-engagement initiative: “Show Us Your FARO.”
The idea is simple. Contestants head to FARO’s Facebook page and upload videos or pictures of…
(Fluke Corp.: Everett, WA) -- Fluke Corp., manufacturer of portable electronic test and measurement technology, has introduced the P3 Series of thermal imagers. These thermal imagers deliver proven, practical performance for a wide range of diagnostic applications. Based on the award-winning…
