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JULY 2000 INDUSTRY NEWS

 

Essco Cal Lab Earns Guide 25 Accreditation
Chelmsford, MA (July 6 ) - Essco Calibration Laboratory of Chelmsford announced their accreditation to ISO/IEC Guide 25 by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) of Frederick, MD. ISO/IEC Guide 25 is a standard detailing the requirements for competent testing and calibration laboratories around the world.

"This undertaking has proven to be a very successful team effort" states the lab's president, Dave Donnelly. "It demonstrates our total company commitment to maintaining Essco's position as New England's leading calibration laboratory by meeting the quality requirements of all the industries we serve." Essco serves over 1300 companies throughout the region.

Accreditation to this standard goes beyond the ISO 9000 registration process that many companies have undergone over the past ten years. Accreditation involves the review of the quality system, but also includes actual auditing and evaluation of the technical competence of the lab by calibration professionals. The lab underwent rigorous review and auditing this past February and has just completed the process. The accreditation has become a necessary requirement to support the automotive industry and to ensure that our overseas business partners accept measurements taken here.

Essco Calibration Laboratory has been operating in Massachusetts since 1961 and has operated from their Chelmsford facility since 1989. They are New England's largest independent calibration lab, employing 52 people at their Alpha Road site.

 

FARO Achieves ISO/IEC Guide 25 Accreditation
Lake Mary, FL - July 18, 2000 - FARO Technologies, Inc. has recently achieved accreditation to ISO/IEC Guide 25 for Calibration and Certification of Measuring and Test Equipment. Performed by Bureau Veritas Quality International (BVQI), the ISO/IEC Guide 25 accreditation is in addition to FARO's existing ISO 9001 Registration. In order to achieve accreditation, FARO's calibration and certification areas, certification documents, technicians, training and procedures met the stringent guidelines required by an independent auditor. As a world leader in CAM2 (Computer-Aided Manufacturing Manufacturing Measurement), FARO Technologies seeks to maintain the highest quality standards for its services.

"In obtaining Guide 25 certification, we are on the leading edge in response to the manufacturing industry's requirement that sub-tier manufacturers test their products using accredited laboratories," said Simon Raab, President & CEO of FARO Technologies, Inc.

 

TestMart™ to Offer Test and Measurement Products Through Ariba B2B Commerce Platform
SAN BRUNO, Calif. - July 13, 2000 - TestMartTM, the leading information and commerce marketplace in the test and measurement (T&M) industry, today announced that the company will make its T&M commerce and information offerings available through the Ariba® B2B Commerce Platform™. TestMart has joined Ariba Supplier Link, the Ariba (NASDAQ: ARBA) supplier partner initiative designed to make goods and services readily available to corporate buyers and B2B marketplaces on the Internet.

Through its open Ariba Commerce Services Network™, the Ariba B2B Commerce Platform provides TestMart with a single, Internet-based point of access and integration with buyers and marketplaces worldwide. The Ariba Commerce Services Network will also provide TestMart and its customers with seamless integration to efficient trading mechanisms and Internet-hosted commerce processes such as content management services, global supplier directories, sourcing tools, electronic payment, and streamlined transaction services.

"Just as Ariba offers a convenient, single platform for conducting e-commerce, TestMart is a true one-stop shop for the T&M community," said TestMart President and CEO Peter Ostrow. "This alliance not only extends TestMart's reach, it provides T&M professionals using Ariba with an efficient, cost-effective commerce and research solution that capitalizes on Ariba's advanced e-commerce capabilities. Our cooperation with Ariba represents a true win-win proposition for TestMart, Ariba, and its users."

"We are pleased to welcome TestMart to the rapidly growing number of supplier companies participating on the global Ariba B2B Commerce Platform," said Cindy Elkins, Senior Director, Supplier and Content Solutions, Ariba. "By making its substantial T&M commerce and content offerings readily available to all organizations on the Ariba B2B Commerce Platform, TestMart will provide its customers with the opportunity to conduct business more efficiently and to reap the global economies of scale of B2B e-commerce."

 

NIST, NACLA Sign Agreement, Aim for Smoother, Simpler Laboratory Accreditation System
TORONTO July 13, 2000 -- A milestone in the development of a national system for laboratory accreditation was reached today with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the National Cooperation for Laboratory Accreditation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the Commerce Department's Technology Administration.

Under the MOU, the organizations aim to coordinate the more than 100 private-sector and government programs that assess and accredit testing and calibration laboratories in the United States. Lack of a coordinating mechanism has led to unnecessary duplication and sometimes contradictory accreditation standards and requirements, resulting in inefficiencies that can disadvantage U.S. exporters and other businesses and organizations that rely on the services of accredited laboratories.

The agreement was signed during a NACLA board meeting held in advance of the annual symposium of the National Conference of Standards Laboratories, a 1,550-member organization focused on the testing and calibration needs of industry and government and on issues in measurement science. During the weeks-long public comment period that preceded today's signing, NCSL was among 16 associations, businesses and government agencies that endorsed the goals of the MOU. The agreement, NCSL wrote, "will enhance acceptance of accredited laboratories and promote trade within the United States and to other countries."

Richard Kayser, Director of NIST's Technology Services, signed the MOU on behalf of NIST. In 1995, Congress charged NIST with coordinating federal, state and local conformity assessment activities. NACLA President Donald Heirman, former manager of Lucent Technologies Global Product Compliance Laboratory, represented NACLA. NACLA is a private-sector, nonprofit organization, formed in 1998 to foster "development of a system for recognizing the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, and worldwide acceptance of their test and calibration reports."

Details of the agreement are summarized in a fact sheet available on the NIST web site at www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/mou.htm. The full text of the MOU and its appendices can be found on the NIST web page, at http://ts.nist.gov/.

 

Dr. Arthur J. Carty will be NCSL 2000 Keynote Speaker (from NCSL web site)
Dr. Carty took office as President of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in July 1994. Since then, he has been promoting the vision of NRC as a leader in the development of an innovative, knowledge-based economy through science and technology. He is an active researcher in the field of chemistry and a former President of the Canadian Society for Chemistry. His research interests are in the areas of synthetic chemistry, metal clusters, polynuclear activation of small molecules, and new materials. He has published over 250 papers in research journals, in addition to review articles and book chapters, and has chaired or served on many peer evaluation committees for NSERC and other organizations. He is currently an associate member of the NSERC Council and a member of the Board of the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS) Network, one of the networks of Centres of Excellence.

Prior to his appointment at NRC, Dr. Carty spent 27 years at the University of Waterloo where he was successively Professor of Chemistry, Chair of the Chemistry Department and Dean of Research. He spent two years as an assistant professor at Memorial University prior to joining Waterloo. Dr. Carty has served on many boards and councils and is currently a member of the Atomic Energy Control Board, the Boards of the Communications Research Centre and of the Ottawa Center for Research and Innovation, the Environment Canada R&D Advisory Board, the Department of National Defence R&D Advisory Board, the International Advisory Board for the APEC Center for Technology Foresight, Thailand and the Interim Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Among the numerous honours he has received are the Alcan Award of the Chemical Institute of Canada, the E.W.R. Steacie Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry, the Montreal Medal of the Chemical Institute of Canada, the Purvis Award of the Society of Chemical Industry, and the title of Officer of the "Ordre National du Mérite" in France.He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an Honorary Fellow of The Chemical Institute of Canada and has honorary degrees from the "Université de Rennes" in France, Carleton University, the University of Waterloo and Acadia University.

 

IEEE Honors Bill Gates and Andy Grove with President's Awards
PISCATAWAY, N.J. June 26 -- William H. Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, and Andrew S. Grove, chairman of Intel Corporation, were named recipients of the first IEEE President's Awards on Friday, 23 June at the IEEE Third Millennium Medals presentation in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Grove, who also is the 2000 recipient of the IEEE's highest award, the IEEE Medal of Honor, was the keynote speaker for the event.

Gates was recognized for "his dramatic contributions to the growth of the personal computer industry, and through those efforts, to industry and society in general." He also was named "for innovations in software, operating systems and applications, and for stimulating the use of the computer in our everyday lives."

Grove received the IEEE President's Award "for continuing to create untold opportunities in the fields of interest of the IEEE, its members and society and for his profound impact on the semiconductor industry and the computer industry worldwide."

 

ISA signs agreement with Australian Instrumentation Society
ISA and the Institute of Instrumentation and Control Australia (IICA) have agreed to work together to further the professional interests of measurement and control professionals and practitioners throughout the world, especially in Australia.

The organizations will encourage the dissemination of technical information and promote understanding and cooperation between the members of IICA and ISA. This formal agreement is part of continuing talks on ways to create a close affiliation between the two organizations, up to and including IICA becoming an operating entity of ISA.

IICA is the professional body serving those involved in the field of instrumentation and control in Australia. IICA has approximately 1,400 members from both industry and academia.

ISA, which was founded in 1945, is the largest international professional society serving the instrumentation, systems, and automation profession and its members, with 43,000 members in 110 countries.

ISA’s president, Dr. Perry L. Grady, announced that the agreement was signed following a series of talks among senior leaders of ISA and members of the IICA Federal Executive, including a meeting among the leaders in Sydney, Australia, during ICEX 2000, IICA’s annual conference and trade show.

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