[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 163 (Tuesday, August 22, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 50962]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-21335]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


Announcement of a Meeting To Discuss an Opportunity To Join a 
Cooperative Research and Development Consortium on Service Life 
Prediction of Sealant Formulations Consortia

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION:  Notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
invites interested parties to attend a meeting on September 24, 2000 
and September 25, 2000 on Service Life Prediction of Sealant 
Formulations. The goal of the consortium is to demonstrate the 
effectiveness of a reliability based approach to the prediction of 
service life for a sealant formulations.

DATES: The meeting will take place on September 24, 2000 from 9:00 a.m. 
until 5:00 p.m., and on September 25, 2000 from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 
p.m. Interested parties should contact NIST to confirm their interest 
at the address, telephone number or FAX number shown below.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will take place in Lecture Room B of the 
Administration Building (Building 101), National Institute of Standards 
and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Christopher C. White, Building and 
Fire Research Building (226), Room B350, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8621, 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-
8621. Telephone: 301-975-6010; FAX: 301-990-6891; e-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Any program undertaken will be within the 
scope and confines of The Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 
(Public Law 99-502, 15 U.S.C. 3710a), which provides federal 
laboratories including NIST, with the authority to enter into 
cooperative research agreements with qualified parties. Under this law, 
NIST may contribute personnel, equipment, and facilities but no funds 
to the cooperative research program. This is not a grant program.
    The R&D staff of each industrial partner in the Consortium will be 
able to interact with NIST researchers regarding current experimental 
methods to determine the service life of sealant formulations. The 
current state-of-the-art for service life predictions employ outdoor 
exposure as the only reliable test method. This leads to a choice by 
the manufacturers of new sealant formulations: Conduct these tests and 
incur long product introduction times, or omit these tests and incur 
increased risk of liability exposure. There is little confidence in the 
relationship between accelerated exposure and service life.
    This conference will focus on the implementation of a reliability 
based protocol to establish confidence in accelerated determination of 
the service life of sealant formulations. Additionally, the issues of 
proper installation, joint construction and proper materials selection 
will be discussed as they relate to durability of in-service sealants.

    Dated: August 14, 2000.
Karen H. Brown,
Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. 00-21335 Filed 8-21-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-M