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1. NASA - Hubble Guidance Protection System. When the Hubble Space Telescope was being built, Perkin Elmer, a major contractor, required failsafe protection of the $350,000,000 guidance system during its transit from Connecticut to California. It was not known during this time if it would travel by plane, train, or truck. Advanced R & D was asked to design an enclosed system that would provide flow or purging gas to the sealed compartment containing the guidance system during this trip.  It was transported by airplane.  It required failsafe mechanisms to protect it in case of severe loss of cabin pressure or dramatic increase in cabin pressure during flight. It required carefully regulated gas flow and pressure control during the entire flight. This device was designed, constructed, tested and delivered by Advanced R & D.

2. Steel Patent Infringement. - Three major Steel Manufacturing Corporations were involved in a large patent Infringement case totaling over $450,000,000.00. Based on very extensive testing by Advanced R & D, the U.S. Patent Office reopened a patent file over 7 years old, a remarkably unusual action. Based on the Advanced R & D results and other information, the U.S. Patent Office then proceeded further to reverse earlier decisions and denied the 21 claims in the patent case.

3. NASA - "MOON Rays ". - Ever wonder why there are bright 'rays' or streaks on the moon coming from some of the larger craters, like Copernicus? NASA did. Dr. Sparrow, founder of Advanced R & D, had the privilege to open and analyze three different samples of lunar dust taken from three different lunar flight landings. These samples were taken from the bright 'ray' or streak areas and from normal lunar landscape. Based on his data and interpretation, he showed that the cause for these very bright rays was the presence of substantially higher Titanium ( Ti ) in the streaked areas. Titanium dioxide has very high reflectivity and is commonly used as the brightener in many paints.

4. Corning Glass - Universal Quantitative Analysis Method for SIMS - During the early years of development of SIMS, Corning Glass requested analysis of several of their treated glass systems. They were especially interested in how processing affected surface chemistry. One of their expert scientists visited on a Monday but they wanted quantitative results by Friday. Unfortunately, there were no known acceptable methods for obtaining quantitative SIMS information at that time. Dr. Sparrow, a Physical Chemist, could not sleep that night due to pondering this question. He got out of bed at 1:00AM and derived a mathematical relationship by 4:00 that morning to provide quantitative results from SIMS. These results were especially useful at helping Corning Glass determine processing conditions for their development of new products. Although the method has never been refined, it is still in use today in many areas of the World, over 20 years later, and his table of published relative sensitivities has been used in technical handouts of major instrument manufactures.

5. Forensic - A Fatal Motorcycle Accident. The death of a family member is always a painful and sorrowful experience. It is further aggravated when the death is caused by errors which may border on negligence or carelessness. A 14- year boy was killed when his motorcycle was hit by a large semi-trailer truck. Careful and tedious inspection of his motorcycle helmet showed tiny yellow specs embedded in the severe scratches left on the helmet from the accident. Chemical analysis of these particles matched the yellow paint on the highway centerline. Upon receipt of this information, it was shown that the truck had crossed the center line and an out-of-court settlement was made immediately to provide relief and peace to the family.

6. A 35-Story Glass Problem - Several hundred large, expensive windows of a modern, 35-story building started showing excessive degradation of the coated glass. A $3 to $5 million dollar lawsuit was initiated. The glass, known as spandrels, is constructed with a metallized coating to reduce sunlight transmission and excessive heat or light. It is also used to prevent outside vision into certain areas such as storage rooms, stairwells, bathrooms etc. The glass is supposed to be resistant to degradation for 10 to 20 years yet several hundred glass panels in one building were badly damaged after only 3 to 5 years. Information was needed to determine the cause for the degradation as well as potential remedies. A representative of Advanced R & D spent 3 days working with a construction crew to remove and sample glass panels from 11 of the windows in the building from the 20th floor to the 35th floor. Through extensive testing and simulated conditions within Advanced R & D, the mechanism and cause for the degradation of the metallized layer on the glass were found. This was presented in court to the satisfaction of the construction firm who saved significant liability in this and several similar law suits.

7. A Million-Dollar-a-Day Problem. A large manufacturer of consumer appliances was experiencing problems with defective paint coatings in their final product. They were turning out nearly $1,000,000 in product per day. Although the product was still saleable, they were concerned about possible damage to their reputation if field failures occurred. Advanced R & D was called in to help eliminate the problem. After visits to their manufacturing facility, They proceeded through a series of methodical steps in production to obtain meaningful samples. These were tested by Advanced R & D. Slight corrosion at the paint steel interface was identified by observation of Fe₂O₃ on the outer layer of the FePO4 pretreatment. We identified the problem as due to a new foaming line they had installed nearby which generated trace levels of an impurity that eventually found its way into the paint / steel interface and caused slight corrosion. This happened even though the steel was processed through a 5 stage acid / cleaner system with many rinse stages. After isolating the new foaming line as recommended by Advanced R & D, the problem was eliminated.

8. Corrosion of 200 Buildings in Wisconsin: Many corrugated steel buildings in Wisconsin were corroding after only a few years of service. Their guaranteed lifetime was at least 20 years. The corrosion took place where the coated steel panels were attached to the underlying wood posts even though the fixtures were as specified and used polymeric gaskets around the fasteners. After several fields visits to inspect the damaged buildings, Advanced R & D tested several corroded areas and found significant amounts of Bromine (Br). This was tracked to a special preservative used in pressure treating the wood posts. Although this was specified as "corrosive" material, this literature was not communicated to the suppliers along the line. The cases were settled through litigation to the satisfaction of the client.

9. RCA & Development of Video Disks. In the initial years when video disk players were behind developed, RCA was involved in very extensive research and development of video diskettes for movies. Their product involved pressing many video diskettes using a special very precise master. The master was created using very sophisticated chemistry and diamond micro machining. Throughout the development of this product, they relied heavily on Advanced R & D for detailed analysis of some of their disks used in production. It was only through the detailed analysis, the powerful surface capabilities of ISS and the unique computer software designed and written by Advanced R & D that they were able to obtain the information they needed. Then not only redefined micro machining of diamond but a spin-off from the division of RCA is considered one of the foremost micro machining companies in U.S. today.

10. Problems Defective PC Boards - New Cleaning Techniques. - A company had just received nearly a years supply (over 10,000 PC boards ) of special custom manufactured PC ( printed circuit ) boards for manufacture of their product. The boards were complete and populated with all the chips and other components. Unfortunately, there were unusually high failure rates of the boards during routine electronic testing before production. Several boards were brought to Advanced R & D for further testing. Advanced R & D found extensive corrosion around some of the small leads that one of the main IC chips to the board. Once the nature of the contaminants causing the corrosion was identified, Advanced R & D went one step further and designed a special cleaning solution to remove the corrosion. This was offered to the client but Advanced R & D also offered to clean the boards for the client. A special cleaning process was designed with special cleaning equipment and Advanced R & D went on to clean and inspect all of the PC boards for the customer at the very moderate price of $0.50 per board. The client also located another manufacturer of the PC boards to eliminate the problem in the future. Advanced R & D presently offers the cleaners to other companies.

11. Nitriding of Steel Tools - Superhard Coatings. - When special coatings were first developed to increase the lifetime and wear characteristics of steel tools, Titanium Nitride was known to work well. However, designing and running equipment to make good coatings was not. During the initial development of this equipment and these coatings, Multiarc visited Advanced R & D weekly and used our testing services and consulting to slowly bring their processing to a reliable, high performance product. We not only helped them improve their final product by detailed analysis of it, but prior to that Advanced R & D helped them improve their vacuum systems and their cleaning techniques. Today, Multiarc and its spin-offs are some of the leading manufacturing of the equipment used to make the bright, shiny, gold colored tools such as drill bits, wrenches, etc., common in many hardware stores.

12. Catalyst Poisoning. - Many products used around the World by the consumer today are dependent on high performance catalysts used in processing such things as gasoline, polymers, and chemicals. These catalysts can be extremely expensive and costly to replace, often as much as $200,000 to $300,000 for just the catalyst bed. Because of its expertise and equipment for Surface analysis, Advanced R & D has been involved in many cases of testing to help determine causes for premature failure of these catalysts. Advanced R & D has identified contaminants and poisons on many catalyst systems. In one case, the identification of iron (Fe) was key to helping locate corrosion problems upstream.

13. Silicones - Silicones - Silicones. - Almost every manufacturer is well aware of the problems that can be caused by the presence of silicones. Practically nothing bonds to silicones and there it causes catastrophic bond failure in paints and adhesion. Advanced R & D uses some of the most sensitive instrumentation available for the detection of silicones on surfaces; ISS and SIMS. Through these means and our extensive experience, we can detect silicones on surfaces as well as anyone in the world; less than 0.1 of a monomolecular layer. We have many documented cases in which we have helped our clients but in one particular case; not only did we determine that an adhesion problem was due to silicones but we helped locate the source. This was done by placing silicone wafers throughout the facility and quantitatively monitoring the amount of silicone present after overnight exposures. Although it was often less than a full molecular layer, this helped the customer eliminate the problem and save many dollars.

14. Magnetic Storage Media - Magnetic tapes, disks - The entire world today is almost dependent on magnetic storage for computers. As computers have become more and more refined and higher and higher in performance, the requirements for magnetic storage have gotten extremely demanding. Although Advanced R & D has been involved in many projects involving magnetic storage media, the most significant work was done during the early development of magnetic tapes and disks. A pioneer in magnetic storage and major manufacturer of magnetic storage media was aware that Fe₂O₃, iron oxide, had an extremely high surface area due to the need to make very fine particles. During their investigation and development of magnetic films, Advanced R & D provided detailed surface analysis of iron oxide powders from all of the major suppliers. This was used to determine the best suppliers and to develop optimum magnetic coatings. Today, this company still remains as one of the best in the business.

15. U.S. Mint - Making Pennies. Lubrication vs. Corrosion: Ironically, the manufacturing of pennies is an expensive business and requires careful processing control. One manufacturer of the Cu ( copper ) clad blanks used by the U.S. mint for making pennies received reports from the mint that some of their blanks did better than others. In one case, the mint could stamp 80,000 to 100,000 pennies from one lot whereas in other cases, they could only stamp 30,000 to 50,000 pennies. The cost of replacing the dies was approximately $50,000 excluding labor and down time. Advanced R & D worked with the rolling mill to help improve the problem. It was found that if the blanks were given an insufficient coating of lubricant, they would corrode excessively and cause excessive wear. Part of this was due to the long storage, of about 6 months, between the time they were shipped as blanks until they were stamped as pennies. Yet if they had too much lubricant, they would be come sticky and harder to work with. Advanced R & D had the unusual capability to quantitatively measure such thin coatings and help monitor the process. Through these efforts, the milling company refined their procedures to help the United States Mint maintain low costs.

16. CBS - OOOPS - Off the Air at Prime Time. During Newscasting at Prime Time, one of the Nation's top anchors was cut off for several minutes. Although the problem was 'quickly'? repaired, CBS wanted to know what happened. It was traced to a bad telephone jack that apparently had become badly contaminated and not made good contact. It was sent to Advanced R & D to find out why this happened. Through extensive surface analysis, Advanced R & D identified several common contaminants that caused the problem. Although this was somewhat pleasing to CBS, the overall recommendations and prognosis from Advanced R & D indicated that this could happen again unless they modified much of their facility and exercised a much more aggressive maintenance and cleaning program.

17. Orange Juice & Wading Boots. - One of the largest manufacturers of Orange Juice cartons received an urgent request from one of its key customers. They had a complete warehouse full of leaking orange juice cartons. A single leaky orange juice carton in your refrigerator can cause a major mess but this mess almost required hip boots to enter the warehouse. This customer could fill orange cartons at the rate of 200,000 per hour yet bad cartons didn't start leaking until the next day. Advanced R & D received a desperate call solve the dilemma. It was thought that the problem was caused by bleeding of silicone from the high molecular weight silicone used as an adhesive to reduce adhesion in the areas for opening. ( Open here ). This was not true. The problem was actually caused by a different silicone present in one of the inks used for printing the cartons. Although the initial problem caused extensive losses, the solution offered by Advanced R & D was relatively quick and inexpensive.

18. SATURN - A "New" Car - and its RIMS Aluminum Engine. Long before Saturn began manufacturing its New car, research was being done on RIMS manufacturing of the solid Aluminum ( Al ) engine block. In the process, the entire engine block is quickly fashion from cheap styrofoam. The styrofoam is placed in sand and molten Al injected from the bottom to 'replace' the styrofoam. The gas released is exhausted at the top. However, small, dark voids called 'fold' defects were occasionally found in the prototype blocks. Information was needed to understand what these defects were and how and why they formed. Advanced R & D visited the site, obtained several representative samples and worked with Saturn development engineers over the next few months. Through our work and our background in Physical Chemistry, Advanced R & D was able to provide the chemistry of the process and the mechanism that lead to these defects long before the car was brought to market. Not only did this save extreme costs but it also save the embarrassment of not being able to deliver on time. Today, Saturn enjoys an excellent reputation with its satisfied customers.

19. Toy Balloons - "Sinkers & Floaters ". A major manufacturer of decorative, toy balloons used for gifts, parties, celebrations, and other decorations had major problems arise during manufacturing. After the manufacture of a large lot of balloons (tens of thousands), a large number would be filled with helium and placed in a large room. Normally only about 1% of these would fail; IE. They would fall from the ceiling over a period of 24 to 48 hours. However, newer productions lots had as much as 7 to 10% "sinkers" or failures. Advanced R & D was called to help determine the cause for the problem balloons. After extensive investigations using optical and SEM ( Scanning Electron Microscopy ), Advanced R & D discovered a tiny defect in a critical area of a heat sealed joint. Based on this, Advanced R & D recommended a change in the design of their heat sealing unit and the problem was eliminated. In fact, the number of failures in a lot was so low that a substantial amount of time, space, and many hours were eliminated from the Q.C. procedures and product reliability and quality was vastly improved. This resulted in very significant savings of both money and reputation with its distributors.

20. Medical Breakthrough - Stents for Arteries. The collapse of large veins and arteries after angioplasty surgery can be life threatening. During the development of stainless steel alloy stents for insertion into these arteries, Schneider required extensive analytical support. It was suspected that the surface chemistry of the stents could have a significant effect on their lifetime and possible clotting. Advanced R & D provided detailed analysis of stents and stent material during this phase. Extremely detailed SIMS analysis was key to helping find optimum cleaning procedures and agents. Contaminants and residues from the drawing operation and from the winding operation were also tracked and helped eliminate problems. Just recently, stents were introduced as a very viable product that can provide added reassurance to human lives.

21. Artificial Heart Valves. Certification of Cleaning Procedures. St. Jude Medical is a leading manufacturer of artificial carbon heart valves. As with medical stents, the surface chemistry of the valves is considered very important to their ultimate use. Advanced R & D helped provide a wealth of information about the surface chemistry of various heart valves processed in different ways and continues to certify the surface integrity of the devices after each major change in design or processing. The extreme sensitivity of techniques used by Advanced R & D, and its unique software enabled St. Jude to save time and money and to meet crucial delivery schedules.

22. Brain Tumors, CAT Scans, and Surface Chemistry. An unusual flaw in a sophisticated X-ray scan tube caused severe problems in diagnosis and interpretation of results of one patient. Besides potential misdiagnosis, such results can cause emotional strain and stress and loss of confidence by the patient. Although these X-ray tubes cost over $10,000 to make, let alone to purchase, 8 tubes were sent to Advanced R & D for investigation which required destruction of the tubes. Advanced R & D found some of the critical parts within the tubes were cross-contaminated by some metals in nearby parts. After these parts were made using different materials the problem was eliminated.

23. Change of Designs for a High Temperature Hydrogenation Plant. Engineers planned to use a particular alloy in designing a high temperature hydrogenation plant with an estimated cost of about $350,000,000. Before building the large facility, they decided to test the alloy. Since surface chemistry was a major factor in this catalytic process, they required testing surface chemistry at temperatures up to 1000^o C in vacuum. Advanced R&D set up special equipment to heat samples to this temperature in an analytical chamber while monitoring the surface chemistry and temperature. Results were not what engineers expected but indicated the alloy and design as proposed would not work due to severe contamination that would arise. The design materials were changed and very expensive and embarrassing problems were avoided.