MTTG
MATECH's New Bridge Inspection Technology Explained. MATECH to Initiate National Program Aimed at Federal and State Agency Education and Implementation of MATECH's Non-Destructive Electrochemical Fatigue Testing Technology
BUSINESS WIRE
Posted: 2007-08-06 07:45:10
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)----Material Technologies, Inc. (OTC BB: MTTG.OB) ("MATECH") announced its new bridge inspection program aimed at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state departments of transportation which will educate and advise governmental agencies and responsible departments on using MATECH's patented electrochemical fatigue testing process on critical transportation infrastructure. MATECH's engineers will advise the FHWA and state DOT's regarding the Company's bridge inspection technology which helps locate and determine whether metal fatigue induced cracks in metal bridges are increasing in size as part of the national bridge safety regime of inspection, maintenance and repair. MATECH's technology can help these agencies allocate precious resources, save repair and rehabilitation funds while helping insure bridge safety and uninterrupted traffic flows -- not to mention lives.
According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the 49 State Department of Transportation (DOT) bridge inspectors, visual inspection of steel girder bridges with crack indications at critical weld connection points resulted in an abysmal accuracy rate of only 3.9 percent! In other words, cracks in critical steel bridge structural points were missed an appalling 96 percent of the time by inspectors. There are over 600,000 bridges in the United States. Many bridges we drive on every day were built at least 50 years ago, and not designed to withstand today's enormously increased traffic loads. According to the FHWA, a staggering 39 percent of all steel bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
"Without intervention now, these cracks will spread until they seriously undermine highway safety," says Robert M. Bernstein, CEO of publicly traded Material Technologies, Inc., a Los Angeles-based technology firm which has a patented non-destructive steel bridge inspection system. The company has developed an effective method to pinpoint growing cracks. Its team of "bridge doctors," all engineers, specializes in detecting and monitoring metal fatigue in civil infrastructure, including steel bridges such as the Minneapolis, Minnesota bridge which collapsed over the Mississippi River on Friday. MATECH's mission is to provide a cost effective, technologically advanced, and accurate system for detecting minute cracks in steel structures which portend future problems. In essence, MATECH's mission is to put into effect the old adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." In this case, a simple inspection using the MATECH EFS system is worth millions of dollars of future costs.
Although each of the 600,000 existing bridges (including about 190,000 metal bridges) in the U.S. must, by law, be inspected every two years, they are mostly inspected visually by inspectors using binoculars or by tapping with a hammer. It can be argued that this is not an adequate means of inspection, since 90 percent or more of the cracks are completely missed with visual inspection alone, according to the FHWA. The 190,000 metal bridges include 39,000 structurally deficient and 35,000 functionally obsolete bridges identified by the FHWA and the various state DOT's. The potential annual revenue from these structurally deficient and obsolete bridges from EFS inspections, at an average cost of $15,000 per inspection, is about $550 million. The potential annual revenue from all the states' steel bridges is $1.4 billion.
MTTG's Electrochemical Fatigue Sensor technology identifies and locates minute cracks in structural metal on steel bridges. Metal fatigue and especially catastrophic failures of critical structural components in metal bridges is a significant risk and national concern. Most of the bridges within the US are over 40 years old and have been stressed by years of repeated cyclical strain from millions of load / unload stress cycles which can compromise the stability and integrity of metal structures and potentially lead to catastrophic failure or dangerous conditions.
Several companies focus on bridge inspection, using techniques such as ultrasound, radiography and dye penetrant, but only Material Technologies' Electrochemical Fatigue Sensor (EFS) measures the activity of growing cracks in metal bridges during ordinary traffic conditions, similar to the way an EKG monitors the heart.
EFS can find cracks as small as 0.01 inches, too small to be seen by the naked eye. The $286 billion Federal Transportation Act, signed into law last year, allocates funds to help states evaluate nondestructive methods, such as the EFS, to test growing cracks in bridges.
"Finding small cracks early in a well-traveled bridge can not only prevent disasters, but save cities and states millions of dollars in the long run," says Bernstein. For more information, log on to www.matechcorp.com.
About Material Technologies, Inc. (MTTG.OB)
MATECH is an engineering, research and development company specializing in technologies to measure microscopic fractures and flaws in metal structures and monitor metal fatigue in real time. The company's leading edge metal fatigue detection, measurement and monitoring solutions can accurately test the integrity of metal structures and equipment including bridges, railroads, airplanes, ships, cranes, power plants, mining equipment, piping systems and heavy iron.
MATECH owns the only nondestructive testing technology able to find growing cracks as minute as 0.01 inches--critical information that allows structural engineers to isolate and repair the more than 74,000 steel bridges in the US which have been classified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete by the Federal Highway Administration. MATECH has exclusive rights to seven patents along with $8.3 million in already completed contracts from the US Government for research, testing and validation of its innovative solutions.
To hear more about MTTG from CEO/President Robert M. Bernstein go to: publiccoreport.net or visit the company's website at www.matechcorp.com. |
