Corporate, financial news.

The Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society will honor up to six people in 1994 for outstanding work in the field of rubber chemistry with the presentation of the Charles Goodyear Medal Award, Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award, George Stafford Whitby Award, Sparks-Thomas Award, Fernley H. Banbury Award and the Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award. Nominations for candidates are open until August 1, 1993, and presentations of the awards, totaling $22,000 with an additional $500 per award provided for travel, are scheduled for the division's meeting in Chicago, IL, April 19-22, 1994. Award recipients need not be members of the division, with the exception of the Melvin Mooney Award. Nominations can be made by anyone in the manufacturing, supplier or academic areas of rubber chemistry. Nominations and requests for additional information should be directed to: Chairman, Science and Technology Awards Committee, Rubber Division, ACS, Polymer Science Building, Room 312, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-3801. Telephone [phone].

Ball Industrial Systems Division has become part of Alltrista, which is comprised of seven divisions spun-off from Ball Corp. The Industrial Systems Division changed its name to LumenX to more accurately tie the business to its products, which are high speed machine vision, on-line color monitoring and real-time x-ray systems.

GE Silicones' Pickering, Ontario, specialty silicones compounding facility has been awarded Ford's Q1 quality award for the room-temperature vulcanizing silicone gasketing materials it supplies to Ford plants in the U.S. and Canada.

Goodyear's Aquatred all-season radial tire was awarded the Edison Award at the American Marketing Association's annual black-tie dinner. The Edison Award is based on innovation in the marketplace, technological leadership, pioneering new markets, sales success, lasting product value and impact on society, according to Calvin Hodock, Edison Award chairman.

Debt rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's have upgraded their ratings of Goodyear's long-term and short-term debt to investment grade, following Goodyear's improved earnings for 1992.

Kwik Lok, based in Yakima, WA, exited the rubber banding equipment market, as of the end of March.

Lord Corp., Erie, PA, is merging its Aerospace Products Division and Industrial Products Division into a Mechanical Products Division to be headed by Thomas J. Loftus, senior vice president. The new division will be segmented into strategic business units and will be headquartered in Erie. Manufacturing plants for the division are located in Erie, Cambridge Springs, PA; Dayton, OH; and Bowling Green, KY.

Miles' manufacturing facility in Baytown, TX, received Ford's Q1 preferred quality supplier award for the production of polyurethane raw material, a major component in Miles' Bayflex RIM polyurethane systems, which are used to manufacture bumper fascias for several Ford models.

Pioneer Industrial Products, a maker of dipped rubber goods, changed its name to MAPA Pioneer. Pioneer became part of MAPA, a European manufacturer of liquid-proof household and industrial gloves, in 1988.

Bob Bennett, supervisor of grille engineering at Ford Motor in Dearborn, MI, and Jack Clark, manager of marketing and sales at Davidson Textron, Dover, NH, shared the Shell TPE Design Award $5000 grand prize for their new process and grille design for a Flexible Bright radiator grille featured on the 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII. Because of the process, designers are not required to recess automotive grilles behind the leading edge of a car's impact-absorbing bumper to keep them safe from shattering or delamination. Runners-up for the award were: First runner-up - Jeffrey M. Lewis, principal hardware engineer for Digital Equipment, Maynard, MA, for his TPE mounting system for computer cooling fans; Second runner-up - Robert E. Geiger, designer, Ingersoll-Rand, Athens, PA, for a reversing-valve design on the 2131 pneumatic impact wrench. The valve allows one-handed operation of the wrench; Third runner-up - Garry King, mechanical design engineer at Ritron, Carmel, IN, for a speaker mounting basket on the Jobcom JBX-150 and Patriot RTX-450/150 hand-held two-way radios; and Fourth runner-up - Ronald Snyder, manager of design and technical services at Western Design, Irvine, CA, for his power-feeding ammunition magazine.

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments rearranged its Canadian distribution, with Mandel Scientific, Guelph, Ontario, taking over responsibility for distribution of products previously handled by Hadley Tekscience. Mandel Scientific will be exclusively responsible for all spectrophotometers, spectrofluorometers, gas chromatographs, TOC and atomic absorption spectrophotometers. Fisher Scientific will continue to handle the HPLC line and the chromatography data processors.

Smithers Scientific Service's testing laboratories in Akron and Ravenna, OH, have been accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA). Smithers operates analytical, physical and environmental testing laboratories in Akron and a tire and wheel testing facility in Ravenna.

Markets, news

National Science Foundation research funds, totaling $17.8 million, are available to small technology-oriented companies through the federal Small Business Innovation Research Program. Approximately 275 Phase I research grants, up to $65,000 each, will be awarded to small firms to support feasibility research. Companies with successful Phase I research can compete for Phase II awards averaging $300,000 for two-year prototype development. Some of the topics listed in the solicitation include: Physics, chemistry, material resources, engineering and operations, chemical and thermal systems, and mechanical and structural systems. Interested firms should submit proposals for Phase I awards to the National Science Foundation before June 14, 1993.

The Instrument Society of America formed an Automotive and Vehicular Division to focus on aspects of automotive instrumentation related to manufacturing, testing and technology. For further information on the new division contact Ted Plum [phone], or write to ISA, 67 Alexander Dr., P.O. Box 12277, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709.

A July 1992 court ruling, delayed by successive stays granted by the court, said that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will no longer be able to enforce standards for 164 contaminants that were part of a 1989 broad-based air contaminants standard. The rulemaking left unchanged permissible exposure limits (PELs) for 52 substances set in 1971 and resulted in more protective limits for 212 substances. OSHA officials said they were optimistic that few employers would roll back the improved employee protection offered under the 1989 PELs, even though the limits will no longer be legally enforceable.

ISO registrations

Spiral-wound gasket and sealing products producer, Flexitallic, Deer Park, TX, received ISO 9001 certification for quality management and assurance.

Laurel Industries, Cleveland, OH, was registered to the ISO 9002 standard at its antimony oxide production facility.

Rhone-Poulenc's surfactants manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, SC, received ISO 9002 certification.

The Memphis, TN, manufacturing facility of Witco received ISO 9002 registration. The facility makes fatty acids, amines, amides, esters and other oleochemical derivatives used in the rubber industry.