98-28270. Government Owned Inventions Available for Licensing

[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 204 (Thursday, October 22, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Page 56627]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-28270]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology


Government Owned Inventions Available for Licensing

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned in whole or in part by 
the U.S. Government, as represented by the Department of Commerce. The 
Department of Commerce's ownership interest in the inventions are 
available for licensing in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 207 and 37 CFR 
Part 404 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results of 
Federally funded research and development.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Technical and licensing information on these inventions may be obtained 
by writing to: National Institute of Standards and Technology, 
Industrial Partnerships Program, Building 820, Room 213, Gaithersburg, 
MD 20899; Fax [phone]. Any request for information should include 
the NIST Docket No. and Title for the relevant invention as indicated 
below.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NIST may enter into a Cooperative Research 
and Development Agreement (``CRADA'') with the licensee to perform 
further research on the inventions for purposes of commercialization. 
The inventions available for licensing are:
    NIST Docket Number: 94-036.
    Title: Wall Thickness and Flow Detection Apparatus and Method for 
Gas Pipelines.
    Abstract: The invention is jointly owned by the U.S. Government, as 
represented by the Secretary of Commerce, and Southwest Research 
Institute. A new ultrasonic method for measuring wall thickness and 
detecting material flaws in natural-gas pipelines, risers, and similar 
structures. The method is inherently suitable for the task, because it 
relies on the use of the natural gas as the coupling fluid for 
transmitting the probing ultrasonic signals into and out of the pipe 
wall. Furthermore, the method facilitates the operation of the 
inspection from the inside of the pipe. An experimental apparatus used 
to demonstrate the technical feasibility of this approach and provide 
experimental and theoretical evidence that support the claims is 
described. Significantly, it is shown that by the use of a diplexer, 
the same transducer can be used to generate and detect the probing 
ultrasonic signals. The same configuration is used in commercial 
ultrasonic inspection of oil pipelines where oil is the coupling fluid; 
but until now this method could not be used in natural gas pipelines 
due to the low specific acoustic impedance of natural gas. The 
inventions available for licensing are 94-036US, 94-036CAN, 94-036EPO, 
94-036JPN.

    NIST Docket Number: 97-006US.
    Title: Metal Hydrides Lamp and Fill For the Same.
    Abstract: The invention is jointly owned by the U.S. Government, as 
represented by the Secretary of Commerce, and Matsushita Corporation. 
The invention comprises a lamp in which the radiation of one or more 
metal hydride molecules dominates the light emission. This is achieved 
by loading a transparent container with one or more metals (M) plus 
hydrogen gas (H2), perhaps with the addition of a noble gas (NG). The 
novel character of the lamp results from the use of H2 together with 
metal vapors, which results in the emission of radiation from the MH 
molecule. An electrodeless sapphire envelope houses the gas, which is 
excited inductively at 13.6 Mhz.

    Dated: October 16, 1998.
Robert E. Hebner,
Acting Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. 98-28270 Filed 10-21-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-M