Conference Report: WORKSHOP ON POLYMER BLENDS Gaithersburg, MD April 20–21, 1992

The authors are aware that virtually every government laboratory and agency is grappling with the problem of technology transfer to American industry. This activity is in response to the Federal Technology Transfer Acts (FTTA) of 1986 and 1989, which were conceived in an attempt to make American industry more competitive world wide. These acts in turn are a response to the fact that so many American industries have not maintained their own research efforts even in the very areas that are needed for their own company's survival. This simultaneous blossoming of effort in the various federal laboratories will bear no fruit unless practicing scientists become involved. The workshop on polymer blends was conceived to examine whether an effort involving technology transfer and collaboration in the area of polymer blends is feasible. Logically there are two necessary conditions. First, industry must identify common needs in the area of polymer blends. Second, the required expertise must exist at NIST to address these needs. Concerning the second necessary condition we remark that during the first part of the workshop, the Polymer Blends and Solutions group with some help from others in the Polymers Division and from the Reactor Division, presented 3 invited talks and 11 posters (see Appendix B). These presentations along with laboratory site visits to sbc different NIST facilities and 30 reprints and preprints of work on polymer blends done at NIST over the past year provide ample evidence of NIST proficiency in polymer blends. The companies (all of which conduct research on polymer blends) each admitted that their approach to problems was practical and not focussed on the underlying science base. Industry attendees agreed that knowledge of the basics would be useful, but that they seldom had the time and resources to address basic questions. There definitely is a need for the underlying science base which demonstrates that the two conditions for a fruitful collaboration between industry and NIST are met. The above remarks suggest a strategy. Have a model system that companies and NIST both agree would be of interest and have NIST study it in depth, with both experiments and theory. Possible choices are given in the "Proposed NIST/Industry Consortium on Polymer Blends" in Appendix A.