Los Angeles, CA - August 6, 2007
--Material
Technologies Inc., (OTCBB:
MTTG.OB -
News; "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 (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: http://www.publiccoreport.net/featured/MTNA/company.asp
Forward-Looking Statements: Except for the historical information
contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release
are forward-looking statements. Such statements are indicated
by words or phrases such as "believe," "will," "breakthrough," "significant," "indicated," "feel," "revolutionary," "should," "ideal," "extremely" and "excited." These
statements are made under "Safe Harbor" provisions
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual
results may differ materially from those described in forward-looking
statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. See the
Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
including, without limitation, the Company's recent Form 10-K
and Form 10-Qs, which identify specific factors that may cause
actual results or events to differ materially from those described
in the forward-looking statements.
Contact:
Robert M. Bernstein
Material Technologies, Inc.
1.310.208.5589
matech@matechcorp.com or
or
Investor or Media Relations
Omar Tajyar, 818-382-9704
Cell: 818-201-7455
otajyar@irintl.com |