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RESEARCH
Research Is Costly but Necessary Competition keeps industry spending for research, says NSF, but rating the results is difficult
WHY does industry spend billions for research? Competition is the biggest reason, concludes the National Science Foundation in a survey looking into factors which affect company spending for research. T h e survey, first of its kind, was conducted for N S F by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Interviews with 200 large companies, including 33 chemical firms, indicate that the competitive situation is often an overriding factor for spending money for research. The chemical industry is very sensitive to competition, say company officials, stressing the need for a steady stream of n e w products. Research done for the Government influences the amount of research industry does, since it represents one third of the total industry research effort. N S F says a sudden decrease in government research needs would be an unsettling factor, while a gradual reduction in medium-sized federal programs could result in compensating increases in industry research programs. Results of increases in government research needs would depend considerably on availability of trained manpower. Should these increases occur when there is a shortage of scientists, t h e result would probably be a cutback of industrial research programs to meet government demands. Management attitudes toward research and company aspirations for the future also stand out as factors influencing the amount and kind of research industry does, says N S F . Some companies stress short-term research designed to meet current competion. A chemical company official reports his company does not allocate funds for research on a regular basis. Instead, it supports projects as they appear to b e needed. A large proportion of the companies interviewed, however, have research programs geared to long-range growth plans and sometimes to diversification of products. A research official of another chemical company says his firm stresses basic research leading to new products which will help it reach its long-range diversification goals. 6050
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r n o w Much t o Spend. Methods for establishing the size of a research budget are many. About half of the interviewed companies say the research b u d g e t is set by an educated guess of company needs. Officials of these firms feel that research expenditures should fluctuate with company needs and not with measures of company activity such as sales volume. Many companies use the formula approach for setting a research budget. A popular formula uses a percentage of annual sales as a guide. Some firms derive this ratio from past experience while others try to stay within the limits t h a t other companies in their industry allocate for research. A chemical comp a n y reports that it uses a figure of 4% of sales. In a nine-year period the company's actual expenditures range from a low of just 3% to a high of a little over 5%. Figures ranging from 2 % to 4% are common. Most companies use formulas as a rough guide in setting research budgets, says N S F . Formulas are rarely applied mechanically to get an exact figure. Ultimately, says N S F , most companies rely on good judgment in establishing research budgets. Regardless of approach, many companies place emphasis on maintaining a continuing and stable research organization. • Is It W o r t h It? Evaluating the financial returns of a research program is a tough problem, according to NSF. T h e survey indicates most companies h a v e no satisfactory solution. However, a majority of the companies interviewed said they attempt some type oî appraisal. Formulas are finding some use in estimating the value of a research project. Factors considered are promotion, administration, and marketing costs, in addition to research and development costs. Some companies estimate a research program's value through a formula establishing a ratio between estimated return and probability of success as against estimated research expenditures. Thus a ratio lower than 3:1 might b e considered too low to justify the proposed research. M a n y companies using formulas limit their application to certain types of re-
search—such as cost-reduction projects —which lend themselves to t h e formula technique. Most companies using formulas, says NSF, feel their use, while not providing exact measurements in all cases, tends to assure consideration of some factors which might b e slighted with a less formal approach. Nonformula approaches to research evaluation stress general criteria such as the impact of new products on the company's position. NSF reports that a pharmaceutical firm and a chemical company use t h e yearly contribution of new products to the sales volume as a measure of the company's research effort. A very few companies report they do not evaluate their research attempts. Some feel their research programs are
φ Remote-Control'Scope Changes that occur in the microstruc ture of metals exposed to radiation can be studied with a remote-control micro scope developed at General Electric's Hanford plant. T h e research is di rected toward development of alloys and fabrication methods that will make atoms withstand increased radiation ex posure. The radioactive sample is placed in a 38-4οη steel cell and then manipulated b y mechanical hands. Light beamed through a wall port (right) is focused to a point, illuminat ing the polished sample of metal inside the cell. Reflected light from a circular dot, sometimes as small as 0.005 inch in diameter, is collected by a compound lens and projected through another port to an external eyepiece. There it is transformed into a vastly enlarged imaee of the circular area.
P r e l u d e to Atomic Energy T h e y ' r e moving mountains in South Africa. W i t h the aid of AMBERLITE® ion exchange resins, sparsely distributed u r a n i u m is being selectively extracted from clay residues of gold mining. I n C a n a d a , o n the Colorado Plateau, and in m a n y other parts of the world, AMBERLITE resins a r e also easing t h e u r a n i u m refiner's j o b . T h e recovery of u r a n i u m is just one of the ways i n which AMBERLITE ion exchange resins can serve i n hydrometallurgy. T h o r i u m and rare e a r t h elements can b e recovered from complex ores. R h e n i u m ,
relative of platinum, can be salvaged from refinery flue dusts. Dilute wastes from t h e conventional processing of cobalt a n d nickel can be scavenged for a d d i t i o n a l quantities of the metals. Even gold can be o b t a i n e d from ores previously considered uneconomical to work. Ion exchange, of course, is not restricted to hydrometallurgy. Wherever ions i n solution must be removed o r replaced, ion exchange may provide the answer. T h e question is: w h a t can AMBERLITE ion exchange resins do for you?
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