HP Dura-Blade(TM), available for Strippit[R] thin turret machines, is engineered with Ultima(TM) Premium Tool Steel to withstand stresses of parting sheet metal. In addition to features such as side-mounted push-button adjustments and quick-release stripper plate retention system that allows for blade insert changes by removing one bolt, product has fully guided design for optimal support and accuracy at punching surface.

Highly successful HP Dura-Blade(TM) parting tool now available for Strippit[R] thin turret machines

WHITE BEAR LAKE, MINN. (January 11, 2006) - Strippit thin turret fabricators are about to experience a major boost in sheet metal parting productivity from Wilson Tool International. Following its runaway success in thick turret punching, the HP Dura-Blade parting tool is now available for Strippit thin turret machines. Shops running this tool will see incredible productivity increases over standard tools in parting applications.

Ordinary tools simply can't withstand the relentless stresses of parting sheet metal, but Dura-Blade is engineered with Wilson Tool's exclusive Ultima(TM) Premium Tool Steel. Ultima sets a new benchmark for durability and performance, allowing fabricators to increase sharpening intervals by up to 100 percent over conventional steels. It comes standard on Dura-Blade's replaceable blade insert.

Ultima steel dramatically improves tool life when punching abrasive and high tensile strength materials. With up to twice as long between regrinds, Ultima punches significantly reduce downtime and tool replacement costs. Breaking, chipping, cracking, tool fatigue and other problems are minimized, providing long-term gains in productivity and profitability.

Loaded with High Performance Features

Dura-Blade incorporates the performance-driven advantages of Wilson Tool's HP line, including side-mounted push-button adjustments and a quick release stripper plate retention system, which allow for blade insert changes by removing a single bolt. Dura-Blade is also fully guided for maximum support and accuracy at the punching surface.

Spot precious metal quotations at 4 p.m. Tuesday, as posted by Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo. (From left to right, prices including consumption tax and comparison with previous day's closing prices. Prices are in yen per gram, with commission charged)

Gold Bullion

Selling 1,349 UP 12

Buying 1,286 UP 12

Platinum

Selling 2,102 DN 5

Buying 1,976 DN 5

Silver

NEW YORK -- Two volume records have been set on the Chicago Board of Trade's electronically traded precious metals complex.

Total precious metals trade reached 12,240 contracts last Wednesday, breaking the previous record of 9,191 contracts on Dec. 2. Trading of the full-sized gold contract the same day set a record of 4,070 contracts, up from a Nov. high of 3,262 contracts.

Colors change upon exposure to hydrazines and perhaps other hazardous gases.

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas

Substrates coated with a precious-metal salt KAuCU have been found to be useful for detecting hydrazine vapors in air at and above a concentration of the order of 0.01 parts per million (ppm). Upon exposure to air containing a sufficient amount of hydrazine for a sufficient time, the coating material undergoes a visible change in color. Although the color change is only a qualitative indication, it can serve as an alarm of a hazardous concentration of hydrazine or as advice of the need for a quantitative measurement of concentration. Detection of hydrazine vapors by this technique costs much less and takes less time than does laboratory analysis of sorbent tubes using high-performance liquid chromatography, which is the technique used heretofore to detect hydrazines at concentrations down to 0.01 ppm.

A substrate for use in this technique should be made of a chemically inert material (e.g., fiberglass filter paper). The substrate is uniformly coated with 1 to 10 weight percent of the preciousmetal salt in a solvent (e.g., dilute HCl) that does alter the physical characteristics of the substrate. After driving off the solvent by gentle heating and/or by use of a vacuum, the coated substrate is packed into an inert tube with openings at each end. (The dried precious-metal coating is somewhat sensitive to light; the dried coated substrate should be handled accordingly and stored in the dark.)

The coated substrate is held in place with small quantities of inert wadding (i.e., borosilicate glass wool). A gas suction pump is attached to one end of the tube, and the air or other gas suspected to contain hydrazine vapor is drawn through the tube at a specified pumping rate for an amount of time sufficient to obtain a sufficient chemical change (and thus an observable color change) in the coating material. A semiquantitative relationship between the degree of chemical change and the quantity of vapor sampled can be established from observations of intensities of color changes and/or areas of color change in tests on similarly prepared substrates and tubes using known concentrations of hydrazine vapors.

In experiments, tubes containing KAuCl^sub 4^-coated substrates prepared as described above were exposed to 40-liter flows of air containing, variously, hydrazine, monomethylhydrazine, or unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine at concentrations of the order of 0.01 ppm. These exposures caused the colors of the substrates to change from yellow to various purplish colors and, in one case, to black.

No such color changes were observed upon exposure of the KAuCl^sub 4^-coated substrates to flows of air that contained other gases (ammonia, isopropyl alcohol, NO^sub 2^, and H^sub 2^). Whether or not other precious-metal coating materials could be used as color-change indicators of these or other nonhydrazine gases remains to be determined.