MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS:

Keep an Eye on IBC Keep an eye on International Bio-tronics Corp. The company officially hung out its shingle this week. Though modest in size right now, it well may become a factor to be reck­oned with in the medical instruments field before very long. At least a group of Wall Street investors was sufficiently impressed by IBC's plans to advance the needed funding.

"We expect to have our products on the market place within 90 to 100 days from now," comments Robert E. Klees, marketing vice president of the new company. The products he refers to are sensors and transducers, those extremely sensitive devices that can be used to convert bodily im­pulses, such as brain waves, heart beats, and blood pressure, into elec­tric signals that in turn are recorded on an electroencephalograph or electrocardiograph. The sensors and transducers will be made in a plant now going up on five acres of land adjacent to the University of Cali­fornia's Irvine campus in southern California.

IBC is the brainchild of a group of Beckman Instruments ex-employees: Kenneth G. Halvorsen, the new com­pany's president, was technical direc­tor at Beckman until last week; Stan­ford B. Spracklen, research and engi­neering v.p., was Beckman's director of medical development.

While undoubtedly the move of these key men from the Beckman or­ganization may pose something of a blow to Beckman management, it's by no means an isolated incident in the instruments field. Some years back, for instance, Herbert Dwight and some fellow workers left Va-rian Associates and started up Spec­tra Physics, Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., a company that's become prominent in the field of gas la­sers More recently, Dr. Sheldon Breiner, an expert in the use of in­struments in geophysical exploration and research, also left Varian and formed his own company nearby in Palo Alto, Calif. Subsequently, oth­ers left to join him in GeoMetries, a group that provides remote sensing instruments and services in the field of petroleum and mineral exploration.

"We elected to launch IBC on sen­sors and transducers because these items lend themselves to volume pro­duction," Dr. Halvorsen explains. Moreover, he adds, they are being used in ever increasing quantities in hospitals and medical clinics. IBC's devices will be disposable, an added plus feature in view of the cost and difficulty involved in cleaning used sensors.

Admittedly, sensors and transduc­ers will be IBC's "bread-and-butter" items. "Once we have firmly estab­lished ourselves in the field, we will begin to diversify into other areas of medical instrumentation," the enthu­siastic Mr. Klees avers.

TRANSPORTATION:

No Mixed Barging Next month, barring some last-minute change of heart, the Government no longer will permit barge operators to ship mixed commodities in the same tow. To chemical shippers the pend­ing ICC ruling could mean a substan­tial boost in transportation costs.

And 11 days ago they joined with other bulk commodity shippers and in­land waterway carriers in an 11th hour plea to Congress to overturn the Inter­state Commerce Commission ruling.

Testifying before the House Sub­committee on Transportation and Aeronautics in support of a bill (H.R. 8298) to do just that, the Manufac­turing Chemists Association's Clint H. Vescelius said that the pending ban on mixed cargoes would "impede the ability of water carriers to provide ef­ficient [low-cost] transportation." He pointed to the growing chemical in­dustry dependence upon barges for low-cost, bulk transportation.

Under the ICC ruling, barge lines would have to break up economical

large-volume tows of regulated and nonregulated dry-bulk commodities, explained J. W. Hershey of the Water Transportation Association.

Among other tilings, the proposed legislation would:

• End the pending ban against transporting regulated commodities in the same tow of vessels with bulk ex­empt commodities without subjecting the entire tow to ICC regulation.

• Eliminate the present restriction against carrying more than three dry-bulk commodities in a tow of vessels without subjecting all of the commod­ities to ICC regulation.

The ICC ruling dates back to 1960. Inland water carriers appealed the decision in 1966, but it was upheld in the courts. During litigation, ICC permitted mixed tows and set Jan. 1, 1968, as the date for compliance with its no-mixing order. Then ICC ex­tended the compliance date (to July 1, 1968, then to July 1, 1969), to give Congress more time to act.

ICC opposes H.R. 8298 on the ground that it would give mixed cargo carriers a "tremendous" competitive edge over railroads, which are fully regulated, and over other water car­riers. Accordingly, die agency rec­ommends an amendment that would permit transportation of bulk commod­ities with regulated ones, but would still limit to three the number of un­regulated bulk commodities that can be carried in a mixed tow of vessels.

Chemicals and products transported on U.S. inland waterways* grew 5 % from 1965 to 1967

Commodity

Iron ore Bauxite Refractory materials Sulfur, dry and liquid Nonmetallic minerals Sodium hydroxide Crude petroleum products Alcohols Sulfuric acid Benzene Basic chemicals Fertilizer Miscellaneous

Total

* Excluding Great Lakes.

* * Figures may be slightly higher

(Millions of net tons)

1965 1966

1.9 2.1

2.3 0.5

2.1 2.2

5.0 5.5

2.8 2.9

2.7 2.7

1.7 2.1

1.2 1.6

2.8 3.4

1.2 1.4

5.6 6.3

1.1 1.7

2.0 1.8

3274** 34^2**

than actual data because of rounding.

Source: American Waterways Operations, Inc., from Army Corps of Engi

1967

2.8 0.7 2.1 5.6 3.7 2.5 1.9 1.5 3.0 2.3 7.4 1.9 2.0

3774**

neers data

JUNE 2, 1969 C&EN 11