LOS ANGELES, CA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Material Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB:MTTG) (MATECH) announced that their electrochemical fatigue sensor (EFS) System has been selected for the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Steel Bridges Testing Program. This program will evaluate inspection methods capable of detecting growing cracks in bridges. From their findings, the FHWA intends to recommend successful technologies to all state departments of transportation for their inspections.
MATECH's contract includes purchase of EFS equipment, training in the use of the EFS, and support of FHWA testing. Its initial value is $350,000. "We believe the EFS is the only inspection technology that can find growing cracks, so that bridges can be reliably and economically maintained," said Robert M. Bernstein, Material Technologies' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He continued, "We must assure the public that we are doing everything possible so that tragedies like the I-35W collapse in Minnesota never happen again. One way of doing this is to insist that we make best use of science and technology to take bridge inspection methods from the mid-20th Century into the 21st Century."
About Material Technologies, Inc.
Material Technologies Inc., also known as MATECH, was founded in 1983 and is based in Los Angeles. It is an engineering, research and development company that specializes in technologies to measure microscopic fractures in metal structures and to monitor metal fatigue. The company has already completed significant work for the federal government, generating $8.3 million to develop technology to detect metal fatigue in aircraft and steel bridge components. It has also received approximately $10 million in private investments. Building on that base of experience and capital, it is now beginning to market its technologies to companies and government agencies involved in the inspection of metal highway and railroad bridges.