Material Technologies, Inc. (fka MTNA)

[Golden Cross]

MTNA - NYC Former Traffic Commissioner Joins MATECH's EFS Team
Monday April 24, 4:05 pm ET


LOS ANGELES, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Apr 24, 2006 -- Material Technologies, Inc. (OTC BB:MTNA.OB - News) ("MATECH") today announced that it has come to an agreement with engineering consulting firm, Sam Schwartz PLLC (SSC), whose president and CEO is the former New York City Traffic Commissioner Sam Schwartz. SSC will be providing field operations for MATECH in the northeast during the final development stage of the Electrochemical Fatigue Sensor (EFS) as a fatigue crack detection and analysis tool for steel bridges. Mr. Schwartz, a.k.a. Gridlock Sam, coined the term "Gridlock" during the Koch administration when the infrastructure of NYC was crumbling before his eyes. "I wish I had a tool like the EFS when I was dealing with the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges. There were literally thousands of cracks we had to contend with and limited funding," Mr. Schwartz recalls. Sam went on to say that having a tool to determine whether a fatigue crack was growing or not would be priceless as a repair fund prioritization tool.


The EFS is a technology which detects metal fatigue and aids in determining the integrity of a structure. In laboratory tests, the Electrochemical Fatigue Sensor (EFS) demonstrated its ability to find smaller cracks in metal bridges than any other nondestructive test method and was utilized in Bridge Beta tests last year in Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, and New York to detect active fatigue cracks in the bridge superstructures.

"To put it simply, it is the most technologically advanced product of its kind," said Robert M. Bernstein, MATECH's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Sam Schwartz PLLC (SSC) employees 60 engineers and transportation experts and is headquartered in New York City with offices in New Jersey and Canada. The tentative agreement would involve engineers from SSC augmenting conventional bridge inspections with the EFS analysis on steel bridges in the Northeast United States from Virginia to Massachusetts.

The EFS is the only nondestructive testing technology that can find growing cracks in metals, and cracks below the surface, as small as 0.010 inches. This critical information will allow engineers to fix the specific problems in most need of repair, and also verify that repairs are effective in halting further fatigue crack growth, by determining that previously found fatigue cracks are no longer growing. By being able to prioritize needed repairs using EFS, significant cost savings can be realized.

Interest in MATECH's EFS system has been spurred by the recent $286 billion Federal Transportation Bill which allocated $5 million to help states evaluate non-destructive methods such as EFS to test growing fatigue cracks in steel bridges. The nation's aging bridge infrastructure system is a major cause for concern, with more than 100,000 of the 200,000 steel bridges in the U.S. classified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

MATECH is engaged in the research and development of metal fatigue detection, measurement, and monitoring technologies. As such, the Company has developed a suite of devices for the non-destructive testing of metal fatigue and monitoring of structural integrity. These technologies can be applied in virtually any industry in which metal is a significant structural component; i.e.: Bridges, Aerospace, Railroad, Oil & Gas, Construction, Shipping, etc.

To hear more about MTNA from CEO/President Robert M. Bernstein go to:

http://www.publiccoreport.net/featured/MTNA/company.asp