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Show p i d B O AMERICAN FLAME RESEARCH COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION AND OBJECTIVES The American Flame Research Committee is - A Bridge To Understanding between industry, combustion research and now government agencies - a national forum to communicate common needs of industry as an input to the extent and direction of applied combustion research. Our industry, today, is faced with extreme pressure to make better products at lower costs, to conserve energy, and to do this within ecological con straints necessary to the welfare of both worker and surrounding population. There exists today in America, more so thcin ever before, the need to com municate the common needs of industry as a prime input to combustion research. The needs must be understood, defined and transmitted to research programs now carried on by industry, research and academic institutions and government. The American Flame Research Committee is a National Committee of the International Flame Research Foundation headquartered in IJmuiden, Holland. There are eight (8) such national committees: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States of America. There are also five associate members from other countries: Belgium, Czechoslova kia, Finland, India and Switzerland. The International Flame Research Foundation was formed in 1948 in recognition of a serious lack of applied combustion research related to the use of fossil fuel energy as a prime industrial source of heat. A major accomplishment of the International Flame Research Foundation through the early years in volved the design and development of all of the necessary instruments to measure local conditions in order that combustion and flame characteristics could be properly defined. Important contributions have been made over the years through studies of pulverized coal, gas and oil flames both in the areas of fundamental and applied research. The work done by the research station at IJmuiden has been consistently supported by the national research com mittees, strongly by the European coal and steel community in the past, and recently, by research contracts placed both by governments and industry. The facilities at the International Flame Research Station include two large test furnaces, one 6 ' x 6' x 20' long and another 5' x 5' x 30' long suppor ted by all types of auxiliary equipment such as air preheaters, coal pul verizers, oil conditioning systems, etc. The facility is equipped with the most advanced measuring equipment in existance. The organizational meeting of what was then called the U.S. Committee on Flame Radiation, took palce in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 18, 1952, was chaired by Professor Hoyt Hottel of MIT and attended by 10 representa tives from steel companies, oil companies, a glass company, a combustion equipment builder and several research and academic institutions. The American Flame Research Conanittee, as it is presently structured, met first in New York City in January 1955. Professor Hoyt Hottel served as Chairman of the American Flame Research Committee until 1973 and its membership, through the years, have included broad segments of basic industry, repre sentatives of research institutions and of the academic community. The objectives of the Committee are as follows: 1. Support the International Flame Research Foundation and provide an input to the direction of its program. 2. Provide a forum for applied combustion research and technology in America. 3. Accumulate the results of fundamental and applied combustion research. 4. Provide and disseminate to its memebership, all reports accumulated, including those related to energy conservation and environment; and, to selected government, industry or general public groups. The hard value of membership in the American Flame Research Committee is derived both from the work done at the International Flame Research Founda tion at IJmuiden, Holland and from our bi-annual Technical Meetings. Each member of the American Flame Research Committee receives complete research reports on all work done at IJmuiden and can benefit from the use of that facility by contracting work in areas where the capability there is superior to that available inhouse. We are striving to improve the content of our Technical Meetings from the standpoint of selecting a critical area of research need and presenting an International Symposium designed to cover the particular subject in a comprehensive manner, with presentations by industry and research. The long range goal of the American Flame Research Committee is to build its membership from basic as well as processing industries to a level of at least 100. Our present membership is made up of 3^ industrial plus 10 independent members representing the academic community. An application form for membership is included in the Proceedings. All of you are urged to consider membership at this time. The American Flame Research Committee indeed provides the forum - a place where industry-wide interests hold precedence over competitive interests and where corporate and national goals are one and the same. The impact upon basic industry of foreign competition as well as energy and ecology requirements, is severe and has generated so many "now" problems that extensive research programs are necessary. These are needed within the shortest time frame possible to develop required technology to provide practical solutions to broad and basic industrial problems. America was very late, in initiating such programs and developing an ade quate combustion research capability, one oriented to the needs of industry and cognizant of the fact that heat processing is a vital function to basic industry, be it refinery, steel, aluminum, glass, automotive, utility, chemical, petrochemical, industrial drying or cement. It is our hope that the American Flame Research Committee can truly serve both industry and national interest by providing a common meeting ground and fulfilling its objectives. |
