SUNDAY, JULY 21, 1985

■ Business and finance■ Farm and agribusiness

MOHETChange

is normal for museum

Iowa Arboretum serves as educational

tool as well as living exhibit

(Farm news, page 8E)

SECTION EHouse ‘hook’Premiums in realty market

(Your Money, page 2E)

Fiower expertArt, philosophy important

(Farm, page 9E)

That’s no farm building at FairfaxNorand’s test building includes no metal parts

By George C. FordGazette assistant financial editor

esidents of Fairfax have been talking about a new building

on the northwest edge of town for the last couple of months.

In outward appearance, it looks like any other farm

building in the surrounding countryside. But the vinyl­sided, 30-foot-talI structure is by no means a new barn or machinery storage building.

Custom built by Harvest Hill Construction Co. and leased to Norand Corp., the structure soon will be a sophisticated test site for electromagnetic interference.

What makes the building unusual is that it contains no metal — not one nail, bolt or plate.

SUCH A BUILDING is required, says Mike Howard, a Norand engineer, to accurately measure electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by microprocessor chips found in many of today’s computerized toys, games, microwaves and other devices.

"We live in an environment where our electronic products have a certain degree of electronic noise or electronic pollution,” said Howard. "The microprocessor used in many devices is like a radio transmitter and receiver in that it transmits and receives electromagnetic signals.

"The building will be used to test our products to make sure we don’t contribute to this electronic pollution. It will also ensure we’re not susceptible to the same interference from other devices.”

Howard said such testing is required by a federal agency and many foreign countries following the explosion of microprocessor-controlled devices in the early ’70s.

"The Federal Communications Commission adopted a regulation that manufacturers of electronic devices, such as computerized equipment, must design their equipment so as not to interfere with other forms of radio communication,” said Howard. "We have to test to make sure we are not contributing external radio emissions from our equipment that might cause such interference.

"To do this, certain tests must be employed to make sure our data agrees with that obtained by the FCC. The FCC and American National Standards Institute have set standards for the construction of the test site.

'"rhe building needs to be non-metallic to ensure that we don’t get reflections from metallic walls, metallic fasteners or nearby metallic objects. 'These reflections could either add to or cancel our test results, making them vary from those that might be obtained by the FCC or another test site.”

WHAT CAN HAPPEN when electromagnetic signals go astray? Howard cited several cases that led to FCC- mandated testing and licensing of equipment containing microprocessors.

"When personal computers were introduced in Portland, Ore., in the early ’70s, it was determined that they were interfering with the town’s police radio system,” said Howard.

"There was an electronic cash register at Dulles International Airport that was interfering with ground control communications located a mile away. Every time someone would use the cash register, no one was able to use the ground control communications system.”

The problem took a more serious turn recently when a plane attempting to land kept losing its glide slope signal. The trouble was traced to a passenger using his personal computer, prompting a call for a total ban on personal computer use in commercial aircraft.

HOWARD SAID EMI has become a special concern for automotive manufacturers, prompting companies to build sophisticated, multimillion-dollar test facilities.

"Ford, Chrysler and General Motors have a much more complex form of testing because their customers are placing 100-watt radios in their autos,” said Howard. "The companies have to make sure those

• Please turn to page 3E: Norand

Gazette photos by John MclvorAbovo: A new Norand Corp testing facility resembles many of the farm buildings surrounding Fairfax, but with a distinctive difference — it contains no metal. Nylon nails were used in place of conventional nails and wooden pegs were employed to build the roof trusses.

Left: The large nail was used to construct the exterior walls, roofing shingles were attached with the medium size nail and the small fastener was employed to attach vinyl siding.

Buck Hill likes a challenge‘Many of the ideas we used are fairly conventional’

By George C. Ford

Construction of the new Nor­and Corp. non-metallic elec­tro n ic te s tin g fac ility presented a special challenge for

Buck Hill, the contractor."You get into these things and

they say 'Can you build this for us?’ ” said Hill, president of Harvest Hill Construction Co. "Well, we’ll give it a try. It’s something no one else in this area has done. There’s an element of pride involved, but the challenge is there as well.”

The building Hill agreed to con­struct and lease on a five-year basis presented some special problems. Unlike conventional structures, it had to be held together without the benefit of metal nails, bolts or plates.

Hill researched various fasteners, finally settling on nylon bolts nor­mally used to fasten materials to concrete.

"We built a section of wall in our shop,” he said. "Normally, we can take a section of plywood nailed to a frame and take it off fairly easily.

"We glued the plywood to the frame with adhesive and then used the nylon bolts to strengthen the bonding. I took a large framing hammer and tried to knock the plywood loose, but all I succeeded in doing was delaminating the plywood. It didn’t budge the nylon bolts.”

THE FOUR WALLS of the build ing were built at the plant and hauled to the construction site, Hill said.

A crane used to lift them into position cracked some of the two- by-sfxes under the shfeer weight of the sections, but failed'lo break any of the nylon bolts or fracture the joints.

Building the wooden roof trusses presented another problem.

"We wanted to find the strongest wood possible to make wooden dowels,” said Hill. "After checking at Lumberland, where we bought most of our materials, we settled on birch. We felt it was the strongest American wood available locally.

"We probably put about 450 feet of birch dowels in those trusses. . . They were dipped in adhesive and then driven into the holes in the beams. You couldn’t drive them out now with a chisel.”

NEXT CAME the problem of what type of roofing to use. After initially considering and rejecting rolled roofing. Hill used convention­al shingles, but with one difference.

"We used the same kind of nylon bolt that we used on the exterior boards and walls, only slightly shorter,” he said. "We had to drill each shingle and then drive in a nylon bolt to secure the shingle,

"Actually many of the ideas we used, including the wooden pegs, are fairly conventional. The building itself is conventional in design and

• Please turn to 3E: Hill

TOMPETERSTribune Media Services

ON EXCELLENCE‘Bias to yes’ brings creativity in organization

To a naive ob­server, the ex­ecu tiv e v ice

president of a $10 billion aerospace con-, tractor appears to have much more con­trol over his destiny than does the teen- aged captain (driver) on a jungle boat ride at Disneyworld in Or­lando, Fla,

Looks, how ever, can be d eceiv in g .When I talk, in turn, to the executive vicepresident and to the jungle boat driver, I find that the reverse is actually true.

The jungle boat driver is, of course, terribly constrained. All one has to do is glance at his script: His "spiel” is laid out in great detail, including some 30 or so approved variations.

That doesn’t leave him much room to roam!

The executive vice president, on the other hand, has line operational control over about $5 billion of assets. The corporate policy manual says he has millions of dollars of personal sign-off authority. In addition, he has a corporate jet at his disposal full time.

NEVERTHELESS, the executive vice president sees himself as trapped in a tiny box.

When I sat at dinner with him recently, he lamented that, "I really agree with all that you’re saying but I just can’t do it because of the chairman of the company.” (I had just made a speech covering the five major points in my new book A Passion for Excellence.)

The opposite is true of the jungle boat driver. He believes it’s his ride and his responsibility to make that ride perfect for his guests. (Guest is Disney’s term for customer.) He alone is responsible for making Walt’s dream real to those guests.

How did this disparity in views emerge? A recent PBS show based on In Search o f Excellence highlighted the Disneyworld training process. Although the young jungle boat driver is given a very detailed script and many other limiting regulations, the vast majority of his training focuses on the opportunity and responsibility he has to make the guest feel good, to get him or her "into” the ride. The driver is made aware that he is the 1985 living embodiment of Walt.

THE READY analogy is to a star like Katharine Hepburn. She gets a script for a Broadway drama. There are no permitted variations. But that hardly limits the scope of the world-class actress who is renowned for her creative interpretations of roles.

Likewise, the stores in The Limited chain have a very formulaic approach to in-store

• Please turn to lOE: Peters

iH THIS mm.WE m i REVIEW

Heard any good books lately?Cedar Rapids buyers prefer self-help tapes

By George C. FordGazette assistant financial editor

Americans have a fascination with doing two things at one time.

For some, it’s riding an exercise bike while watching a favorite soap opera. B usinessm en like using a personal computer while flying from one city to another.

Still others, faced with a scarci­ty of spare time, enjoy listening to a favorite book on their personal cassette player while jogging, driv­ing or biking.

James Henley, vice president of Merchants National Bank, has enjoyed particular success with motivation tapes.

"I was reading a newspaper

article about it one day and I decided to give it a try,” said Henley, "I got hooked on them and I use them driving to and from work.”

Henley said motivational tapes have proven especially useful when he has made a long trip, such as a drive to Des Moines for a meeting.

"It kind of pumps you up when you’re going into a meeting to have that positive reinforcement,” he said. "It makes you receptive to other ideas because it makes you think about other alternatives. It’s a good way to keep your mind clean.”

KAY DAVISSON, manager of B. Dalton Bookseller, Lindale Mali, says Cedar Rapids residents have expressed a particular interest in self-help tapes.

"A lot of people don’t have the time to read a book, so they use the cassette as a substitute,” she said, "We are seeing the greatest

interest in the area of self-help tapes, such as 'Stop Smoking’ or 'Personal Improvement,'

"All the management cassettes are primarily tailored toward men, while the self-help or personal improvement tapes seem to be tailored toward women. Tom Pe­ters' 'In Search of Excellence’ would be a good example of a tape appealing to businessmen,”

Davisson said the books availa­ble on tape range from abridged versions of classics to fairly recent best-sellers, such as Ken Follett’s "On Wings of Eagles.”

IN ADDITION to lack of time, Davisson said eye strain and age are other reasons the cassettes are becoming popular.

"I have to do an awful lot of reading in my occupation,” she said, "Sometimes my eyes just give out. It’s much easier to put a cassette on and listen to a best­seller, rather than trying to read it.

"We have a lot of older people

who have poor eyesight and use a magnifying glass, but are not classified as legally blind. While unable to use the 'Talking Book’ program, they are able to buy the cassettes and keep up on their reading,

"We also carry a wide selection of the old-time radio shows, such as 'Amos and Andy,’ ‘Jack Benny’ and 'W.C. Fields.’ They are partic­ularly popular with older people who enjoy returning to programs heard years ago.”

WHILE BOOKS on cassette are becoming more popular, Davisson does not see them replacing books. She said Dayton-Hudson Corp., the owner of B, Dalton Bookseller stores, classifies them as "accessories.”

"If the community wants them, we’re going to carry them as a service or courtesy,” she said, "They won’t be one of our primary products. We consider them acces-

• Please turn to JOE: Tapes

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