Shares of for Material Technologies Inc. (OTCBB: MTTG) are up 13.5 percent today, thanks to the work and national coverage the company has received in the wake of the recent I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota.
“The tragedy in Minneapolis has clearly demonstrated that without a technologically advanced and accurate system for finding cracks in metal, these cracks will inevitably spread, leading to a serious undermining of highway safety and unnecessary loss of lives,” Robert Bernstein, the CEO of Material Technologies, said in the statement.
Last week, five people were killed when the eight-lane I-35 bridge plunged 60 feet into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour August 1. While the cause of the collapse is still unknown, experts are considering everything from simple age and material fatigue to tectonic stress to inferior building materials. The majority of experts agree that the bridge was far too old to hold up under the hundreds of commuters who drove over it every day.
Ever since the news broke, the news has been filled with updates on the bridge situation – and Material Technologies has been there. The company has already been featured on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, MSNBC, ABC, CNN and several programs on the Fox News Channel, including the O’Reilly Factor, Fox & Friends, FOX News, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet and WNYW Fox 5’s Good Day New York.
This update comes just two days after the company announced that it would start educating and advising various federal government agencies on how to use Material Technologies’ patented electrochemical fatigue testing process, a process specifically designed for finding stress indicators on aging bridges and other steel-framed buildings. This sensor – dubbed the Electrochemical Fatigue Sensor, or EFS – is considered far more reliable than simple visual inspection.
“We have developed an effective method to pinpoint growing cracks as small as .01 inches, and we’ve shown that a simple inspection using our system is worth millions of dollars and will save lives,” Bernstein said in the statement.
The statement went on to say that over 90 percent of fatigue cracks in bridges and other large structures are missed by a simple visual inspection, and that more advanced technology – like the EFS – is required to detect the smallest and most insidious of structural flaws.
“Material Technologies’ EFS system is the only one that can determine not only whether cracks are growing, but also if they are growing slowly or rapidly, and whether these cracks pose an immediate threat,” Bernstein concluded.
Share prices for Material Technologies were up to $1.31 a share by mid-afternoon today.
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