The University of Florida Industrial Assessment Center is funded by the US Department of Energy as part of a national program to perform no-cost energy audits for small to medium sized industries. Industry Need Increased productivity and competitiveness of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies is extremely important to the successful economic future of the United States. Since energy costs are frequently in the range of ten percent of total manufacturing and production costs, finding ways to make these small and medium-sized manufacturers more energy efficient is one way to help them become more productive and more competitive. However, few companies of this size have the resources to provide a skilled energy manager as part of the plant operational staff. Thus, there is a need to help provide this energy efficiency improvement service to these companies. DOE National IAC Program The Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technology with technical program management from Rutgers University. This program has proven to assist in the increase of energy productivity and energy cost control of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies. The IAC's services are offered at no direct cost to manufacturers. Since 1976, the IAC has: Served almost 3,200 manufacturing plants. Proposed 19,400 energy conservation opportunities. Identified 17,133 billion BTU per year of energy conservation. Recommended 116.0 million dollars per year of cost savings. The IAC Program has been a very successful and cost-effective national effort, resulting in much greater benefits in energy cost savings than the cost to operate the program. The average cost to the Department of Energy for an IAC audit is $3,250, and the total savings shown in the Final Audit Reports substantially exceed this cost. Regional Centers Energy audits are performed by engineering faculty and students from 26 local universities across the U.S. with officially accredited engineering programs. They have the technical competence in energy management in general, and in process energy efficiency improvement in particular, to help these companies. Individual universities are responsible for the companies in the regions around their physical locations. This is because there are regional factors associated with energy supplies, energy costs, and business operations that must be addressed on a geographically distributed basis rather than through a single, national IAC. University of Florida IAC The University of Florida IAC continues this successful record. The UF IAC is committed to providing quality services on-site for the companies involved and to providing the necessary follow-up work and services to ensure the success of the manufacturing energy efficiency improvement program.