ABSTRACT
The Brazilian Association for Technical Norms, in existence for 40 years and the national forum for consensus, has only 3,598 members, a small number when compared to the actual potential. Brazil has experienced an accelerated process of industrialization. It has gone from an essentially agricultural and extractive society to rank among the ten largest world economies in the decade of the 1980s. The survey demonstrated a close correspondence between the presence of research and development in the company and that of quality control laboratories. The government offers significant political and financial support, and industry agrees to promote change in its plants or products. Technology is an economic good and as such is subject to the rules of the market and to government regulation. One of the most critical problems for the technology user is the unavailability of adequate and rapid technological information. The chief instruments of action for technology generation and adaptation are funding and extension services.
