Magnetics Business & Technology - Summer 2015 - (Page 16)

MAGNETS, MATERIALS & ASSEMBLIES New Superconducting Magnet Achieves High-Field Milestone A superconducting magnet developed and fabricated at DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory reached its design field of 11.5 Tesla at a temperature nearly as cold as outer space. It is the first successful twin-aperture accelerator magnet made of niobium3-tin in the world. Niobium-3-tin, or Nb3Sn, is brittle and requires high-temperature processing. Scientists only could achieve the latest milestone after decades of worldwide R&D efforts both in the Nb3Sn conductor itself and in associated magnet technologies. Superconducting magnets are at the heart of many particle accelerators for fundamental science and have other scientific and technological applications. Because of Nb3Sn's stronger superconducting properties, the alloy enables magnets of larger field than any in current particle accelerators. As a comparison, the niobiumtitanium dipole magnets built in the early 1980s This accelerator magnet made of for the Tevatron particle niobium-3-tin produced a record field of collider produced about 11.5 Tesla. 4 Tesla. The most powerful niobium-titanium magnets used in the Large Hadron Collider operate at roughly 8 Tesla. The new niobium-3-tin magnet creates a significantly stronger field. The advancements in Nb3Sn magnet technology and the ongoing US collaboration with CERN on the development of these and other Nb3Sn magnets are enabling the use of this innovative technology for future upgrades of the Large Hadron Collider. They may also provide the cornerstone for other particle accelerators. The 15-year investment in Nb3Sn technology at Fermilab has established a strong foundation for the planned LHC luminosity upgrade. Four DOE national laboratories, Berkeley Lab, Brookhaven Lab, Fermilab and SLAC, are involved in the US LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP), which plays a key role in continued US leadership in superconducting magnet technology for future particle physics programs. New Ferrite Pricing Announced Leader Tech has announced a unit pricing structure for its line of CE83 ferrites. Customers now have the option of requesting piece pricing in addition to case quantity volume discounts. This change will allow lower volume applications to enjoy the benefits of CE83 ferrites without increasing inventory levels. The company's CE83 material ferrites are available in multiple solid and split core styles to fit data and power cables with diameters ranging from 0.138 inches to 0.500 inches. The material formulation is optimized for problem frequencies between 10 MHz to 1 GHz and delivers peek impedance at 300 MHz. 16 Magnetics Business & Technology * Summer 2015 In addition, all styles are in-stock and ready for immediate delivery. For more information or to view available styles and performance charts, engineers can instantly download the CE83 product catalog from Leader Tech's website. Molycorp Chosen to Supply Rare Earths for Siemens Wind Turbine Generators Siemens AG has selected Molycorp, Inc. to supply rare earth materials during the next 10 years from its Mountain Pass, Calif. facility for incorporation into Siemens' high-efficiency, direct drive wind turbine generators. Molycorp will supply rare earth materials to Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., which will produce the rare earth magnets Siemens intends to utilize in its wind turbines. Siemens officials noted that key factors in choosing Molycorp were Molycorp's ability to provide greater global diversification and reliability to its supply chain, as well as the environmental and process innovations Molycorp has built into its Mountain Pass rare earth facility. Among those innovations are the facility's ability to recycle water, regenerate the chemical reagents needed in rare earth production, generate power from a highefficiency natural gas cogeneration power plant, and dispose of mine tailings through an innovative paste tailings system. Siemens officials said that the magnets to be used in its direct drive wind turbines will contain reduced levels of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), such as dysprosium. In collaboration with Siemens Wind Power, Molycorp and Shin-Etsu will improve the magnet material to reach zero HREEs, Siemens said. At the same time, supply chain reliability will be increased and costs will be reduced. "The contract with Shin-Etsu and Molycorp is an important step for us in sourcing magnet materials for our direct drive wind turbines," said Morten Rasmussen, head of Technology at Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division. "We strive for diversification in the sourcing of these components to improve independency from specific markets." "We are very pleased to have been selected to supply Siemens and Shin-Etsu with rare earth magnetic materials for this important clean energy supply chain project," said Geoff Bedford, Molycorp's president and CEO. "This agreement underscores Molycorp's commitment to partner with our customers to support their product development efforts and serve as an integrated, long-term provider of reliable rare earth supply." Noncommittal Material Could Make for Hypersensitive Magnetic Direction Detector While the mysterious, unseen forces magnets project are now (mostly) well-understood, they can still occasionally surprise us. For instance, thin films of cobalt have been observed to spontaneously switch their poles, something that typically doesn't happen in the absence of an external magnetic field. Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland (UMD) have measured this phenomenon on the largest scale yet. Most magnets are "permanent," meaning a magnetic field of some strength must be applied to reverse their north and south poles. This permanence enables the billions of tiny magnets in hard drives to reliably store data. And smartphone compasses use nanomagnetic sensor technology to detect the Earth's magnetic field. At the present time, creating and detecting these magnetic fields takes a good deal of energy. Making these devices more www.MagneticsMagazine.com http://www.MagneticsMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Magnetics Business & Technology - Summer 2015

Editor's Choice
Bonded Magnets: A Versitile Class of Permanent Magnets
Spintronics on Paper: The Whys and Wherefores
Magnets, Materials & Assemblies
Electromagnetics
Software & Design
Research & Development
Industry News
Marketplace / Advertising Index
Spontaneous Thoughts: The Rate Determining Step

Magnetics Business & Technology - Summer 2015