Two overseas contracts scored for high-tech magnet

News release from HTS-110 Limited

19 October 2006

Two overseas contracts scored for high-tech magnets

New Zealand company HTS-110 Ltd has won contracts totalling $1.2 million to design and manufacture two high temperature superconductivity (HTS) magnets for research organisations in Germany and Australia.

One magnet will be going to the Hahn-Meitner Institute for the Berlin Electron Synchrotron facility and the other to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) for the new OPAL neutron factory.

The new Berlin magnet is a world-first for an HTS magnet being used in a research beam-line at a synchrotron facility, with copper or low temperature superconductor magnets currently the norm.

A key reason the HTS option was chosen is the magnet’s performance, with a higher magnetic field than competing solutions. It is also cost competitive which runs contrary to industry opinion.

Sohail Choudhry, CEO of HTS-110, says winning the German contract underlines the growing potential for HTS solutions.

“The chance to develop this magnet opens up the huge area of beam-line experiments, as well as synchrotron storage, making it an exciting opportunity for the HTS industry.”

The ANSTO magnet will be the largest which HTS-110 has built to date, weighing in at 250kg. More than 10km of wire will be used in its manufacture, and it will require the management of 50 tonne forces internal to the magnet.

It will be installed in the neutron beam facility at the new OPAL neutron factory currently being commissioned in Lucas Heights, New South Wales, Australia.

“ANSTO will be getting turn-key reliability with the new magnet. It is being designed to be compatible with existing sample temperature control equipment and meet some weight and size restrictions,” says Dr Choudhry.

“The fact that it is a dry magnet, with no liquid helium required, means it will be economic to run and easy to use.”

He says the work being undertaken in New Zealand in the HTS manufacturing sector is based on nearly 20 years of research and development at Industrial Research, making it difficult for other countries to replicate.

“The intellectual property which has been built up over many years is highly technical and puts the New Zealand HTS sector in a premier position. We believe that the development of these specialised magnets will contribute to the creation of a new innovation-led manufacturing sector in this country.”

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Background to Berlin Electron Synchrotron Facility (BESSY) magnet:
A synchrotron is a large multi-user facility that creates beams of intense light used for a wide range of scientific and industrial applications, from drug design to nano-materials development.

The new magnet will be a 5-Tesla, cryogen-free HTS magnet for use with the MAGS diffraction instrument. MAGS is a beamline for resonant scattering and high-resolution diffraction.

The magnet will be cooled by a pulse tube refrigerator to an operating temperature of around 20K.

Background to ANSTO magnet:
The 5-Tesla magnet will have a footprint of around 600mm x 460 mm.
The design and construction of the magnet by HTS-110 Ltd stems from a collaboration between Professor Jeff Tallon of Industrial Research and ANSTO on neutron scattering in extreme environments.

The novel HTS split-pair magnet is designed for use on both the small-angle neutron scattering and neutron reflectometry instruments at the OPAL neutron factory at ANSTO.

HTS-110 Ltd background information:
HTS-110 Limited is the world's leading firm in the development of high temperature superconducting (HTS) solutions. It designs manufactures and markets HTS solutions for medical, scientific, energy, defence, transport and industrial markets.

HTS-110 produces a wide range of magnets, current leads, and coils using 1st and 2nd generation HTS wire.

The company was formed to capitalise on the world-leading 19 year research programme into HTS materials carried out by Industrial Research Ltd – a New Zealand government-owned science innovation company. HTS-110 continues to work closely with Industrial Research to jointly develop revolutionary new HTS systems.

HTS-110 Ltd has three key shareholders – Industrial Research, Endeavour Capital Ltd (a New Zealand venture capital company) and American Superconductor Corporation (the world’s principal vendor of HTS wire).

ENDS

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