SCW industry news

April 2007
* * *
Zenergy Power: Institutional Placing to raise £6,000,000
London, UK, 26 April 2007: Zenergy Power plc (AIM:ZEN.L), the specialist manufacturer and developer of commercial applications for high-temperature superconductive (`HTS') materials, is pleased to announce that following an institutional road show of the Group, 4,285,746 new ordinary shares of 1p each in the Group (`Placing Shares') have been conditionally placed by Ambrian Partners with a number of institutional investors at a price of 140p per Placing Share, raising a total of £6,000,000 for the Group (`the Placing').
more>>

Closing the gap: descent of the last LHC magnet
Geneva, Switzerland, 26 April 2007: A ceremony was held at CERN today to mark the end of a crucial phase of installation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A large dipole magnet was symbolically lowered into the tunnel at 12:00. This completes the basic installation of the more than 1700 magnets that make up the collider, which measures 27 km in circumference and is scheduled to be commissioned at the end of 2007.

Varian, Inc. to Build New World-Class Information Rich Detection Center in Walnut Creek, California
Palo Alto, CA, 25 April 2007: Varian, Inc. (NasdaqGS: VARI) today announced plans to build a world-class Information Rich Detection (IRD) center to optimize the development and assembly of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry products in Walnut Creek, California.
more>>

AMSC Announces D-VAR(R) Order for New Wind Farm on Prince Edward Island, Canada
Westborough, MA, 24 April 2007: American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC),American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading energy technologies company, announced today another order for its D-VAR(R) reactive compensation product to meet grid interconnection standards for wind farms. Delivery of the system is expected in the second half of calendar 2007 and will be the 27th wind farm worldwide to utilize AMSC's D-VAR solution.

Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI) Wins $4.7 Million U.S. Air Force Contract
Santa Barbara, CA, 23 April 2007: Superconductor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SCON), a leading provider of high performance infrastructure products for wireless voice and data applications, announced today it was awarded a contract from the U. S. Air Force to develop Semiconductor-Tuned High Temperature Superconducting Filters for Ultra- Sensitive Radio Frequency Receivers (SURF). The funded contract amount is $4.7 million.
more>>

IBM Milestone Brings MRI Technology to the Nanoscale
San Jose, CA, 22 April 2007: IBM today announced that researchers at its Almaden Research Center have demonstrated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to visualize nanoscale objects. This technique brings MRI capability to the nanoscale level for the first time and represents a major milestone in the quest to build a microscope that could "see" individual atoms in three dimensions.
more>>

Oxford Instruments receives Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation
London, UK, 21 April 2007: Oxford Instruments has been awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise : Innovation for the development of INCADryCool, a radical new, cooling technology for X-ray detectors used in electron beam microscopes. It was designed to meet the high standards and stringent safety requirements of the semi-conductor industry. It surpassed all existing solutions for liquid nitrogen-free X-ray detection, and such was its success, it has now spread out to a number of other markets.

Fermilab Update on Inner Triplet Magnets at LHC
Geneva, Switzerland, 20 April 2007: On Tuesday, March 27, structural supports to a Fermilab-built quadrupole magnet, one of an “inner triplet” of three focusing magnets, failed a high-pressure test in the tunnel of the LHC accelerator under construction at CERN. The force generated in the pressure test broke the supports in magnet Q1 that hold the magnet’s cold mass in place inside the cryostat, the magnet’s outer metal jacket. The support structure broke because it was not designed to withstand the amount of longitudinal force applied during the pressure test.
more>>

Doosan Heavy Industries and KERI Demonstrate High-Speed, 1,300 Horsepower Superconductor Motor for Civilian and Military Applications
Westborough, MA, 19 April 2007: American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading energy technologies company, announced today that two of its South Korean customers - Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd. (Doosan) and the Korean Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) - have utilized AMSC's proprietary high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire to successfully develop and demonstrate a very compact, high-efficiency superconductor motor for civilian and military applications. This news follows the announcement three weeks ago that AMSC had successfully completed factory acceptance testing of its own 36.5 MW (49,000 horsepower) HTS ship propulsion motor for the U.S. Navy.
more>>

Palo Alto, CA, 18 April 2007: Dr. Chauncey Starr, 95, founder and President Emeritus of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), died yesterday in his home in Atherton, Calif., one day after attending a celebration in his honor at the Institute that was attended by more than 200 of his research colleagues.
more>>

CERN is guest of honour at international inventions exhibition
Geneva, Switzerland, 18 April 2007: The world’s largest particle physics laboratory, CERN, is guest of honour at the annual Salon International des Inventions in Geneva from 18-22 April this year. Better know for its advances in understanding the Universe, CERN is also a hotbed of innovation, giving rise to new technologies in areas ranging from medicine to IT. The World Wide Web, invented at CERN in 1990, is the best known CERN technology, but there are many more that the public will be able to explore on the CERN stand.
more>>

FONAR Announces Reverse Stock Split
Melville, NY 17 April 2007: FONAR Corporation (NASDAQ-FONR), The Inventor of MR Scanning™, today announced that following its annual meeting of stockholders held yesterday, it has effected a reverse stock split at a ratio of 1:25 (one new share for every 25 shares) of its outstanding common stock and all other classes of its outstanding stock, effective April 17, 2007.
more>>

NEXANS : Financial information for 2007 first quarter
Paris, France, 17 April 2007: Nexans today announced its 2007 first quarter sales of 1,805 million euros (at actual non-ferrous metal prices**). At constant non-ferrous metal prices***, sales were 1,194 million euros, reflecting organic growth of 6%. Excluding the electrical wires business where the reduction in activity has been programmed by the Group, growth was 15.1%.

more>>

AMSC Receives PowerModule(TM) Order for VRB Power Systems Wind Energy Storage Device
Westborough, MA 17 April 2007: American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading energy technologies company, announced today continued growth in orders for its power electronics solutions for the global wind power market. The company's PowerModule(TM) power converter technology has been selected to manage power for a unique wind energy storage system - a new product that is expected to increase the uniformity of electricity from wind farms. AMSC also reported another new order for its D-VAR(R) reactive compensation product - in this latest case to enable connection of a wind farm in Scotland to the local power grid.
more>>

350th Installed MAGNETOM Trio Demonstrates the Clinical Need for High-Field MRI
Malvern, PA, 16 April 2007: Siemens Medical Solutions, www.usa.siemens.com/medical, recently installed its 350^th 3T MAGNETOM Trio magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner at South Jersey Radiology Associates P.A. of Voorhees, N.J. With this installation, the high-field imaging system, is demonstrating that it is not only a research tool, but that it can also make an impact in clinical imaging. Additionally, the scanner is one of more than 175 worldwide 3T systems that use Siemens Medical Solutions proprietary coil architecture, which eliminates the need for patient repositioning and manual coil changes during scans while significantly enhancing image quality.
more>>

Philips reports 27% growth in Q1 EBITA
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 16 April 2007: Gerard Kleisterlee, President and CEO of Royal Philips Electronics: "Philips had an excellent start to 2007, with our EBITA growing by 27% to EUR 353 million in the first quarter. This significant growth reflects the strong market position of our more sharply focused portfolio of businesses, and validates the strategic choices we have made in the past. At Medical Systems the important integration of Intermagnetics is well on track, once completed, to deliver the expected benefits to our MR business."
more>>

Varian Medical Systems Expects 12 Percent Net Orders Growth for Second Quarter Fiscal 2007 with Softness in Oncology Systems and Strength in All Other Businesses
Palo Alto, CA, 12 April 2007: Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) today announced that it expects to report that total net orders in the second quarter of fiscal year 2007, including orders generated in the quarter by the newly acquired ACCEL Instruments business, grew by 12 percent over the year-ago quarter to about $480 million with 2 percent growth in Oncology Systems and strong growth in all other businesses.
more>>

Canadian engineer to lead innovative $2.5 million bioengineering research program
Calgary, Canada, 12 April 2007: An engineering researcher and entrepreneur at the University of Calgary will receive a $2.5 million award to turn advances in electrical engineering and biomedical research into practical applications. One of the key projects is a micro-scale chip that will have the same functional capacity as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) devices.
more>>

Superconductive Components, Inc. Orders Equipment To Scale Production
Columbus, OH, 12 April 2007: Superconductive Components, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SCCI), dba SCI Engineered Materials (SCI), a manufacturer of high quality sputtering targets for select markets in the physical vapor deposition industry, today announced it has ordered approximately $300,000 of new equipment to scale its production of sputtering targets for thin film battery customers and to also expand manufacturing capabilities of transparent conductive oxide targets for photovoltaic applications in the solar industry.

more>>

Full speed ahead: High-temperature superconductors ensure efficient propulsion in all-electric ships

For the first time the LHC reaches temperatures colder than outer space
Geneva, Switzerland, 10 April 2007: The first sector of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to be cooled down has reached a temperature of 1.9 K (-271°C), colder than deep outer space! Although just one-eighth of the LHC ring, this sector is the world’s largest superconducting installation.
more>>

AMSC Receives Order from Dongfang Steam Turbine Works to Develop and Deploy 2.5 Megawatt Wind Energy Systems
Shanghai, China, 10 April, 2007: American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading energy technologies company, announced today at the China Wind Energy Exhibition and Symposium that it has received its third multi-million-dollar wind energy system development contract from a Chinese company in the past several months. Under the terms of the contract, AMSC's wholly-owned Windtec(TM) subsidiary will develop a portfolio of 2.5 megawatt (MW) wind energy systems for Dongfang Steam Turbine Works Corporation (DTC) of China.
more>>

HYPRES Names Glenn Flack Director of Strategic Programs
Elmsford, NY, 9 April 2007: HYPRES Inc., a leading developer of superconducting microelectronics (SME) technology and the All-Digital RFTM product line, named Glenn Flack director of strategic programs. Flack is responsible for developing business opportunities in both the commercial and government sectors.
more>>

Oxford Instruments Trading Update April 2007
London, UK, 9 April 2007: Oxford Instruments plc, the high technology tools and systems company, is today providing an update on trading in advance of publishing its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2007 on 13 June 2007.

FELLOWSHIPS AIM TO STIMULATE YOUNG THEORETICAL PHYSICISTS: LHC Theory Initiative Awards First-Ever Grants
Baltimore, MD, 9 April 2007: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Theory Initiative, a U.S.-based consortium of theoretical physicists aiming to stimulate and cultivate new young talent in anticipation of the opening of the Large Hadron Collider later this year, announces its 2007 LHC Theory Graduate Fellowship Awards.
more>>

Cardiac MRI Allows Doctors to Look at the Heart Without Cutting: New York Methodist Hospital Among First in NYC to Offer the Innovative Test
Brooklyn, NY, 7 April 2007: A new noninvasive technique is taking some of the guesswork--as well as the legwork--out of diagnosing and preventing cardiovascular diseases. According to John Heitner, MD, director of advanced cardiac imaging at New York Methodist Hospital, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as the technique is called, is truly innovative because it allows doctors to view detailed images of the heart--without having to cut open the chest or thread a catheter through the veins or arteries.
more>>

PneuStep: MRI-SAFE MOTOR MAKES ROBOTIC BIOPSIES POSSIBLE
Baltimore, MD, 6 April 2007: Engineers at the Johns Hopkins Urology Robotics Lab report the invention of a motor without metal or electricity that can safely power remote-controlled robotic medical devices used for cancer biopsies and therapies guided by magnetic resonance imaging. The motor that drives the devices can be so precisely controlled by computer that movements are steadier and more precise than a human hand.
more>>

Magnet Lab to Build World's Strongest Magnet for "Neutron Scattering" Experiments
Tallahassee, FL, 3 April 2007: The Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin has contracted with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Florida State University to build an $8.7-million hybrid magnet for “neutron scattering” experiments.
more>>

KARL STORZ Completes First All-Digital Integration of iMRI and Operating Room Technologies
Culver City, CA, 3 April 2007: KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America, Inc., a world leader in minimally invasive endoscopic technologies and OR integration, announces the successful installation of fully functional integrated operating rooms combined with intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) capabilities at both Cook Children’s Medical Center (Fort Worth, TX) and Swedish Medical Center (Seattle). The dedicated iMRI neurosurgery suites provide distinct advantages to surgeons performing brain surgeries.
more>>

Sumitomo Electric Industries announces 180A critical current DI-BSCCO wire performance
Japan, 3 April 2007: Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. has started shipping samples of its innovative bismuth (Bi) based high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire "DI-BSCCO" that has a critical current (Ic) value of at least 180 A. The shipment of mass-produced DI-BSCCO is scheduled to begin at the end of June 2007.

A New Dawn in Scientific Research
London, UK, 2 April 2007: A new research council was established on the 1st April 2007 that will bring greater strategic leadership and an integrated approach to UK investments in large national and international research facilities and infrastructure whilst delivering world-class science, technologies and people for the UK.
more>>

California Energy Commission awards Zenergy grant for the installation of innovative grid stability device
Rheinbach, Germany, 2 April 2007: Zenergy Power plc (AIM:ZEN.L), the specialist manufacturer and developer of commercial applications for high-temperature superconductive (`HTS‘) materials, is pleased to announce that the California Energy Commission (`CEC‘) has notiﬁ ed the Group‘s wholly owned subsidiary, SC Power Systems (`SC Power‘), San Mateo, California that it has been awarded a US$500,000 grant to install and test the Group‘s Fault Current Limiter (`FCL‘) - a ground breaking power and proprietary grid stability device - in the Californian electricity grid.
more>>

AWARD WINNING ALL-COMPOSITE TANK TECHNOLOGY FOR NASA IS WELL SUITED FOR SUPERCONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS

Hawthorne, CA, 2 April 2007: Scorpius Space Launch Company, (Scorpius SLC) an aerospace manufacturing and launch services firm in Hawthorne, CA, announced that it had been selected by Microcosm, Inc. to build lightweight all-composite cryogenic tanks for a NASA Phase I SBIR contract.