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Oxford Instruments NanoScience, Vector Fields and University of Southampton
awarded DTI grant for advanced HTS materials
Oxon,
UK, December 7:
Oxford Instruments,
leading supplier of high technology tools and systems, announces that it has
been chosen to lead a project that has been awarded a £778,368 grant by the UK’s
Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) through the Technology Programme, to
support a £1.55 Million research and development project. The project will be
led by Dr Ziad Melhem of Oxford Instruments and will run over the next three
years. The project entitled “Integrated Modelling Package for Designing Advanced
HTS Materials Applications” will involve collaboration between Oxford
Instruments NanoScience,
Vector Fields Ltd
and University of Southampton.
Superconductors
are smart materials that possess unique physical properties that allow them to
carry large quantities of electricity with zero electrical resistance when
cooled to very low or cryogenic temperatures. The new generation of
superconductors, the High Temperature Superconductors (HTS), can carry over 100
times more electricity than copper wires of the same dimensions but at
significantly higher temperature than conventional low temperature
superconductors. These properties will allow radical design changes in products
serving many applications, including high field magnet applications, industrial
motors, generators and electrical power distribution and conditioning. HTS can
and will play an important role in the advancement of scientific and industrial
applications in the medical, energy and environmental sectors.
The purpose of
the project is to develop an integrated modelling package for the design of
advanced HTS products and systems. The consortium will model and characterize
HTS physical material properties, integration of HTS in high field magnets and
behaviour of HTS materials during production. Project aims are to develop
advanced modelling techniques and design software tools that will lead to
commercial exploitation of HTS, and lead to new or improved design and
manufacture of magnets for MRI, NMR and FTMS analytical systems, for example.
Other new opportunities include inserts for ultra high field magnets (>25Tesla)
and medium fields at higher temperatures (>4.2K), e.g. HTS cryogen-free
magnets, rotating machinery for power generation applications and power
distribution.
Welcoming the new partnership, Science and Innovation Minister, Malcolm Wicks
said:
“The UK has a
proud history of innovation in science and technology. We believe that we must
work with industry to develop the marketable products and services of tomorrow,
so that we can maintain our position as a leading global economy.
"That's why
we're supporting this project. It provides a great opportunity to harness the
UK's world-class expertise and use it to boost our economy and our quality of
life.
"This
partnership should help establish British industry as the world leader in this
area and be an attractive proposition for investors."
Jim Hutchins,
Managing Director of Oxford Instruments NanoScience, commented that ‘this award
recognises Oxford Instruments’ world-class capability to develop engineering
analysis packages. Our strong track record in the development and manufacture
of truly unique superconducting magnet products is under-pinned by extensive
in-house modelling capability. This work also compliments the programme of HTS
wire development being carried out by Oxford Instruments. The award will enable
our engineering team, in conjunction with the collaborating organisations, to
develop and apply advanced analysis techniques to the rapidly expanding field of
high temperature superconductivity. This will be the basis for faster and more
effective product development for our business as we begin to exploit this
technology in a broad range of applications.’
Chris Riley,
Director of Projects at
Vector Fields, added that “the reward further supports the collaboration
between the two companies that has existed for many years and has helped enable
both organizations to achieve world class status in addressing superconducting
technology. Modelling the behaviour of materials is a challenge that Vector
Fields is already addressing for low temperature superconducting (LTS) magnets.
The new award provides us with the opportunity to extend our capabilities to
meet our customers’ requirements in the foreseeable future. It is also very
beneficial for us to continue our long standing relationship with University of
Southampton, where mutual support has increased the capabilities in research and
teaching of power engineering at the university, while making leading edge
technology available to us and our customers through our software.”
Prof Yifeng
Yang, the Head of the Institute of Cryogenics at
University of Southampton
said' I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue our collaboration with
Oxford Instruments NanoScience on the quench modelling of HTS materials. The
Institute within the School of Engineering Sciences at Southampton has been a
pioneer in the R&D of superconducting applications for the last 15 years and we
believe that the model being developed in this programme is a critical step in
the commercialization of HTS devices whilst also helping us to better understand
the fundamental behaviour of these materials. We look forward very much to
collaborating with our partners in this project.'
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