First New Zealand–Japan HTS magnet technology workshop held
A workshop to progress the commercial application of high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets was hosted by the Robinson Research Institute in December.
Ten world leading Japanese scientists and industrial representatives were invited to join with New Zealand researchers for the six-day workshop. The delegates shared their expertise in HTS magnet technology and sought to identify strategic research to overcome current barriers to its commercial application worldwide.
The Japanese delegates represented diverse sectors within the HTS magnet community. Academic representatives were from Kyoto and Tohoku Universities, the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and RIKEN. Industry representatives from Sumitomo Electric Industries, Fujikura and Suzuki Shokan were also present.
The workshop was chaired by Professor Naoyuki Amemiya from Kyoto University and Professor Bob Buckley from the Robinson Research Institute. New Zealand technology firms HTS-110, GCS and Fabrum Solutions gave presentations at the workshop.
Dr Donald Pooke, HTS-110 chief technical officer says having such a diversity of leading researchers, engineers and wire suppliers in a friendly workshop environment allowed key issues in the development of HTS magnets and machines to be discussed at a much deeper level.
“For us, there was value in showcasing our own progress and product range to a highly engaged audience of potential customers, but also in identifying common themes to spearhead the development of new products and commercial opportunities.”
The overseas visitors toured the NMR laboratories at Victoria University, the Robinson Research Institute and the production facilities at HTS-110 and GCS. Weekend days allowed time for networking discussions and to explore the Martinborough area.
Professor Amemiya would like to see the workshop repeated in the future and extended to other interested parties.
“We were very pleased to attend this workshop and identify many areas of common interest between the work of the Robinson Institute and our own endeavours. We hope to be able to develop this starting point into an ongoing collaboration between Japan and New Zealand in this technology area.”
Several joint projects were agreed at the close of the workshop. These were: to investigate the replacement of conventional magnets with HTS magnets in Japanese accelerators, to reduce the multimillion dollar electricity running costs; to explore the use of New Zealand-produced Roebel cable in new accelerator magnets; and address technical problems in the application of HTS magnets in medical devices such as MRI and NMR.
The workshop was held at Peppers Parehua in Martinborough from 3–8 December and was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Royal Society of New Zealand.