MagneTek, UCLA launch efforts in superconductivity research.

MagneTek, UCLA launch efforts in superconductivity research

Corporations and universities in Los Angeles have begun committing more time and money to research into superconductors, a new class of materials that could revolutionize the electrical power generation and computer industries.

Late last month, for example, Santa Monica-based electrical equipment manufacturer MagneTek Inc., announced a one-year agreement to cooperate on superconductor research with Argonne National Laboratory, a scientific research lab operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy.

And at UCLA, professor Bruce Dunn of the materials science and engineering department, said last week that the university recently issued a prospectus soliciting corporate members for a superconductor research consortium.

Superconductors, which have been much in the news in scientific journals recently, conduct electricity much more efficiently than conventional conductors. To achieve this superconductivity, they must be cooled to temperatures low enough to turn gases like helium and nitrogen into liquids.

Many of the superconductor research efforts now beginning in Los Angeles and elsewhere depend on corporate and government dollars to help finance university research.

In the MagneTek deal, for example, Vice President Robert W. Murray said the company will pay $25,000 to join the Argonne research group. At UCLA, Dunn said, corporate members of the consortium will pay $30,000 to join. In return for their payments, the companies will have access to the groups' research.

The companies want to stay current on the state of superconductor research because scientists say these unusual new materials could dramatically change the design and manufacture of electric motors, computers, and a host of other products that rely on electricity or electronics.

According to Murray, the impact of superconductors on the electrical and electronics industries "could be as important as the development of the transistor."

But Murray repeatedly emphasized that research into superconductors is just beginning and that practical applications "are a long way off." He said MagneTek, a $900 million (sales) private company formed in 1984 from parts of Litton Industries, nonetheless wants to remain "on the cutting edge" in keeping up with the new technology because of its ultimate potential impact.

According to Dunn of UCLA, dozens of Los Angeles companies, particularly aerospace concerns, are conducting research into superconductors.

"Right now, everything is basic science," Dunn said. But he said superconductors have the potential for applications in a wide range of industries.

Superconductors generally are ceramic materials that offer no resistance to electricity. Resistance to electricity reduces the efficiency of traditional electrical conductors and it causes wires to heat up when too much current passes through them. For these reasons, Dunn said, materials that offer no resistance have great potential in any number of industries.

Superconductors are not practical for commercial uses, however, because they exhibit their superconducting powers only at temperatures "much colder than dry ice," Dunn said. One hope of researchers is that they can develop superconductors that will work closer to room temperatures.

Another problem with superconductors is that the ceramic materials are brittle and cannot easily be fashioned into pliable wires and electrical connections.

Scientists nonetheless are hopeful about the commercial potential for superconductors. They say the new materials are in their infancy, just as lasers were in the 1960s. They add that superconductors could evolve in the same way lasers have as a new technology used in medicine, telecommunications and other industries.

Dunn said current research suggests superconductors hold the most promise in three areas:

* Improving electrical power transmission. Because superconductors offer no resistance to electricity, power companies could transmit electricity over long distances with no loss of power. The most efficient transmission systems today, he said, still lose 15 percent or more of their power.

* Increasing the speed of computers. The speed of computers is limited by the inefficiency of conventional conducting materials, and high-speed supercomputers tend to overheat because of electrical resistance. But superconductors could solve those problems.

* Improving the efficiency of electric motors and other electromagnetic devices. Dunn said experiments already have shown that superconductors can be used to create permanent electromagnets -- magnets that literally last for years without losing any power. This raises the prospect of much stronger and more efficient electric motors and other products, he said.

For example, Dunn said, superconductors could permit the manufacture of smaller and more efficient versions of magnetic resonance imaging devices used by the medical industry to create detailed images of internal organs.

The potential for superconductors is so widespread, Dunn said, that "faculty members from virtually all departments" of UCLA are involved in the superconductor research consortium.

Frank Perna Jr., president of MagneTek, said the privately held company is interested in "practical application of new superconductive materials...rather than in the pure research in which Argonne and several other affiliated American laboratories are engaged."

But the affiliation with Argonne, Perna said, will help MagneTek decide which of the possible applications of superconductor technology might some day be commercially viable for the company.

A spokesman for SCEcorp, the newly formed parent company of Southern California Edison Co., said the utility is not conducting any research of its own into superconductors but is "closely following" developments in superconductor technology to see if they have any application for the power generation and transmission industry.