Polymer bonded magnets examined. (Meetings).

Intertech's Global Outlook for Polymer Bonded Magnets 2002 conference will be held April 10-12 at the Hyatt Rosemont Hotel in Chicago, IL. The purpose of this conference is to assess the business and technical outlook for polymer bonded magnets for the decade ahead.

Sessions will cover market drivers and growth forecast; development of lower cost, higher energy materials; the impact of industry consolidation on end-users; new bonded magnet design and modeling software; and patent and licensing issues.

New developments on grades for extrusion, calendering, and injection and compression molding processes will be covered, including multi-component molding.

Individual presentations will deal with high-energy ferrite imbedding powders; HDDR, interstitial and leanneo powder developments; and new opportunities in automotive, computer, security, biomedical, sealing and signage applications.

This conference is designed for raw materials suppliers, polymer compounders, magnet producers, end users, magnetic circuit designers and applications specialists. This will be Intertech's sixth international conference on polymer bonded magnets.

Polymer bonded magnets are said to give designers great freedom to create complex magnet shapes with virtually any pole configuration, according to the sponsor. Thin walls, close tolerances and molded-in features such as gears, threads and cams are all possible.

Prospects for bonded ferrites and bonded rare earths have never been as bright as today, according to Intertech, with global sales forecast to total over $2 billion by 2005. Annual growth rates of 15-25% for the $400 million bonded NdFeB markets are being driven by a variety of new applications in the automotive, computer/business machine, motor and sensor/actuator businesses, according to Intertech.

New processing developments for injection molded bonded NdFeB magnets, increased use of powder blends and expanded capacity for anisotropic powders could accelerate these growth rates still higher, according to Intertech. Bonded ferrite sales are also said to continue to expand, as new high-energy grades open new applications for low cost motors and for new signage, sealing, toy, xerography and sensor/actuator applications.

Conference sessions are planned on the following subjects: Market assessments and growth forecast; Advances in magnetic materials and processes; Development and assessment of key markets and applications; and New developments in compounding, molding and magnetizing.

A pre-conference seminar will examine "Engineering new solutions for polymer bonded magnets." This seminar will provide a basic understanding of magnetic materials, magnetization processes, manufacturing routes, measurement techniques and applications, leading to engineered solutions for polymer bonded magnets. The instructor will be Abdul Hoque, research officer and lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in England.

A second pre-conference seminar will examine "Application of finite element analysis to permanent magnet devices." This seminar will focus on how to predict the performance of permanent magnets in devices and systems using finite element analysis. Instructors will include Dr. David Carpenter, vice president of Vector Fields, and David Miller, senior applied scientist at the Magnequench Technology Center.

Further information on this conference is available from Dr. H.D. Olmstead [phone].