This Workshop will be held on the shores of the picturesque Lake Bled in Slovenia, and is the latest in a long series of similar events stretching back to the 1970s. Karl Strnat, the co-discoverer of the first generation of permanent magnets based on rare earths, organized the first Workshop at the University of Dayton, Ohio in 1974. Dr. Strnat worked at the US Air Force Research Laboratory, part of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and it was there that he, Alden Ray and others undertook the research that led to the discovery the first RE-Cobalt magnetic compounds.

I’ve had the privilege and the pleasure of attending three prior Workshops, which are held every two years. I say without hesitation that the Workshop is the most important meeting for the permanent magnet community on the calendar. The attendees are a unique blend of folks from industry and academia, technical and non-technical, and drawn from all around the world. This year’s event is being hosted by the magnetics research group at the Josef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, a group with a distinguished track record of research and development in magnetic materials.

As a slowly developing postgraduate research student in magnetic materials at the University of Birmingham, I had the somewhat dubious honor of working as part of the security detail at the Workshop held at that University in 1994. I was also part of a musical “ensemble” during that meeting that passed into Workshop legend too, but that’s about all I’ll say on that.

What I will mention though, is that it was my attendance and participation at that Workshop in Birmingham in 1994, that led to my being introduced to the leading players of the industrial and academic sectors of the rare earth magnets industry. I made contact with one particular individual at that meeting, who would eventually go on to introduce me to my first employer after graduating in 1997.

At the Workshop in Slovenia next week, I will present an invited paper titled ‘Recent Developments in the North American Permanent Magnet Industry and its Supply Chain’. It was not without a considerable sense of satisfaction at being able to “close the circle”, that I discovered that the Chair of the session in which I’ll be presenting this paper, was none other than the gentleman I first met in 1994, who helped propel me into the commercial world of permanent magnets – Mr Reinhold Strnat, a distinguished member of the magnetics community in his own right, and a now long time friend and colleague.

The ability for young, wet-behind-the-ears postgraduate research students to present their work to crusty old professors and captains of industry alike, in a non-threatening, non-pretentious setting is a near-unique aspect of the Workshop series, and was certainly an essential part of my growth in the discipline. It is from meetings and interactions like these, that the future researchers, developers, engineers and scientists in the field of rare earths, permanent magnets and allied arts will be drawn. I am pleased to note that the attendance at the Workshop in Slovenia will be as high as ever – perhaps 150 attendees, representing all the research groups, companies and other organizations of importance to the rare earth permanent magnet industry.

Interestingly, this year will see a number of presentations from folks within the broader rare earths industry, including Jack Lifton, Gary Billingsley of Great Western Minerals, and others. I’m hoping to snag some interviews and Q & As with the various leading rare earth magnet researchers while in Bled. I look forward to being able to share that info and perhaps a few photos, on my return.

The first takes places on the day before the Magnetics Conference in Orlando, Florida, and is being run by Dr. Peter Campbell in conjunction with that event. Peter is a highly experienced technical expert on magnetics and does an excellent job when it comes to teaching and training on magnetics:

The Selection and Design of Permanent Magnet Materials in Today’s Economic Climate

January 27, 2010 8AM – 5PM : Disney Hilton, Orlando, Florida, USA

Instructor: Dr. Peter Campbell

From the organizers: “This workshop will explain the available tradeoffs for all the major types of permanent magnet material, sintered and bonded, anisotropic and isotropic, and provide an overview of the prospects for any important new material developments.  It will provide a thorough explanation of magnetic circuit design incorporating permanent magnets, including how to assess the magnet’s stability, and demonstrate how finite element analysis is used to validate and optimize a design.  Relevant case studies will be used as illustrations throughout the workshop.”

Cost: $695

Web site: http://www.magneticsmagazine.com/conf-2010/mag_conf10_workshops.php

The second event, which only popped up on my radar screen last week, is being run by three companies involved in magnets [Alliance LLC], magnetic sensors [austriamicrosystems USA Inc] and magnetizing and testing [Magsys Magnet Systems]. It looks like it will be a good practical introduction to these subjects:

Magnetics Workshop for the Automotive & Alternative Energy Industry

February 1, 2010 9AM – 5PM : Michigan State University, Troy, Michigan, USA

Instructors: Dan Vukovich, James Murphy & John Michalik

From the organizers: “This is a one day workshop tailored to bring an understanding of design, pricing and selection criteria for magnetic materials, equipment used for magnetizing and testing, and the design and application of magnetics sensors. the workshop is formatted specifically for professionals in the automotive and Alternative Energy industries. Presentations will include theory, practical design, application examples and market information.“

Cost: $120

Brochure Web site: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B62nxVIP5PHKYjMwYTNiNTEtMjIzMS00YjI3LTllMDUtMjMxNjNhZjQ3OTE5&hl=en

Registration Web site: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B62nxVIP5PHKZDc3YjJkN2QtM2IwOC00ZDBhLTk3ZDEtYTUyMjI5YTMwZmZj&hl=en

According to the DMTC Web site:

The Defense Metals Technology Center (DMTC) was formed in January, 2007 in order to establish an industrial base capable of affordably producing such strategic metals. The organization addresses the identified needs of the U.S. Military in the development and manufacture of vital defense materials.

The DMTC indicates that the first SMC, held in April of last year, involved more than 110 participants from the USA and abroad.  The DMTC Web site goes on to say:

Building on the success of the inaugural Strategic Materials Conference in April 2009, the Defense Metals Technology Center will convene SMC 2010. This event will focus principally on rare earth metals, building on the well-received panel discussion on high performance magnets and a Rare Earth Metals Strategic Sourcing Forum to be sponsored by the DMTC in November 2009.

Unlike the first event in this series, which was invitation-only, the DMTC has apparently opened attendance at this meeting to anyone that registers.  More details on the event can be found at the SMC Web site.

Held every two years, the Workshop was inaugurated in 1974 by Karl Strnat, in Dayton, Ohio, and has been a success ever since. I have no hesitation in saying that, in my opinion, it is the most important technical / scientific meeting on the calendar for anyone involved in the science, engineering, procurement and production of rare earth permanent magnets.  It’s always a great mix of formal and informal sessions and activities, and there is a unique, friendly atmosphere that I’ve not encountered at many such meetings.

In the Call for Abstracts, Professor Spomenka Kobe, Workshop Chair, and Dr. Boris Saje, Workshop Co-Chair, said:

In order that we can begin to schedule talks and posters, we would like to invite you to submit one-page abstracts describing your latest research findings. These abstracts should be sent as an e-mail attachment to REPM10@ijs.si, no later than Monday, 1 February 2010, indicating a preference for oral or poster presentation.

The Organizing Committee is interested in abstracts covering any area of rare earth permanent magnets, but they are particularly interested to receive suggestions for presentation on:

• Markets & Raw Materials: Current Status and Future Trends
• Processing Techniques
• Thin-film Magnets
• Magnet Applications
• High-Temperature Magnets
• Nanocrystalline / Nanocomposite and Bulk Amorphous Magnets
• Magnetic Modelling
• Recent Advances in Structural Analysis Techniques
• Progress Towards Textured Nanocomposites
• Coercivity and Intrinsic Physical Properties
• MAGMAS Materials and Devices
• Non-Rare-Earth PMs (excluding oxides)
• RE-TM with other properties, for example, magnetostriction, magnetocalorics, magnetic shape memory
• Magnetism and Nanotechnology

Once the abstracts have been accepted, the deadline for the submission of papers will be Monday, May 3, 2010. This deadline will be strictly enforced, because one of the nice traditions of the Workshop series is that the Proceedings of the meeting are available to attendees when they arrive at the meeting.  Having been involved in the organization of the Birmingham REPM Workshop in 1994, I can tell you that it is no mean feat putting these Proceedings together in such a short period of time – dealing with that many academics and other “busy” people is akin to the herding of a large quantity of particularly independent cats!

The organizers will send out further information on the submission of papers and logistical details with acceptance notifications for the abstracts on Friday, February 26, 2010.

The REPM10 Call for Abstracts goes on to say:

Workshop attendees who submit a paper will be required to pay their reduced-rate Workshop registration fee of €620 (€300 for students) by [Monday, May 3, 2010]. For those people who register later the regular rate will be €750 (€400). Registration fee for accompanying persons will be only €150.

The Workshop fee includes registration for the scientific sessions, a copy of the Workshop Proceedings, a welcome reception on [Sunday, August 29, 2010], a lunch and coffee breaks during each day of the Workshop, the Workshop Dinner, as well as evening activities.

You can get further details from the Workshop webpage at http://nano.ijs.si/repm10.htm – see you there!

Rather than re-hashing what has been already been shared elsewhere online about the meeting – here are some links to great articles on the meeting from Lisa Reisman (co-chair of the meeting) and Stuart Burns from Metal Miner:

• Supply Risk Management and Rare Earth Metals a Big Disconnect
• Electric Cars Could Pose a Challenge to Rare Earth Supply in “Nightmare Scenario”
• Displacing China as a Rare Earth Producer is No Small Feat
• Rare Earths, Critical and Strategic Metals and the US Legislative Agenda
• Rare Earth Metals Conference: Electric Vehicle Demand
• To Stockpile or Not to Stockpile that is the Rare Earth Question

In addition, Tracy Weslowsky of Wescow, a Founding Editor of RareMetalBlog, posted a thought-provoking piece at the RareMetalBlog based on the perspective she presented during a panel discussion at the meeting:

• Bubble Debate on Investment Opportunities in Critical and Strategic Metals

Finally, co-chair Jack Lifton last week published a well-timed, new article called The Rare Earth Crisis of 2009 which was circulating during the meeting, and is well worth a read.

I heartily recommend that you read each and every one of these links, to get an idea of what is going on in this important area. Well done to Lisa Reisman, Jack Lifton, the folks at Infocast, and to all of the speakers andpanelists, for a job well done.

Candidly, I came away with the distinct impression that although we now know where we can get the raw materials necessary for the growth of the technology metals sector – the question that needs to be answered is this: who is going to refine these materials and turn them into useful metals & alloys?  In the absence of such capabilities in North America, we will once again be heavily reliant on the good graces of our colleagues in China…

• Key Questions Necessary to Ask of the Critical Metals Industry
•  Do Stockpiles Work?
• Rare Earths – The Problem Child and Attention Deficit America
• The ‘Alternative Energy’ Metals
• Lithium Supply – Abundant Supply or At Risk?
• Mapping Supply Risk to Specific Sourcing Strategies
• Government Action in the Strategic Materials Market
• Is the Resource Base Available for the Scaling of Wind, Solar and Energy Storage?

There are of course plenty of other sessions too. I’ll try to post my thoughts and perspective on this meeting later this week, being particular mindful to note any commentary and perspective presented on the supply chain for permanent magnet materials, and their end uses.

In addition to Stan’s pre-conference workshop, there are a number of specific talks at this event of direct relevance to those with an interest in permanent magnets:

• Achieving Higher Power Density and Efficiency with Parallel Path Magnetic Technology – PJ Piper, QM Power Inc.
• High Performance Permanent Magnets for Motors and Generators – Peter Dent, Electron Energy Corp
• Stabilization and Calibration of Permanent Magnets – Steve Constantinides, Arnold Magnetic Technologies

I may well be attending this meeting, so do say hello if you are too…

Co-hosted by the local IEEE Chapters of the Industrial Applications,  Industrial Electronics and Power Electronics Societies, I’ll be covering topics such as the permanent magnet material families, corrosion protection, the hysteresis loop, magnet geometry, demagnetization, the principle of magnetic superposition and a whole bunch of applications of permanent magnets.

If you happen to be in Denmark at that time, I’m sure you’d be welcome to come on by! I’ll also extend my now-standard offer – mention this blog posting and I’ll buy you a fine local brew, should the opportunity presents itself!

You can more details on the guest lecture here.

Per the seminar’s program, “The global search for better energy efficiency in our daily lives is a constant demand from today’s markets. Advanced soft and hard magnetic materials offer the means to fulfil these demands, in markets as diverse as aerospace, automotive, installation technology and renewable energy. This seminar will highlight recent advances in material properties and processing technology, together with application based developments. For soft magnetic materials this will include a particular focus on crystalline CoFe, amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys, and for hard magnetic materials the focus will be on the sintered Nd-Fe-B and Sm-Co magnet compositions. Application areas could be in developing technologies such as hybrid electric vehicles, wind energy, electronic energy metering, sensors and the more electric aircraft“.

As a shameless plug, I should mention that I will be speaking at the event, on the second day, giving a presentation titled “Mechanical Applications of Permanent Magnets: Magnetic Couplings & Gears“.  I’m looking forward to hearing the other presentations and if you are anywhere near the area, I would heartily recommend attending the event, which will include a seminar dinner sponsored by Vac, and a plant tour of Vac’s facilities.  Heck – if you show up and mention this blog posting, I’ll even buy you a fine German beer – can’t say fairer than that!

Check out the seminar program here.

I am particularly pleased to note that my long-time colleague David Choit, Director of Sales at Dexter Magnetic Technologies, will be co-chairing the meeting.  David has been with Dexter for 35 years, starting back in the days when the company was known as Permag Corporation. Over the years he has developed a deep knowledge of all aspects of the permanent magnet landscape, including end markets, applications and the issues and challenges of procurement and managing the supply chain.  In addition to his sales and marketing responsibilities, David has had significant exposure to the Chinese permanent magnet industry over the years, and is a frequent visitor to China, where Dexter has a liaison office in Suzhou.

From the looks of things, the roster of speakers is filling up nicely for the meeting; the organizers are still inviting abstracts from folks interested in presenting at the meeting.  David and the rest of the team are particularly interested in submissions for sessions providing industry overview and market outlook; developments in China, Japan, North America, and Europe; and on magnetic material requirements and applications.

Organizations already scheduled to be represented on the speakers’ roster include Black & Decker, Bose, the Data Storage Institute, Dexter Magnetic Technologies, Eriez Magnetics, Hangzhou Permanent Magnet Group, the Japanese Association of Bonded Magnets, John G W West Consultants, Magnequench, Molycorp Minerals, Thinova, ZHMag and others.

To participate as a speaker and / or panelist at the Conference, you’ll want to make contact with Chris Smith, Conference Producer for IntertechPira.  You will need to send a brief abstract including company name, speaker name, job title and company information, a topic summary and a tentative title and sub-headings (3-4 bullet points) for the presentation.  Send the abstract to Chris at christopher.smith@pira-international.com or via fax to +1-207-781-2150.  They’d like to receive abstracts by Wednesday, August 12, 2009.  If you do submit an abstract, or make contact with Chris, do let him know that you saw the details of the Conference here at Terra Magnetica, would ya?!

IntertechPira has also launched the web site for the conference, which you can visit at

http://www.chinamagneticsconference.com.