Monday, September 1, 2014

Fall Beginnings

Well, here it is Labor Day and the beginning of Fall. Vacations are mostly gone and it is time to review how best to close this year and start freshly with a new year. Don't get me wrong because there are still four productive months this year. The question is, for many of us, where are we going? MagnaTech has been in business for 29 years. It has been an exciting time with plenty of research that was needed to make life better for all. Now we are into the age of miniaturization, robots, drones, electronic devices, and we appear to be running faster and faster with no direction in mind. MagnaTech has specialized in materials development and processing. When we started up, there was a need for better ferritic stainless steels. MagnaTech led the way in development of these alloys from powder metallurgy processing to produce injectors and sensors for the automotive industry. MagnaTech continued with assisting other powder producers to develop processes to make ferrophosphorus powders for developing magnetic applications. MagnaTech then saw a need for improved properties of soft magnetic alloys. We developed high temperature atmosphere sintering to improve structure sensitive magnetic properties through larger grained higher purity parts. This activity led us to assisting others to develop processes to improve corrosion and wear resistance of surfaces of parts. This occurred from development of technology of partial pressure vacuum processing. Through this technology we then improved on the processing by developing carburizing and nitriding processes that provided improved wear, impact and corrosion resistance of surfaces of ferrous materials. These developments resulted from NAVAIR contracts that were awarded for improvement of these properties for advanced hook points for aircraft landings. MagnaTech has been awarded five patents as a result of these efforts. So what does the future hold? MagnaTech specializes in research and development. The government would like to commercialize what has been developed on taxpayers' money. We are in the process of exploring ways of doing this. MagnaTech does not wish to enter into manufacturing, but we are exploring ways in which we could develop a relationship with other companies that will permit them to use the technology developed, while permitting MagnaTech to continue exploration of ideas to continue the development of the technology, while capitalizing on what is ready for production. MagnaTech expects that much of our activity during the last quarter of this year will be expended in attempting to establish relationships in this area.