A Medical Device Daily

Electron Energy (EEC; Landisville, Pennsylvania) has been awarded a $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research contract by the National Science Foundation for phase I research and development of anisotropic magnet powder coated with iron (Fe) nanoparticles for high performance nanocomposite magnets.

The contract runs from January through June 2008. EEC will be supported in this effort by the University of Delaware’s Physics Department under the leadership of George Hadjipanayis.

“As a result of this research, we’re in the position to develop an entirely new class of magnet materials that have substantially higher magnetic properties than those currently in the marketplace. Advances in the performance of magnet materials will enable more compact, lighter weight, less costly electromagnetic devices,” said Michael Walmer, EEC president.

The more prominent applications for higher field strength magnets are in spacecraft, microwave components, sensors, and commercial systems including computer disk drives, medical imaging, audio systems and motors.

In contract news: Brainware (Ashburn, Virginia) reported that Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) has adopted its accounts payable automation solution.

Mayo will be using Brainware’s data capture (A/P-distiller) and workflow management (WF-distiller) solutions to automatically recognize and capture specific invoice information to feed into Mayo’s back office accounting system.

Mayo will use Brainware to optimize accounts payable processing with a single point of control over the entire process. The Brainware solution is designed to reduce manual data processing and prevent errors.