Forty-fifth General Assembly
The Forty-fifth General Assembly of the association was held in Philadelphia, U.S.A. on Monday October 11th 2004, as part of a meeting from October 10th to 12th.
The Charter of the association was amended, to reflect the provisions of the Belgian law governing international associations, which had recently been changed, and to bring the statutes up to date.
Mr David Reynolds, Kemet, completed his year as President, and the assembled delegates thanked him warmly for his service to the association.
Mr William Millman, AVX, was elected as President for the coming year.
Mr Thomas Odle and Mr David Paull had resigned from membership of the Executive Committee. Mr Michael Tamlin, Sons of Gwalia, and Mr William Young, Cabot Supermetals, were elected to the Committee. The other members of the Committee were re-elected to serve a further term: Mr Tadeu Carneiro, Dr Josef Gerblinger, Mr He Jilin, Mr Michael Herzfeld, Dr Axel Hoppe and Mr David Reynolds.
The General Assembly accepted the applications of five new member companies, and the resignation of one member, bringing the number of members to 85. The audited accounts and the budget for the coming year were approved.
The General Assembly in 2005 will be held on October 17th, during the Symposium in Pattaya, Thailand.
Tour of Reading Alloys
On Tuesday October 12th a party of almost one hundred delegates went to Robesonia to tour the metallurgical plant of Reading Alloys, by kind invitation of the company. A series of introductory talks by experts from the company explained the work undertaken by the company and the processes which the visitors would see. The group also had an opportunity to see an exhibition set up to illustrate the products made, ranging from rough ingots to a model of a aircraft turbofan engine which incorporated alloys originating at Reading. Visitors were impressed by the thermite reactions: every few minutes a fresh batch of alloy emerged from the engulfing flames as the exothermic reaction proceeded and died away. They saw the subsequent inspection and quality control which are essential features when the eventual end-product is a jet engine component - lives depend on it.
After lunch in a former factory in Reading, converted into a comfortable restaurant, the group returned to Philadelphia at the close of the meeting.
Social programme
The technical sessions were held at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel, where all the participants were guests of the T.I.C. at the welcome reception in the indoor Courtyard and also at the gala dinner. The hotel ballroom was transformed for the occasion into a 1930's jazz club, the dark background contrasting with bright candles and colourful orchids. The guests were entertained by a talented jazz band and singer, and by the lively Philadelphia Mummers, with their sparkling, kitsch costumes and tuneful playing.
Technical programme
The technical presentations were of a notably high standard at this meeting. The following papers were presented:
Report on the work of the T.I.C. Transport Committee
William A. Serjak, Technical Promotion Officer
Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center
The Defense National Stockpile Center's tantalum sales
Cheryl Deister, Director, Contracting, Defense National Stockpile Center, Defense Logistics Agency
Tantalum powders for high voltage applications
Leah F. Simkins, Michael J. Albarelli, Kathleen B. Doyle and Bonnie Cox
H.C. Starck
Niobium for high-temperature applications
Tadeu Carneiro, Vice President
Reference Metals Company, Inc., Bridgeville, PA, USA
Recent advances in tantalum mill products for physical vapour deposition
Peter Jepson, Rich Malen and Prabhat Kumar
H.C. Starck
The usage of tantalum for physical vapour deposition applications
Michael W. Morris
Cabot Supermetals
Some problems of yttrium-refined tantalum production
S. Dobrussin, Yu. Gulyaikin, G. Gyintsev, V. Shevlyakov
NAC Kazatomprom, Ulba Metallurgical Plant JSC, presented by Vita Dyomina
Tantalum coated materials for surgical implants
Bo Gillesberg
Danfoss A/S
Challenges involving deposition of counter-electrode systems in high charge (>=100k CV/g) tantalum powders
Eric Zediac, Chris Coker, John Moore
KEMET Electronics
How far can we go with high CV tantalum capacitors?
Yuri Pozdeev Freeman
Vishay Sprague
