The Lure of Money
At present, the world superconductor industry is still a small industrial sector, but superconducting devices are often some of the most important components of larger systems.In 1988, annual sales of superconducting devices amounted to $400 million, and the world market for all superconducting products exceeded $1 billion. It is estimated that it could approach $3 billion by the year 2000 without a major breakthrough.
Current superconducting products operate at temperatures in the range of a few degrees above absolute zero and are made of niobium and niobium alloys, so it can be said that the current market is a low-temperature superconductivity market. high-temperature superconductivity, which has been discovered since 1987, has had very little impact on the current market.
The current market for superconductors is only in its infancy, and the market for superconducting materials is expected to grow at an annual rate of 15%, with the fastest-growing areas being medical imaging, electronics, defense systems, the industrial sector, and power generation and distribution. The main superconducting products marketed are: magnetic *** vibration imagers; production magnets; superconducting quantum interference devices; oscilloscopes and electronics; wires, rods and cables; small magnets for research; large niobium magnets; ceramic wires and ribbons; ceramic coatings; thin films and shielding; particle gas pedals; and magnets for nuclear fusion. Among them, superconducting magnets used in magnetic **** vibration imagers have the largest share of the market for superconducting components, e.g., in 1987, the annual sales of superconducting components amounted to $2.0 billion, of which $150 million was for magnetic **** vibration imagers. With about 300 magnetic **** vibration imagers sold annually, the instrument is in very high demand worldwide and more than 95 percent are now superconducting.
Biomagnetism has developed a detector for measuring human brain activity, which can be used for early diagnosis of brain disorders.
A U.S.-based company is making magnetic property measurement systems that can be used in laboratories for advanced superconductivity research. The device is entering the market virtually unopposed and has a stockpile of products. The company makes a rust detector that detects small changes in the magnetic field due to the chemical reaction of oxidizing metals for use in rust diagnostics such as iron bridges and pipelines.
The United States attaches great importance to the application of energy storage in the military, "Star Wars" program arranged a number of such projects. These projects require energy storage systems can quickly supply large amounts of energy when needed, such as directed energy weapons.
Particle gas pedal is an important equipment for high-energy physics research, the United States Fermilab particle gas pedal was designed to use conventional magnets, and later replaced with superconducting magnets, so that the gas pedal power increased by a factor of 1, and energy consumption plummeted. It *** use 900 magnets, each weighing about 1 ton, the magnets are made of niobium-titanium flat cable. The magnets provided a $15 million market over five years.
The SSC project underway in the U.S., on the other hand, is a much larger particle gas pedal that includes 10,000 niobium-titanium superconducting magnets, each about 50 inches long. These magnets provide a $1 billion market (over several years) for magnet suppliers.
TechnoBusiness magazine, in January 1988, listed 48 major companies engaged in superconductivity research and sales worldwide, along with their main activities: 31 in the United States; 6 in Europe (4 in the United Kingdom, 1 in Sweden, and 1 in Germany), and 11 in Japan. Obviously, these manufacturers are from the low-temperature superconducting products research and production and sales of the start, superconducting goods market occupier has been very obvious. The United States, Japan and Western Europe is the most important market occupiers, the laboratory results of superconductivity, the fastest speed to achieve practical and commercialization, and maximize the occupation of the market, which is the focus of competition in the superconductivity industry.
In the 1987 race to find high-temperature superconducting materials, China was neck-and-neck with the three groups mentioned above, and was even quite prominent. However, after the emergence of high-temperature superconductors, as the focus of the competition was on commercialization and capturing the future market, China became slightly less prominent. Fierce competition is still taking place between the three groups, with the United States and Japan in particular competing most fiercely.
In 1987, a few months after the discovery of the new high-temperature superconductors, the U.S. federal agencies will be the 1987 funds from other research and development in the field of $ 45 million to engage in high-temperature superconductor research. 1987 April (high-temperature superconductors only 2 months after the discovery of the U.S. President Reagan issued a decree requiring federal laboratories to the Institute of the rapid transfer of technology to the private sector, and encourages the government, universities, and the Japanese government to develop the technology. private industry, and to encourage collaborative research between government, universities and industry, with the aim of accelerating the commercialization of science and technology. At the same time, the U.S. Congress also established the "superconducting materials commercial and defense applications of the Commission".
In 1988, the U.S. Federal Agency spent nearly $159 million on superconductivity research and development, more than half ($95 million) for high-temperature superconducting materials, the rest for low-temperature superconducting materials. 1988 budget exceeded the 1987 budget by 89%, and the budget for 1989 exceeded the 1988 budget by 58%, which is a fairly high growth rate.
The focus of the fiscal budget is concentrated in the Departments of Energy and Defense. The three-year budget for the Department of Energy was 46.3 percent of the total three-year budget. For the Department of Defense, it is 34.3 percent. Reflects the U.S. government's emphasis on energy and defense. The United States in recent years in order to civil and military systems to seize the technological advantage, adopted a new development policy: that is, to encourage joint development, advocating the development of basic and applied technologies at the same time. To realize the integration of research, development and production, with a view to rapidly transforming the leading position in scientific research into a leading position in commercial applications and protecting the country's intellectual property rights. If in the search for high-temperature superconducting materials in the competition for basic research, the United States has achieved a leading position over Japan, then, in the application of development and product commercialization, the United States is most concerned about lagging behind Japan.
After the discovery of high-temperature superconducting materials, the Japanese government accelerated the financial investment in superconductivity research, and the investment in 1988 exceeded 300% of that in 1987. Japan fully recognized the potential of the superconductivity market, both technically and commercially. 1988 Japan's budget for superconductivity amounted to 56.97 million U.S. dollars. Japan has also formulated the "1988 Superconductivity R&D and Commercialization Plan". Japan has developed a master plan for superconductivity research and development in order to transfer the technology to the industrial base faster than the United States and Western Europe.
Because Japan's fiscal 1988 budget does not include a wage component, if compared with the U.S. budget, Japan's figure may be two to three times larger, according to unofficial estimates. In this way, the fiscal 1988 budgets of Japan and the United States are close.