ASG Superconductors Is to Build the World's Most Powerful Magnets to Study the Brain

ASG Superconductors Is to Build the World's Most Powerful Magnets to Study the Brain

GENOA, Italy, October 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

      The magnets will create a magnetic field 260,888 times more powerful than the one
generated by the Earth, for a high energy magnetic resonance system designed to produce
even more detailed images of the brain, at Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon

                (South Korea), which specialises in neurological studies 

    ASG produces superconducting magnets for basic scientific research and for the medical

         (hadrontherapy and MRI) and energy sectors (FCL anti-blackout systems) 

    ASG Superconductors, a company owned by the Malacalza family with production sites in
Italy, has been awarded a contract by Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon
South Korea (GUGMC) to build Ultra High Field (UHF) superconducting magnets. The magnets
produced in Italy by ASG will be used to create an extremely powerful magnetic field of
11.74 Tesla, or 260,888 times stronger that the earth's magnetic field, making it possible
to acquire images at a high level of spatial resolution that will push the frontier of
neurological research beyond the limits imposed by today's imaging systems, which use
lower energy magnetic fields.

(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161025/432305 )

    The Gachon magnetic resonance system will be the medical instrument with the highest
energy field ever used in medical research on human beings. This project is supported by a
grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry
Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry for Health and Welfare, Korea. The
magnets, weighing about 70 tonnes, will use over 600 km of superconducting cable in a
production process that draws on high-tech computation tools and mechanical, cryogenic and
magnetic engineering software.

    The contract will be performed on a joint basis with Korean company Magnex Scientific
Inc and is worth over EUR10 million for ASG, representing yet another example of the
company's skills in the medical magnets sector. ASG has already produced numerous magnets
for applications in the field of hadrontherapy and oncological radiotherapy (cancer care),
for customers like the CNAO in Pavia, Alberta Health Services in Edmonton, Canada, and
other operators in this sector. The magnets' design, technology and production drawing on
skills built up over more than 50 years working on major research projects including
LHC-CERN and ITER.

    Established in 1958, the GUGMC is a medical foundation established through the
generosity of Dr Lee Gil Ya. Over the years it has become one of Asia's most important
medical centers and a leading development center for magnetic resonance and radiology
technology.

    To know more about ASG check out the website http://www.asgsuperconductors.com

    Photo:
    http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161025/432305

Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161025/432305
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
ASG Superconductors

CONTACT: Luca Pezzoni, Tel +39-0105307811