AUSTIN, Texas, July 23, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI) (Nasdaq: SCON ), a world leader in the development and production of high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials and associated technologies, announced the successful shipment of Conductus ® 2G HTS wire against previously announced purchase orders from three industry leading, multinational industrial companies. These shipments consisted of wire that attained critical current performance between 250 and 400 Amps per centimeter width (A/cm-width) for the various specific customer requests. As previously announced in April 2013, the company's current wire production capacity for the next several months is allocated to ship against existing purchase orders for emerging smart grid applications. These initial shipments are being used for qualification testing in the various customers' product designs for devices such as superconducting fault current limiters and HTS high field magnets used in multiple applications.
"Our customers are performing qualification testing of Conductus wire to complete their vendor selection process for upcoming projects," stated Adam Shelton, STI's VP of Marketing and Product Line Management. "These shipments represent a significant milestone for STI as our potential customers look to secure a supply of HTS wire for 2014 and beyond. With the customer qualification phase well underway, our important objective to establish commercial relationships with these customers is fast approaching. For our customers to successfully complete upcoming smart grid projects, they will require a significant quantity of superconducting wire at various lengths. Our wire performance, yields and wire length per run have dramatically improved over the first half of 2013. We expect our wire performance to continue to improve in these areas that are critical to achieving commercial volumes. By carefully aligning our 2013 production output with requirements from strategic target customers who are committed to the commercialization of superconducting devices, we are executing on our plan to bring Conductus wire to market in commercial volumes in 2014. We expect to continue to ship high performance, longer length wire to satisfy existing purchase orders for Conductus 2G HTS wire in the coming months."
"Conductus wire is suitable for use in HTS power cables, superconducting high-field magnets, superconducting fault current limiters, and superconducting motors and generators applications. As the power industry continues to adopt HTS technology to address problems unsolvable by conventional means, STI is clearly focused on fostering customer relationships with leading, multi-national industrial companies with established sales channels to utilities. As our current wire capacity increases, our intention is to secure business with these customers as we prepare for the full commercial launch of Conductus wire in 2014 as we transition from pilot to full production," Shelton concluded.
About Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI)
Superconductor Technologies Inc., headquartered in Austin, TX, has been a world leader in HTS materials since 1987, developing more than 100 patents as well as proprietary trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. For more than a decade, STI has been providing innovative interference elimination and network enhancement solutions to the commercial wireless industry. The company is currently leveraging its key enabling technologies, including RF filtering, HTS materials and cryogenics to develop energy efficient, cost-effective and high performance second generation (2G) HTS wire for existing and emerging power applications, to develop applications for advanced RF wireless solutions and innovative adaptive filtering, and for government R&D. Superconductor Technologies Inc.'s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol "SCON." For more information about STI, please visit http://www.suptech.com .
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements in this press release regarding our business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. These factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: our limited cash and a history of losses; the limited number of potential customers; the limited number of suppliers for some of our components and our HTS wire; there being no significant backlog from quarter to quarter; our market being characterized by rapidly advancing technology; overcoming technical challenges in attaining milestones to develop and manufacture commercial lengths of our HTS wire; customer acceptance of our HTS wire; fluctuations in product demand from quarter to quarter; the impact of competitive filter products, technologies and pricing; manufacturing capacity constraints and difficulties; our ability to raise sufficient capital to fund our operations, and the impact on our strategic wire initiative of any inability to raise such funds; the impact of any such financing activity on the level of our stock price; and local, regional, and national and international economic conditions and events and the impact they may have on us and our customers, such as the current worldwide recession.
Forward-looking statements can be affected by many other factors, including, those described in the "Business" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of STI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and in STI's other public filings. These documents are available online at STI's website, www.suptech.com , or through the SEC's website, www.sec.gov . Forward-looking statements are based on information presently available to senior management, and STI has not assumed any duty to update any forward-looking statements.
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