IEEE-CPMT Society TC-1 Committee
on Electrical Contacts
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday October 22, 2002
4:45 PM
Holiday Inn International Drive, Orlando, Florida
Chair: G. Witter
Vice-Chair:
Secretary: C. Leung
Attendees:
Holm Conference Attendees
Opening: G. Witter
· TC-1 of IEEE-CPMT meeting was called to order by Chairman G. Witter.
1. Approval of minutes of previous meeting - G. Witter
· 2001 meeting minute has been posted at www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/cpmt/org web page. It was approved. Attendance list was circulated to capture new members, particular emphasis was put on e-mail for easier communication for the IEEE office.
2. Preliminary Report on IEEE-Holm Conference - Chi Leung
· Total registration to date is 86, which is still low for a balanced budget. There were 48 from USA, 15 from Europe, 9 from Canada, 7 from China and 7 from Japan. The effect of the US economy is still on a recovery mode, the International conference in Munich, and the difficulties of getting travel visas for some overseas have all impacted attendance. The US participation is regarded as particularly weak. The US attendance to the International Conference was only 9 out of over 200 from the other countries. We have 34 technical papers in 10 sessions. The presentations were excellent with good visual aids. Regretably, several overseas authors were not available to present their papers. However, the audience do value the extra discussion time allowed for the other papers.
· Ragnar Holm Scientific Achievement Awardee, Professor N. Ben Jemaa gave a review lecture on “Contacts Conduction and Switching in DC Levels”
· The first year Dr. Morton Antler Invited Lecture was give by William Abbott on “The Role of Electroplates in Contact Reliability”. The Invited Lecture was established with a grant from the Antler Family to promote new technology discussions in the conference.
3. Report on 2002 Intensive Course on Electrical Contact - Paul Slade
· The June 2002 course was cancelled because of insufficient students. This was rescheduled to March 2003 at the same location (Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington DC). There is a definite lack of electrical contact phenomena for new engineers. However, companies are still reducing training expenses in bad economic times. There were discussions about how to draw more attendance. This included ideas about partial (1 day) attendance for reduced rate, target company and location, contract with company to do training, consecutive to Holm conference, shorten to 3 days, less expensive locations, breakdown to separate courses (relays, connectors, fundamentals, high current etc), attractive name changes. The course directors will review suggestions.
4. Report on CPMT Transaction – G. Witter for John McBride
· Thomas Schoepf is added to be associate editor in support of John McBride and Milenco Braunovic.
5. World Calendar
· Professor Sawa introduced a new Japanese conference IS-EMD2002. A link will be created in the TC1 web page.
6. TC1 sub-committees:
· Proposals and discussions on establishing sub-committees on Holm conference related technology scopes. Each sub-committee will actively solicit authors and invited speakers to form technical sessions.
· Material restrictions and substitution – Dr. Werner Johler
· 42V DC and higher voltages in automotive – Dr. Thomas Schoepf
· High speed connections – Roland Timsit
· MEMs and micro-contact technology – Bob Malucci
· High current applications: Arc fault detection and contactors – John Shea and Henry Czajkowski
· Nano technology - Gerald Witter and Kevin Klungtvedt
7. New Business
· Discussions on how to increase attendance to the Holm Conference: 1) Is Holm conference a basic science or application conference? Some other conferences seem to be more focus now to leverage attendance; 2) How to make it less expensive to attend? The pros and cons of major cities, major hotels etc.
· CD ROM project: Thomas Schoepf demonstrated a limited compilation of the past proceedings. This is basically using ADOBE and search engines to archive old proceedings. He will continue to work with Gerry Witter to complete this project.
Respectfully submitted, Chi Leung, 7/25/2003