Press Release - Berry Amendment For DOD End Use

Electron Energy Corporation Certifies magnets and magnet systems are produced in compliance with Specialty Metals provisions in US Law known as the Berry Amendment for DOD end use

Landisville, PA (March 31, 2006) — Electron Energy Corporation (EEC), one of the world’s leading producers of rare earth magnets and magnet systems, assures that all EEC orders for magnets and magnet systems with a stated end use by the US Department of Defense are produced in compliance to US law Berry Amendment specialty metal provisions enacted in DFARS. This is the specific mechanism in the Defense Federal Acquisitions Regulations Supplement by which “domestic source restrictions” are implemented by the Department of Defense. US law and its revisions known as the Berry Amendment enact “domestic source restrictions” provisions for national defense.

DOD and prime contractors are making a concerted effort to ensure that these specialty metals provisions are flowed down to suppliers at all levels. Violations of the Berry Amendment specialty metals clauses have resulted in major fines and penalties, government investigations and delayed deliveries to DOD which have been widely publicized recently. This impacts all tiers in the supply chain to DOD. EEC wishes to support those efforts to enhance compliance by issuing this certification.

Specialty metals are defined as: steel (see DFARS for specific alloy content percentages), titanium and titanium alloys, zirconium and zirconium alloys, nickel, iron-nickel and cobalt base alloys with more than 10% of other alloying metals (except iron). DFARS requires that any article containing a specialty metal, must use specialty metals melted in the U.S., a U.S. possession, Puerto Rico or a qualifying country. DFARS Alternate 1 applies to all suppliers under major programs such as aircraft, ships, missiles, space systems, weapons, tanks and automotive uses.

As a fully vertically integrated US producer, EEC offers the widest range of samarium cobalt magnet materials properties commercially available. EEC offers samarium cobalt magnet material properties from 2 to 32 MGOe, extremely tight magnetic properties tolerances, patented SmCo-Ultra Ultra-High Temperature materials which can operate to 550°C, and custom test capability over a wide temperature range. In addition, EEC produces “Zero Reversible Temperature Coefficient materials with variation in magnetic field as a function of temperature as low as 0.001% per degree C (less than 10 ppm).

EEC offers full 2D and 3D Finite Element Analysis magnetic circuit design capability to assist our customers with their specialized magnet applications. EEC offers a unique combination of magnet materials knowledge and strong magnet design capabilities resulting in optimized solutions for the most demanding custom magnet system applications.