Here is the Element Quiz Question:

The Question:
This element is named after the mineral it is sourced. It has a number of
commercial applications including magnets, chemical catalysts and cancer
treatment. Prior to the 1950s, it had no application in it pure form but it
was found in "Lindsey Mix" compound used in early nuclear reactors. Which
element is being described?

The Answer:
The element is Samarium (Sm)! Samarium is a critical component of
samarium–cobalt magnets, which have a nominal composition of SmCo5 or
Sm2Co17. They have high permanent magnetization, which is about 10,000
times that of iron and is second only to that of neodymium magnets. These
magnets are found in small motors, headphones, and high-end magnetic
pickups for guitars. Samarium is used as a chemical catalyst for the
 dechlorination of pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as
well as the dehydration and dehydrogenation of ethanol. Radioactive
samarium-153 is a beta emitter with a half-life of 46.3 hours. It is used
to kill cancer cells in the treatment of lung cancer, prostate cancer,
breast cancer, and osteosarcoma. A mixture of samarium and gadolinium (aka
Lindsay Mix) was thought to have been used for nuclear control rods in some
early nuclear reactors. Samarium is extracted from the mineral samarskite.


The winner of the quiz is Richard Stadem and  he will get the services
of Clumpy
and Kloumpios for the week.


There won't be a quiz next week as Doug is busy with his daughter's wedding
and a fair number of the TechNet herd will be attending the SMTAI
Conference in Chicago. Clumpy and Kloumpios have gotten quite efficient at
helping with IPC specification committee action items. The Quiz will resume
the week of Sept. 25.


So far Clumpy and Kloumpios have done the following:

Past Quiz winners/tasks:
Week 1 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 1 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.
Week 2 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 3 Mark Kostinovsky, Schlumberger Ltd.
Week 3 John Burke
Week 4 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 5 No Winner - no correct responses!
Week 6 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 7 Keith Calhoun, Sopark Corp
Week 7 Ian Fox, Rolls Royce
Week 8 Leland Woodall
Week 8 David Bealer, SMT
Week 9 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 10 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 11 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 11 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 12 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 13 No Quiz,
Week 14 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 15 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 16 John Maxwell
Week 17 Leland Woodall
Week 18 Leland Woodall
Week 19 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 20 Robert Kondner
Week 21 Tom Brendlinger, ClearMotion Inc.
Week 22 Carl Van Wormer, Cipher Engineering LCC
Week 23 Juliano Ribeiro, DATACOM
Week 24 Gerry Gagnon, FLIR Commercial Systems
Week 25 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 26 Joyce Koo, IPC International
Week 26 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 27 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 28 Leland Woodall
Week 29 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 30 Leland Woodall
Week 31 Leland Woodall
Week 32 Steve Gregory
Week 33 Leland Woodall

Week 34 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
- You can have the boys fly into Philadelphia.  They can help load the
Calibration Certificates into our system and update the Cal date.  After
that maybe they can help audit work instructions.

Week 35 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
- assisted with ????

Week 36 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
- The boys can help me get ready for our upcoming ISO audit, I know they
are experts on that.

Week 37 Richard Stadem
- assisted with ????


I hope everyone has a awesome week.

Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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