STI Conductus 2G HTS Wire Pilot Production Equipment Now Operational

- Shipped first wire completely fabricated in STI's Austin facility -

- Increased customer requests for Conductus wire -

- Met product requirements for low temperature application -

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 21, 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, has successfully completed the installation of its equipment suite required for production of Conductus ^® 2G HTS wire at its Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence facility in Austin during the fourth quarter of 2012 as planned. At this time all 2G HTS wire pilot production equipment is operational and in various stages of process implementation.

All three machines required for production of Conductus 2G HTS wire are operational and achieving expected functional milestones.

• The IBAD system, delivered in April 2012, has completed process implementation. It is now being used in full production and achieving record results as of January 2013.
• The SDP system, delivered in November 2012, has also completed initial process implementation. The initial pilot production runs of 50 meter lengths and 10 centimeter widths were completed in early February 2013.
• The RCE-CDR system, delivered in December 2012, has been installed with first process run completed in February 2013.

"We continue to increase our customer activities, which are reflected by the expanding requests for Conductus wire," said Jeff Quiram, STI's president and chief executive officer. "At this time, the current customer requests will consume all available supply of Conductus wire that we can produce through the first few quarters of 2013. Recently we shipped the first Conductus wire completely fabricated in our Austin facility, and it is being tested for a superconducting motor application. In January, we also achieved product requirements for a low temperature, high infield superconducting magnet application by achieving greater than 2500 amps per centimeter at 4 Kelvins. In addition, we passed testing in magnetic field strengths greater than 14 Tesla."

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