ERMR 2006 included invited speakers, technical presentations, poster presentations, and a student paper competition. At the conference banquet, Dr. David Carlson of Lord Corporation addressed the conference attendees and gave a stirring speech on the history of ER and MR fluids, as well as current and future applications. A unique feature of the ERMR Conferences is that they comprehensively cover issues ranging from physics to chemistry to engineering applications of ER and MR materials held in a general session to enhance the interaction between the scientists and engineers. The sessions in ERMR 2006 were organized based into two Symposia: a) Materials and b) Applications. Topics covered in the Materials Symposium included: mechanisms, preparation, and characterization of ER and MR materials. Topics covered in the Applications Symposium included: ER and MR devices, control systems, system integration, and applications. This structure was implemented in order to enable interaction between attending scientists and engineers in both the Materials Symposium and the Applications Symposium, and to enhance the free flow of ideas, and the potential collaborative research opportunities.

Contents:

• The Physical Mechanism to Reduce Viscosity of Liquid Suspensions (R Tao)
• Polar Molecular Type Electrorheological Fluids (K Lu et al.)
• Yield Stress in Ferrofluids? (H Shahnazian & S Odenbach)
• The Effect of Dwell Time on the Rheological Behavior of MR Fluids (M Ahmadian & F D Goncalves)
• The Methods of Measuring Shear Stress of Polar Molecule Dominated ER Fluids (R Shen et al.)
• Electrosensitive Lubricants (E V Korobko et al.)
• Study on Characteristics of an Electrorheological Fluid Coupling (Y Meng et al.)
• On the Control of a MR Torque Transfer Device (M H Elahinia et al.)
• Comparison of ERF Clutch Designs (D J Ellam et al.)
• Examination of Throughflow in a Radial ERF Clutch (S M Chen et al.)
• Two-Layered Magnetic Fluid Sloshing in a Rectangular Container (S Yoshida et al.)
• Design of the High-Performance MR Brake and Its Characteristics (T Kikuchi et al.)
• and other papers