Increase Piece Length and Reduce Cost of A15 Superconductor Wire by Eliminating Wire Drawing Breakage

75393-High performance A-15 superconductors (niobium-aluminum and niobium-tin compounds) with critical currents of 3500 A/mm2 at 12 Tesla and 4.2¿K and with deff values of 50 microns or less will be required for future High Energy Physics magnets. However, wire drawing breakage is currently a costly manufacturing problem, and it has created a barrier to drawing many of the new, advanced A15 composite wires. In previous work, an advanced wire drawing technology was developed to eliminate this breakage, but further demonstrations are required to confirm that it can serve as the basis for a robust, cost-effective production system. This project will expand the previous wire-drawing laboratory facility to draw much larger conductors (up to 6 mm). Phase I will modify the facility by adding a set of custom profile drawing dies; a long-wire-capacity, pump-pressurized lubricator; and a wire puller-winder system for high speed drawing. Then, a previously-non-drawable, high performance niobium-tin composite will be selected for trial, and sufficient wire for making a small test magnet (at least 160 m) will be drawn at high rates. In Phase II, the individual wire-drawing operations will be integrated into a wire-drawing station to perform all of the mechanical conditioning, cleaning, lubrication, wire guidance, and drawing operations simultaneously; then this station will be tested in a superconductor manufacturing facility. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The technology should enable the fabrication of optimum performance superconductors with high manufacturing yields, leading to reduced wire costs and, subsequently, lower costs for the next generation of high-magnetic-field-strength superconducting magnets for use in high energy physics, fusion energy development, and magnetic resonance imaging units.