Superconducting Niobium Wire - niobium jewelry wire

niobium jewelry wire

niobium jewelry wire

One particularly important area of the superconductor field is the search for durable and efficient superconducting wire. Applications for which such wire could be used include advanced utility cables, motors, and power generators. As in other areas of the superconductor field, advances in superconducting wire have been incremental. The very first commercial superconducting wire was developed by researchers at Westinghouse in 1962. The material from which the pioneering wire was fabricated was an alloy of niobium and titanium (NbTi). Since the early achievements in the field at Westinghouse, superconducting wire has since been developed out of many other materials, produced via several different processes, and manufactured by a number of different companies.

Some superconducting wire has been produced from low temperature superconductors that require liquid helium for cooling, but the vast majority of interest has been in high temperature superconducting (HTS) wire that can be cooled much more cheaply with liquid nitrogen (a common refrigerant) since the discovery of superconductors with significantly higher critical temperatures than conventional superconductors in the 1980s. The first generation (1G) of HTS wire is available commercially today and is prepared through a powder-in-tube process somewhat similar to the way traditional wire of copper or aluminum is made. 1G HTS wire is a composite structure often containing more than 50 filaments of superconducting material embedded in a non-superconducting matrix, such as a silver alloy. It can be utilized in various motor, electric power grid, generator, and magnet applications, though its employment has thus far been limited. Improved fabrication methods may eventually improve performance and reduce costs enough that 1G HTS wire becomes more heavily depended upon for commercial applications, but many companies have been focusing more on the potential of second generation (2G) HTS wire in recent years.

niobium jewelry wire

source: http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/tutorials/gallery/scwire.html