The WST’s superconducting strands delivered to Chinese DA

 On March 1, 2012, the first shipment of Nb3Sn strands for ITER TF conductor and NbTi strands for ITER PF conductor were delivered to Chinese DA, which is a milestone of mass production of superconducting strands in WST.

 So far, WST’s strands have passed the measurements of superconducting properties organized by ITER organization six times, being the unique superconducting strands supplier in the world. The Nb3Sn and NbTi strands delivered by WST are the products purchased by China DA and will be used for the manufacturing of real conductor for ITER project.

WST is involved in ITER project of NbTi and Nb3Sn superconducting wires

 ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject. It will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment, housed in the world's largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor that is being built next to the Cadarache facility in the south of France.

  AS a unique supplier in china, WST is involved in ITER project of NbTi and Nb3Sn superconducting wires, and over 200 tons (60,000km) high performance superconducting wires have been delivered until 2015.

NbTi superconducting wire

 NbTi superconducting wire is one of the most widely used superconducting materials in engineering applications such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Physics Research, and Fusion Energy and so on. Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal (the biggest shareholder of WST) has more than 50 years of experience and technique in NbTi superconductor, and the whole process capacity from NbTi alloy ingot to multifilament wire. WST has supplied over 60,000 km of High quality NbTi wire for customs worldwide.

former President Hu inspected the superconducting wire manufacturing factory of WST

    On January 25, 2010,former Chinese President, Hu Jintao, inspected the superconducting wire manufacturing factory of WST accompanied by Ling Jihua, director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Huning, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee and other accompanying local government officials.

 former President Hu asked carefully about the R&D and state of the art technology of superconducting wires for the ITER project. He talked with the technicians of WST about the situation of production line and the market prospects of superconducting wires. He encouraged that WST should insist on the independent innovation and Play a positive role to improving the level of new materials industry of China by obtaining the core techniques and accelerating quickly scientific and technological achievements transformation.

   The Chinese government approved to join ITER project in 2006. WST is the leading provider of high quality superconducting materials in China and undertake all the production of NbTi and Nb3Sn superconducting strands for ITER project.

MgB₂ superconducting wire

    In January 2001, it was announced that MgB2, a compound that was well known to chemists, was superconducting up to 39K. Tc values suggest that MgB2 can be used with a convenient cryocooler as a conductor for a cryogen free magnet at elevated temperatures of ～20K. Potential applications for the MgB2 superconducting wire include MRI systems, superconducting FCLs, transformers, inductors, reactors, motors, and generators. Of these, the most promising applications are projected to be MRI systems, superconducting FCLs, and wind turbine generators.

   2 kilometers MgB2 wires have been successfully produced by scale fabrication technique at WST, which are with a Jc of 43000 A/cm2 (±5%)  at 20 K and

what is Nb₃Sn superconducting wire?

   Nb3Sn material has the nature of higher the upper critical magnetic field ~22 T (Hc2) and critical temperature ~18 K (Tc) than NbTi, so it is widely used in high magnet field. WST can supply the Nb3Sn wire in both Internal Tin process and Bronze process, with  low hysteresis loss and high critical current

 The insulation material could be chosen between S-glass braid and Cr coating, if needed. WST has supplied over 35 tons of high performance Nb3Sn wires with good quality stability for ITER.

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