Eliminating a Major Cause of Wire Drawing Breakage in A-15 High-Field Superconductors
Eliminating a Major Cause of Wire Drawing Breakage in A-15 High-Field Superconductors Phase 1 Summary Purpose of the research: The Phase 1 goal was to make a significant improvement in the wire drawing technology used for difficult to draw superconductor precursor composites. Many ductile Nb-Al and Nb-Sn precursor wire composites have experienced the onset of wire drawing breakage at about 1.5 mm diameter. Phase 1 focused on evaluating the role that precision rigid guidance of the wire into the drawing die and the hydrostatic stress state at the die entrance played in preventing wire breakage. Research carried out: The research performed depended upon the construction of both a mechanical wire guide and a hydrostatic pressure stiffened wire guidance system. Innovare constructed the two wire guidance systems and tested them for their ability to reduce wire drawing breakage. One set of hardware provided rigid alignment of the wires to their wire drawing die axes within 0.35 degrees using ''hydrostatic pressure stiffening'' to enable the precision guidance strategy to be implemented for these highly flexible small diameter wires. This apparatus was compared to a guide arrangement that used short span mechanical guide alignment with a misalignment limit of about 0.75 degrees. Four A-15 composite wires with breakage histories were drawn to evaluate the use of these wire guiding systems to reduce and/or eliminate wire breakage. Research findings and results: In Phase 1, a breakthrough in wire drawing technology for A-15 superconductor composites was achieved by dramatically limiting or eliminating breakage in four different A-15 composite precursor wire designs during the drawing of these very desirable composites that previously could not be drawn to near final size. Research results showed that the proposed Phase 1 mechanical wire guides were sufficiently effective and successful in eliminating breakage when used along with other advanced wire drawing technology to justify the development of an integrated compact production type Advanced Wire Drawing Station. New insights into the formation and growth of a shear type defect that causes breakage lead to improved drawing technology and it will be the basis for further study and improvements included in a Phase 2 proposal. Potential application of the research: This new capability now justifies the development of an integrated compact production type Advanced Wire Drawing Station to replace the bulky, slower and research oriented equipment that currently uses four independent operations for each wire diameter reduction. In a Phase 2 proposal, the designs for each operation were to be optimized for their performance and so they could be used to integrate these individual operations into an Advanced Wire Drawing Station. This station will perform all the mechanical conditioning, cleaning, lubrication, guidance and drawing operations simultaneously and it will be tested to verify wire drawing performance targets. A portable Advanced Wire Drawing Station will be developed and constructed in the final stage of the proposed Phase 2 program and it will be used in an outside manufacturing facility for superconductor composite wire drawing field trials.
- Research Organization:
- Innovare, Inc. / 7277 Park drive / Bath, PA 18014 (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science and Technology (OST) (EM-50) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-02ER83463
- OSTI ID:
- 810974
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/83463; TRN: US0401380
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 20 May 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ACCURACY
ALIGNMENT
CLEANING
CONSTRUCTION
DEFECTS
HYDROSTATICS
LUBRICATION
MANUFACTURING
PERFORMANCE
PRECURSOR
PRODUCTION
SHEAR
SUPERCONDUCTORS
TARGETS
WIRE DRAWING
A-15 SUPERCONDUCTOR WIRE
WIRE DRAWING BREAKAGE
ADVANCED WIRE DRAWING TECHNOLOGY