Manufacture of Nb3Al superconducting wires by the rapid heating and quenching technique

As a first approach, a wire with a single Nb3Al filament has been manufactured to study the rapid heating and quenching parameters. A reel-to-reel continuous rapid quenching apparatus has been designed and fabricated which will be able to produce some hundred meters of wire. The heating temperature is monitored by an infra-red two colours detector. Structural characterization of Nb3Al wires has been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction. Due to the absence of stabilizing Cu, superconducting transport properties were estimated by Bean formula as a function of a background magnetic field up to 10 T, while hysteresis losses were measured by vibrating sample magnetometer facility. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.