Preparation of in-situ Nb<inf>3</inf>Sn-Cu wire by consumable arc melting

Abstract

Procedures have been developed for casting 10 cm diameter Cu-Nb ingots and for fabricating these castings into Nb <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf> Sn-Cu in-situ wire. Operating conditions which produce consumable arc cast ingots homogeneous to 1.5 wt % Nb are presented along with analyses of macro-segregation, carbon pickup and Nb dendrite size. Carbon impurity level is found to be an important parameter which controls the critical current.