Manufacturing of superconducting silver/ceramic composites

Manufacturing of superconducting metal/ceramic composites is a rather new discipline within materials forming processes. High Temperature SuperConductors, HTSC, are manufactured applying the Oxide-Powder-In-Tube process, OPIT. A ceramic powder containing lead, calcium, bismuth, strontium, and copper oxides is inserted into a silver tube and reduced by multi-step drawing. These single-filaments are packed in a new silver tube thus forming a multi-filament containing e.g. 37 single-filaments, which is subsequently reduced by drawing and rolling to tapes approximately 0.2 mm thick by 3 mm wide. After the mechanical deformation the tapes are heat treated at approximately 835 degrees C whereby the powder-cores by phase diffusion and grain growth are converted into superconducting, ceramic fibres. The geometry, density and texture of the powder cores before heat treatment is essential for the quality and current leading properties of the final superconducting fibres. The present work describes studies on alternative packing geometries and process parameters in the flat rolling operations. The aim is to obtain homogenous filaments with advantageous geometry and good texture while avoiding potential defects such as cracks, shear band formation and sausaging.