Casting of dendritic Cu-Nb alloys for superconducting wire

Consumable electrode-arc-casting techniques have been developed for the preparation of large billets of dendritic Cu-Nb alloys which are suitable for the fabrication of multifilamentary superconducting wire. The dendrite structure is somewhat more coarse than chill cast material but metallographic and chemical analyses show acceptably small radial and longitudinal segregation. The billets can be drawn to wire with no intermediate anneals. Both external diffusion after tin plating and internal diffusion of wire with a tin core can be used to transform the Nb filaments to Nb3Sn. The arc cast wire displays Jc values equivalent to previously reported values on in situ wire at high fields, but somewhat lower values at low fields.