Development of Artificial Pinning Center NbTi multifilamentary superconductors for commercial applications

Since the mid-1980's various researchers have been developing artificial Pinning Center NbTi superconducting composites. Supercon has developed a novel approach that utilizes pure niobium and titanium as starting materials, and forms the alloy with a diffusion heat treatment during processing, while retaining enough normal material to act as the pinning sites. This APC process has been demonstrated in fine filamentary binary composites, large conductors for low field applications, and in ternary (NbTiTa) composites. The latest developments will be covered in this paper.