Review of the R&D and Supply of the LHC Superconducting Cables

The construction of the superconducting magnets for the LHC machine has required the supply of ~7350 km of superconducting cables. The delivery of cables which is completed at 97% has made use of a large part of the world wide production capacity. Ten contracts have been placed with firms in Europe, Japan, USA. The Nb-Ti and the Nb materials have been contracted by CERN. Before tendering and placing the contracts, a R&D program has combined studies at CERN and orders of finished cables of significant lengths to industry. The report will present the main results of the R&D program, the characteristics of the LHC cables, the encountered difficulties and the obtained successes during the long duration fabrication contracts of the highly sophisticated LHC superconducting cables