Electroplated stabilized multifilament superconductor

This paper describes a method of manufacturing stabilized multifilament superconductors by connection of single or multifilament wires together by electroplating process. The method was tried first in summer 1965 just after appearing of paper by Kantrowitz and Stekly [1]. The scheme of the method is shown in Fig. 1. A set of parallel wires was wound onto a drum and then immersed into an electrolitic bath. The turns were separated with an insulated wire to prevent their coalescence. Copper covering of both sides of the set resulted in a high quality stable conductor. At that time we considered the method as a successful palliative which allowed us, however, to test our first stable coil in summer 1965 (Fig. 2). But eventually the advantages of the method became evident. Some of them are inherent to all compound conductors, i.e. conductors which consist of a number of smaller cross section conductors or wires joined in parallel. The advantages are as following: 1. The superconducting components can be manufactured by optimum process. They can be tested preliminary and properly selected. It eliminates the risk of spoiling great quantity of expensive superconducting alloy at once. 2. The length of the conductor is not determined by the size of a metallurgical billet. It is possible to make large cross section conductors of any necessary length without using of expensive metallurgical equipment. 3. Superconducting wires can be fully transposed in such a conductor.