Method of fabricating a superconducting coils

Claim 1

A method of fabricating a highly stabilized superconducting coil in a single continuous operation from a flat strip of electrically conductive tape of predetermined thickness comprising: a. cleaning one side of said tape to provide a substantially oxide free surface; b. roughening said cleaned surface to a surface roughness of at least about 125 micro-inches RMS; c. passing the roughened side of the tape in a normal air atmosphere at a predetermined speed beneath a high velocity, high thermal content, arc plasma effluent of suitable metallic particles to establish a superconductive coating of said metallic particles in direct intimate contact with said roughened tape surface; d. cooling the underside of said tape approximately simultaneously with step (c); e. imposing a layer of electrical insulator upon said superconducting coating thereby forming a multi-layer composite structure; and f. winding the multi-layer composite structure about a mandrel to form the desired coil configuration.

Claim 2

A method of fabricating a highly stabilized superconducting coil in a single continuous operation from a flat strip of electrically conductive tape of predetermined thickness comprising: a. cleaning one side of said tape to provide a substantially oxide free surface; b. roughening said cleaned surface to a surface roughness of at least about 125 micro-inches RMS; c. passing the roughened side of the tape in a normal air atmosphere at a predetermined speed beneath a high velocity, high thermal content, arc plasma effluent of suitable metallic particles to establish a superconductive coating of said metallic particles in direct intimate contact with said roughened tape surface; d. cooling the underside of said tape approximately simultaneously with step (c); e. imposing a layer of electrical insulator upon said superconducting coating thereby forming a multi-layer composite structure; and f. winding the multi-layer composite structure about a mandrel to form the desired coil configuration.

Claim 9

A method of fabricating a highly stabilized superconducting solenoid from a plurality of flat strips of electrically conductive tap comprising: a. cleaning one side of each electrically conductive strip of tape to provide a substantially oxide free surface for each tape; b. roughening each cleaned surface to a surface roughness of at least 125 micro-inches RMS; c. passing the roughened side of each tape in a normal air atmosphere beneath a high velocity, high thermal content, arc plasma effluent of suitable metallic particles to establish a superconductive coating of said metallic particles in direct intimate contact with each roughened tape surface; d. cooling the underside of each tape approximately simultaneously with step (c); e. imposing on each superconducting surface a layer of electrical insulator thereby forming from each tape a multi-layer composite structure; f. spirally winding each multi-layer composite structure upon a mandrel to form a plurality of coils of helicoidal geometry; g. arranging the coils coaxially such that the inner turns of said coils and the outer turns of said coils are contiguous; h. juxtaposing the inner turn of each coil to the inner turn of one coil located on one side thereof and the outer turn of each coil to the outer turn of one coil located on the opposite side thereof such that the inner turns so positioned and the outer turns so positioned abut at their respective edges; i. heating the abutting inner turns and the abutting outer turns at high temperature to form a coalesed joint at the mated inner edges between abutting turns; and j. depositing a layer of superconductor on the inner and the outer turns at the welded connections to form a continuous superconducting path between adjacent coils.

Claim 10

A method of fabricating a highly stabilized superconducting solenoid from a plurality of flat strips of electrically conductive tap comprising: a. cleaning one side of each electrically conductive strip of tape to provide a substantially oxide free surface for each tape; b. roughening each cleaned surface to a surface roughness of at least 125 micro-inches RMS; c. passing the roughened side of each tape in a normal air atmosphere beneath a high velocity, high thermal content, arc plasma effluent of suitable metallic particles to establish a superconductive coating of said metallic particles in direct intimate contact with each roughened tape surface; d. cooling the underside of each tape approximately simultaneously with step (c); e. imposing on each superconducting surface a layer of electrical insulator thereby forming from each tape a multi-layer composite structure; f. spirally winding each multi-layer composite structure upon a mandrel to form a plurality of coils of helicoidal geometry; g. arranging the coils coaxially such that the inner turns of said coils and the outer turns of said coils are contiguous; h. juxtaposing the inner turn of each coil to the inner turn of one coil located on one side thereof and the outer turn of each coil to the outer turn of one coil located on the opposite side thereof such that the inner turns so positioned and the outer turns so positioned abut at their respective edges; i. heating the abutting inner turns and the abutting outer turns at high temperature to form a coalesed joint at the mated inner edges between abutting turns; and j. depositing a layer of superconductor on the inner and the outer turns at the welded connections to form a continuous superconducting path between adjacent coils.