Description of need
David Fischer sees a commercial opportunity in a testing fixture for REBCO superconducting material tape companies to test the performance of their tape reels on a centimeter-by-centimeter basis in a high-magnetic-field, low temperature environment. Maybe a manufacturer that can offer pre-tested tape could command a price premium once the market for REBCO tape opens up. Basically, the tape needs to be exposed to high magnetic field (5-10 T) under cryogenic temperatures (e.g. 20 K) and the electrical properties of each centimeter of tape needs to be characterized.
Problem severity (1-10)
3
Who has this need
HTS tape manufacturers
Total addressable market (TAM)
Unknown
Solutions today, and their shortcomings
- Right now, HTS tape manufacturers rely on the customer (e.g. CFS) to carry out the testing.
- Tapestar: https://www.theva.com/products/. Also see page 22 and 25 in presentation: https://indico.cern.ch/event/763185/contributions/3427832/attachments/1919408/3174551/Bird_Plenary_Fri_Ultra_High_Field_190927.pdf. However, according to David Fischer, 77 K and low field is a bad predictor for low temperature (<20K) and high field applications. A machine that can measure the critical current under these (low T, high B) conditions along the length of a few hundred meter long HTS tape could be interesting.
- YateStar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbGBAkPkvsc
Potentially relevant capabilities
This could be a small-bore magnet (like the ones Dongkeun Park makes).