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Technological Breakthrough

The applications we are developing are not based on superconducting wires, but on bulk superconducting materials.

A bulk piece of Type II superconductors, such as YBCO trap magnetic field lines from an external field (magnetization).

  • These superconducting magnets can achieve much higher magnetic field intensities (17.6 Tesla @ 26K).
  • The typical magnetic field intensity present on a neodymium magnet is lower than 1 Tesla.

The cost effective production of YBCO magnets will enable the development of Superconducting Industrial Applications.

Pertinence

This technology can be used to enable and enhance several applications:

  • Magnetic levitation
  • Magnetic separators
  • Rotating machines
  • Magnetic bearings
  • Others

Today the demand for this kind of material is low and restricted for laboratory use, therefore the price and availability is not suitable for industrial applications.

This opens the possibility for the creation of a local sustainable production plant able to manage internal and also external requirements as this technology disseminates.

Cryogenic platform for industrial scale testing and prototypes development

  • Warm bore cryostat.
  • Vacuum thermal isolation and radiation shield for cryogenic temperatures operation such as 15 K helium gas closed loop, 77 K liquid nitrogen and 4.2 K liquid helium in open loop among others.
  • Warm bore for magnetic fields application at room temperature produced by superconducting magnets at cryogenic temperatures.
  • Local cooling set consisting of compressor and cold head with cooling capacity of 130 W at 50 K.
  • 2 cooling sets consisting of compressor and cold head with cooling capacity of 15 W at 15 K or 100 W at 25 K each.
  • Compressors cooling system by water chiller on closed loop with cooling capacity up to 35 KW for 6.6 m3/h.
  • 2 current leads pairs from room to cryogenic temperature with DC current capacity of 250 A each, 500 A total.
  • Instrumentation connectors for signal monitoring coming from cryogenic chambers to external monitoring and control system.
  • Process control and instrumentation platform for local and remote monitoring, control and operation.

Support technologies for superconducting equipment operation

  • Low range voltage measurement system with fiber optic distance transmission (ISDAQFO).
  • 3500 V isolation for high voltages developed in superconducting coils.
  • Base signal noise level of less than 2 mV peak to peak.
  • 5 Mbps transmission speed through Versatile Link fiber optic (up to 50 meters, 50 Mbps).
  • Versatile Link fiber optic receiver module, National Instruments(TM) C-Series kind, developed under National Instruments(TM) license with LabView(TM) FPGA Driver.
  • 64 voltage channels ISDAQFO system integration developed for european investigation center on nuclear physics (2016/2017).
  • Power supply and quench detection system (PSQD).
  • High resolution current ramp control algorithm for charging and discharging process of superconductor coils.
  • Protection execution in less than 10 ms achieving fast response to quench detection.
  • Fully integration with measurement, monitoring and control systems such as ISDAQFO systems, temperature monitors, gaussmeters and cryogenic platform instrumentation and control.