Study of High Strength and High Conductivity Copper-Niobium Composite Wire for High Field Pulsed Magnets

With high mechanical strength and good conductivity, Cu-Nb composites are excellent conductor materials for the fabrication of high-field magnets. Recently, the research group from Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research successfully prepared the Cu-Nb composite wire with high performance through the jelly-roll + accumulative drawing and bundling process. Nb foils instead of Nb rods or Nb tubes and Cu foils were used as the initial materials. The improvement of both the strength and conductivity for Cu-Nb composites was realized by optimizing the microstructure. The fabricated Cu-Nb wires have been applied to high field pulsed magnets. Besides, the relationship between microstructures and properties of Cu-Nb composite has been studied, and the regulation mechanism of the high performance for wires was expounded.