Recent developments in melt texturing of 123 compounds

Abstract

The melt texturing process, which has been under development since 1988, is now well established in producing components such as levitators and permanent magnets which can be used at liquid-nitrogen temperature. Recently, major accomplishments have been achieved which suggest that bulk applications of this process in industry are quite feasible. Studies have been performed to increase the rate of texturing and to achieve high critical currents through high-angle grain boundaries. These new developments, individually or in combination, can make the processing of 123 superconducting materials faster, more efficient, more robust, and also scalable, in order to satisfy industrial needs. In this paper, two of the new developments in melt texturing will be described, and some of the approaches to potential bulk applications will be reviewed.