Magnet cable manufacturing

The superconducting magnets used in the construction of particle accelerators are mostly built from flat, multistrand cables with rectangular or keystoned cross sections. The superconducting strands are mostly circular but a design of a cable made of preflattened wires was proposed a few years ago under the name of Berkeley flat; such cable shows some interesting characteristics. Another design consists of a few smaller precabled wires (e.g. 6 around 1). This configuration allows smaller filaments and a better transposition of the current elements. The Superconducting Super Collider project involves the largest amount of superconducting cable ever envisaged for a single machine. Furthermore, the design calls for exceptional accuracy and improved characteristics of the cable. A part of the SSC research and development program is focused on these important questions. In this paper we emphasize the difference between the conventional cabling and wires with superconducting. A new concept for the tooling will be introduced as well as the necessary characteristics of a specialized cabler. 5 figs