Improved cable insulation for superconducting magnets

Several years ago, Brookhaven joined with DuPont in a cooperative effort to develop improved cable insulation for SSC superconducting dipole magnets. The effort was supported by the SSC Central Design Group and later the SSC Laboratory. It was undertaken because turn-to-turn and midplane shorts were routinely being experienced during the assembly of magnets with coils made of the existing Kapton/fiberglass (K/FG) system of Kapton film overwrapped with epoxy-impregnated fiberglass tape. Dissection of failed magnets showed that insulation disruption and punch-through was occurring near the inner edges of turns close to the magnet midplane. Coil pressures of greater than 17 kpsi were sufficient to disrupt the insulation at local high spots where the cable had been strongly compacted in the keystoning operation during cable manufacture. In the joint development program, numerous combinations of polyimide films manufactured by DuPont with varying configurations and properties (including thickness) were subjected to tests at Brookhaven. Early tests were bench trials using wrapped cable samples. The most promising candidates were used in coils and many of these promising candidates were used in coils and many of these assembled and tested as magnets in both the SSC and RHIC magnet programs currently underway. The Kapton CI (CI) system that has been adopted represents a suitable compromise of numerous competing factors. It exhibits improved performance in the critical parameter of compressive punch-through resistance as well as other advantages over the K/FG system