Scientist in Charge: Dr. Giovanni Grass

http://www.columbussuperconductors.com/

Expertise and experience

Columbus Superconductors is an SME founded in February 2003 and based in Genoa, Italy. The aim of the company is to develop, manufacture, and commercialise superconducting wires and tapes, made of the MgB2 compound, and to support R&D activities towards the development of DC and AC applications of MgB2 conductors. The capability of manufacturing long superconducting wires is well supported by facilities allowing the measurement of transport, magnetic, thermal, and mechanical properties of HTS materials at cryogenic temperatures. The company has developed an economic and reliable process for the manufacturing of long lengths of standard, tape-formed, multi-filamentary MgB2 conductors, with lengths up to 1600 m and optimal reproducibility of Ic along the length. The development of conductors that have higher critical current density, increased robustness and the ability to be manufactured as round or square wires, are current R&D issues at Columbus, crucial for the MgB2 superconductor to meet the requirements of multiple applications. Columbus Superconductors is currently collaborating with a number of the most eminent European research centres, e.g. the University of Cambridge (UK), the University of Tuebingen (D), the University of Southampton (UK) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne. At present, Columbus Superconductors is involved in a Sixth Framework STREP project, ALUHEAT, started in June 2005 with the goal of designing, constructing, and testing of a cost-effective, energy saving, innovative type of induction furnace for Aluminium and Copper billet heating, using MgB2 coils in DC regime.
Columbus provides industrial scholarships for several Ph.D. students, who do research on MgB2 conductor development at the LAMIA laboratory of INFM, the National Institute for the Physics of Matter in Genoa, the main shareholder of Columbus.
The following facilities will be at the disposal of Columbus Superconductors for the training of Early Stage Researchers in this RTN project:

• Powder synthesis Lab, equipped with 2000 bar isostatic press, uniaxial presses, ball milling, and furnaces up to 1700°C

• Tapes & Wires Lab, equipped for deformation, groove and flat rolling, drawing, swaging, twisting, arc melting and induction heaters for alloy manufacturing

• Metallographic Lab, equipped with SEM & optical microscopes, 4-circle x-ray diffractometer, atomic adsorption and UV-visible spectrophotometers, X-ray machine, TEM microscope, and polishing tools

• Cryogenic Lab, equipped with 9 Tesla PPMS (used for resistivity vs. B and T measurements), 5.5 Tesla SQUID (used for magnetization vs. B and T measurements), system for measurements of thermal conductivity and thermo-power, system for measurements of I-V curves up to 500 A, self-field AC loss setup for small windings

Role in the project

Columbus will take care of the preparation of long nano-engineered MgB2 wires, but will also be actively involved in the development of new precursor powders for such conductors. It will provide opportunities for the ESR/ER to use their advanced preparation and characterization laboratories in the framework of NESPA.

Key personnel

Dr. Giovanni Grasso (general manager, R&D on superconductor development), Mr. Carlo D’Urzo (production manager, development of industrial processes for superconductor fabrication) and Dr. Andrea Malagoli (research scientist, characterization of superconductors).