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In 1991, the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory (SSCL) instituted a program to qualify specific superconductor manufacturers for production of cable acceptable for use in both Collider Dipole (CDM) and Quadrupole (CQM) magnets. The SSCL Vendor Qualification Program (VQP) was designed with two Phases. Phase I was divided into two additional phases, IA and IB, which ran concurrently. In Phase IB, each vendor was directed to manufacture roughly 3000 kg of cable using a “baseline” process. The baseline process was agreed to by both the SSCL and the vendor at the beginning of the VQP. In this phase, process control was closely monitored with the use of statistical methods1 and each vendor was graded based on these results. Phase IA, known as the R&D phase, was developed to allow each vendor an opportunity to optimize and improve on their baseline process in terms of both cost and manufacturability. In this phase, multifilament billets were designed to explore several key variables such as alternate alloy sources, process modifications and improved billet designs. At the end of Phase I, the results from both IA and IB were evaluated at a review between the SSCL and each vendor, and a final Phase II process was generated and fixed using the best results. In Phase II, each vendor is required to manufacture roughly 6000 kg of superconducting cable under a firm fixed price contract which can then be used to create an accurate price estimate for competitive bidding on the full rate production CDM and CQM contracts. Participating vendors include Alsthom Intermagnetics (AISA), Outokumpu (OTU), Oxford Superconducting Technology (OST), Hitachi (HIT), and Furukawa Electric (FEC) for outer cable, and Intermagnetics General Corporation (IGC), Teledyne SC (TSC), and Sumitomo Electric (SEI) for inner cable. |
