Manufacturing process of superconducting magnets: Analysis of manufacturing chain technologies for market-oriented industries

The aim of this investigation was to identify the industrial impact potentials of the key processes needed for the manufacturing of novel high-field superconducting magnets and to find innovative additional applications for these technologies outside the particle-accelerator domain. Suppliers and manufacturing partners of CERN would benefit if the know-how could be used for other markets and to improve their internal efficiency and competitivity on the world-market. Eventually, being more cost-effective in the manufacturing and being able to leverage further markets on a long-time scale will also reduce the cost for each step in the manufacturing chain and ultimately lead to lower costs for the superconducting magnet system of a future high-energy particle collider. The project is carried out by means of the Technology Competence Leveraging method, which has been pioneered by the Vienna University of economics and business in Austria. It aims to find new application fields for the three most promising technologies required to manufacture novel high-field superconducting magnets. This is achieved by gathering information from user-communities, conducting interviews with experts in different industries and brainstorming for new out-of-the-box ideas. The most valuable application fields were evaluated according to their Benefit Relevance and Strategic Fit. During the process, 71 interviews with experts have been carried out, through which 38 new application fields were found with credible impacts beyond particle accelerator projects. They relate to manufacturing “superconducting Rutherford cables” (15), “thermal treatment” (10) and “vacuum impregnation with novel epoxy” (13).