Cold hydrostatic extrusion of powder metallurgy processed superconducting materials

Abstract
Hydrostatically extruded multifilamentary composites of Cu‐Nb, Cu‐Nb with a central tin core and Nb‐Al were directly drawn to fine wires without intermediate annealing. Uniform deformation was observed throughout the process. Cu‐Nb composite wires were Sn plated for external diffusion. Overall critical current densities of better than 104 A/cm2 at 16 T were achieved for Nb3Sn‐Cu composite wires with nominal areal reductions of 2000.