General Description

CEDEX, through its Centro de Estudios de Técnicas Aplicadas, collaborates since 1990 in projects concerning applications of superconductivity. CEDEX has participated since then in the design and construction of various prototypes of superconducting magnets for the LHC accelerator at CERN in Geneve; it has also taken part in other projects for superconducting magnets of low critical temperature (4.2º K) for national and international applications.

An applied superconductivity workshop and laboratory have been installed in the Sector of Physical and Electronic Techniques to develop this research; the laboratory has a cryostast of liquid helium for the testing of magnets and low temperature superconducting devices and all the ancillary equipment (vacuum, pumps,power supplies up to 850 A, magnetic field meters, level meters,etc). The laboratory has tested numerous magnets fabricated with different technologies, including a small prototype of a superconducting energy storage device and a prototype correcting magnet for CERN. Some of these magnets were manufactured using the existing equipment of the workshop.

In parallel with the activities in the field of low critical temperature superconductors, there is a line of work for high critical temperature superconductors (>77ºK) as part of the MIDAS programme. Inducive current limiters, levitation systems for transport and other applications are being developed in this laboratory using superconducting materials manufactured in other spanish research centers.