Wrapping systems for superconducting magnet coils

The machines are specifically designed to tape wrap Toroidal Field (TF) coils, Central Solenoid (CS) coils and Poloidal Field (PF) Coils.

Ridgway worked closely with world leading organisations General Atomics, Elytt Energy and SEA ALP Engineering Consortium to provide high technology critical components for the ITER project. The bespoke machine designs accommodated specific insulation taping system requirements whilst integrating into complex production machines while maintaining ease of operation

ITER has been called the largest science experiment in history and aims to demonstrate the technical and scientific feasibility of fusion power for commercial-scale energy. The ITER Tokamak machine will be one of the most complicated machines ever engineered – 30 metres high and 23,000 tons, housing an estimated 1 million components.

www.iter.org

Taping machine for superconducting bus bars

Ridgway worked in close collaboration with the Engineering Team at CERN to ensure the bespoke machine design accommodated the special taping requirements and product handling needs of large superconducting bus bars for magnet connections for the Large Hadron Collider.

The machine design had to accommodate the application of special insulation materials capable of withstanding high electrical voltages and extreme operating temperatures, extremes of pressure and different operating media.

In addition, the machine provides flexible yet simple operator set up and ease of handling of the large superconducting bus bars to ensure efficient, trouble free production operation.

The BCT 75/135VL machine is intended for use with low resin or encapsulated resin tapes of 20mm (¾”) and 25mm (1”) width, which are applied at a variable overlap (typically ½ & 2/3) over the “in-slot” area and end legs of the coil or bar