Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 7
FEATURE ARTICLE
MagLab Reclaims Record for Strongest Resistive Magnet
By Kristen Coyne
While the rest of the world watched the solar eclipse in
August, engineers at the National MagLab pulled off an eclipse of
a different sort. Not to be outdone by celestial events, they set a
new world record that blotted out the previous one by about 8
percent - a sizable leap in magnet technology terms.
The new instrument reached 41.4 teslas (a unit of magnetic field
strength) at 1:10 p.m. on Aug. 21, the culmination of two and a
half intense years of design and development. In so doing, the lab
reclaimed the record for the world's strongest resistive magnet,
which it had held for 19 years up
until 2014.
The effort has been known
in-house as Project 11, a reference to the 1984 mockumentary
"This Is Spinal Tap" about a fictional rock group. In one scene,
a guitarist shows off his unique
amplifier, which has a top setting of 11 - one notch higher
than the standard 10.
The A2 coil fully assembled and
ready for installation.
That extra oomph has
caused the lab's new magnet,
fueled by 32 megawatts of DC
(direct current) power, to leapfrog over the previous recordholders, a 38.5-tesla resistive
The A2 coil fully assembled
magnet in Hefei, China, and a
and ready for installation
37.5-tesla resistive magnet in
Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
More importantly, however, the new instrument answers
the call of physicists for ever-stronger resistive magnets - also
called DC magnets - in order to observe new phenomena in the
materials they are studying.
"Resistive magnets are the bread and butter of our DC Field
Facility, and the demand of scientists sometimes exceeds supply
by a factor of three," explained MagLab Director Greg Boebinger.
"With the Project 11 magnet, we asked our engineers to 'turn it
up a notch' and see what they could accomplish. This new brute
delivers, and will enable scientists to make discoveries that lead
to better materials and technologies that deepen our understanding of how our world works. Studies of superconductors and
ultra-thin materials like graphene will benefit particularly from
the ability of this new magnet to reverse the direction of the field
during experiments."
The MagLab's magnet fleet includes different kinds of instruments: resistive magnets, made of copper and silver, like the Project 11 magnet; superconducting magnets, which require pricey
materials; and hybrid magnets, a combination of both designs.
The lab's 45-tesla magnet, the world's strongest continuous-field
magnet, is a hybrid instrument and one of the lab's most soughtafter tools.
As a resistive magnet, the new 41.4-tesla is easier for scientists to use than a hybrid, and gives them more flexibility to adjust
the field and polarity during experiments. The new system will be
made available to visiting scientists in the coming months, joining
a fleet that features a pair of 35-tesla instruments that, until this
week, had been the lab's strongest resistive magnets.
www.MagneticsMag.com
Magnet Specs
Strength
41.4 tesla
Type
Resistive
Power supply
32 MW
Bore size
32 mm
Materials
Copper-silver alloy & copper
Cost
$3.5 million (includes spare coils)
Weight
6 tons
Number of coils
6
Coil dimensions
730 mm tall, 1,000 mm wide
(outer diameter)
Although the lab's newest magnet works on the same principles as all resistive magnets, it is no run-of-the-mill machine. Lab
engineers, drawing on years of experience designing and developing the lab's other unique magnets, introduced improvements
to maximize the electrical current density that helped catapult
them to the new world record. At the same time, they kept costs
down by repurposing parts from retired magnets.
"This larger magnet allows us to use 50 percent more coils,"
explained veteran magnet designer Jack Toth, who oversaw a
team of dozens of engineers, technicians and support staff on the
project. "That enabled power to be distributed more efficiently
within the magnet and reach a new record with the same materials."
Three years ago other labs reached higher fields by building
magnets four to five times larger than those at the MagLab, said
Mark Bird, director of the lab's Magnet Science and Technology
division. "This new magnet levels the playing field in size," he
added, "but our superior technology allows us to reach '11.' "
Although MagLab staffers are proud to reclaim their long-held
record, the deeper motivation is to enable exciting new science.
Scientists who come to the MagLab, for example, are leading
research on so-called quantum materials, in which the mysteries
of quantum mechanics yield strange new properties that no one
yet understands.
"It's about providing the scientific community access to high
fields," said Tim Murphy, director of the DC Field Facility, which
houses the new magnet. "That's why we're here. It's not just to
reach the highest magnetic field, and then turn off the lights and
go to the bar to celebrate."
Still, if Murphy and the rest of the crew behind the new recordholder end up at a bar with live music this weekend, you can bet
that those amplifiers will be cranked up to 11.
The new world-record magnet connected to cooling water
pipes. Some 4,275 gallons of cold water flush through it per
minute to keep it cool.
Winter 2017 * Magnetics Business & Technology
7
http://www.MagneticsMag.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017
Contents
Editor’s Choice
NdFeB Magnet Prices Should Increase in 2018
MagLab Reclaims Record for Strongest Resistive Magnet
Diving Into Magnets
Research & Development
Industry News
Magnetics 2018: Preview
2018 Resource Guide
Marketplace/Advertising Index
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Cover2
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Contents
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Editor’s Choice
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 5
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - NdFeB Magnet Prices Should Increase in 2018
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - MagLab Reclaims Record for Strongest Resistive Magnet
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 8
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 9
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 10
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 11
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Diving Into Magnets
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 13
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Research & Development
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 15
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Industry News
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 17
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 18
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 19
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Magnetics 2018: Preview
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 21
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 22
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 23
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 2018 Resource Guide
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 25
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 26
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 27
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 28
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 29
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Marketplace/Advertising Index
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - 31
Magnetics Business & Technology - Winter 2017 - Cover4
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