Continuous production of Bi-2212 thick film on silver tape

Bi-2212 thick film on silver tapes are seen as a simple and low cost altern ative to high temperature superconducting wires produced by the Powder In T ube (PIT) technique, particularly in react and wind applications. A rig for the continuous production of Bi-2212 tapes for use in react and wind compo nent manufacture has been developed and commissioned. The rig consists of s everal sections, each fully automatic, for task specific duties in the prod uction of HTS tape. The major sections are: tape coating, sintering and ann ealing, High temperature superconducting tapes with engineering critical cu rrent densities of 10 kA/cm(2) (77 K, self field), and lengths of up to 100 m have been produced using the rig. Properties of the finished tape are di scussed and results are presented for current density versus bend radius an d applied strain. Depending on tape content and thickness, irreversible str ain epsilon(irrev), varies between 0.04 and 0.1 %. Cyclic bending tests whe n applied strain does not exceed epsilon(irrev), showed negligible reductio n in J(c) along the length of the tape.