Sam Dong Europe

Main info

Sam Dong Co., Ltd. (Hereafter, Sam Dong) established in 1977 produces oxygen-free high conductivity (OFHC) copper and various metal-based wires. Especially, the Sam Dong has been providing the highest quality magnet wire products and services for heavy industry customers.

In order to efficiently meet oversea customers’ demand, Sam Dong also established entities in Tennessee (2007), Ohio (2009), USA as well as Kostrzynnad Odra (2018), Poland (EU). Currently, our company is supplying various products to North & South America, Europe, Asia (Including Japan and Taiwan), and Oceania.

As a new vendor for customized MgB2 superconducting wires, Sam Dong seeks to do for multi-faceted and highly collaborative, both experimentally and theoretically, crossing multidisciplinary areas in materials science, physics, cryogenics, and electrical and mechanical engineering within and beyond the EU (Poland)/Korean/Australian Universities, Institutes, and industries.

Experience

In recent years, newly developed energy systems have become widespread everywhere in our daily lives. We have considered our new customers’ demands since 2014, established R&D Center, at Daejeon City in 2015, and initiated the manufacture of a variety of customized MgB2 superconducting wires for wide energy and medical applications as well as specific research requirements.

In 2018, Sam Dong is capable of producing up to 1,000 km of specially customized MgB2 superconducting wires (> 1 km in length) toward various superconducting applications.

In 2019, the new technologies developed is first patented and distributed to our industry partners and universities for direct applications (i.e., energy storage and magnetic resonance imaging systems). Main research outcomes presented at well-established international conferences (ICMC 2018 and EUCAS 2019) and published in international journals. Our research activities will be officially introduced by Superconductor Week magazine (US) at the end of 2019.

Over the past five years, we have successfully installed wire fabrication facilities and demonstrated a kilometer-scale MgB2 multifilament conductor with excellent current-carrying capacity, which is comparable to commercially available low-temperature superconductor (i.e., Nb-Ti). We are currently paying attention to finding an alternative diffusion barrier as a wire component to further bring the cost-down (< $7 per meter).

Succeses and awadrs

SUCCESSES
Development of fabrication techniques of metal-alloy superconductor composites wires
- Year Funded: $259,414 (2015), $ 251,046 (2016), $ 259,414 (2017)
- Total Funding: $ 769,874
- Funding agency: The Korea Institute of Advancement of Technology
- Chief Investigator: Dr. Jun Hyuk Choi
- Project Summary: The aim of the project is to develop a high-performance MgB2 conductors

Development of a commercial nano-carbon doping process using glycerin
- Year Funded: $ 184,100 (2016)
- Total Funding: $ 184,100
- Funding agency: The National Research Council of Science & Technology
- Chief Investigator: Mr. Ju Heum Jeon
- Project Summary: The aim of the project is to develop a carbon doping through chemical process for high-performance MgB2 conductors

Scalable integration of MgB2 superconducting wires toward cost-effectiveness and industrial c0mpetitiveness
- Year Funded: $ 335,899 (2018-2019)
- Total Funding: $ 335,899
- Funding agency: The Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology
- Chief Investigator: Dr. Jun Hyuk Choi
Project Summary: The aim of the project is to find out alternative diffusion barrier (Nb) of MgB2 superconducting conductor for cost-down

Experience in Big Science projects

As a new vendor, Sam Dong, our major contribution to the superconducting field includes the development of a number of novel techniques for processing superconductors and refining the starting powders for superior MgB2 conductor (wire/tape). So far, our company does not involve in EU based Big Science project. However, we are currently supplying a km-scale commercial wire to Korean and Japanese Instituties and industries. With this experience, we are willing to support and supply a high-quality superconducting wires and their application parts for EU Big Science projects.

Potential for cooperation

The advantages of using MgB2 in this particular application are its availability as a round wire, its suitable operating temperature in the 10-30 K range, and its potential affordability. First, MgB2 wires can be made in round shapes, facilitating various cable designs. In contrast, many cable configurations are not possible for YBCO-coated conductor or BSCCO conductor, which is fabricated in tape form. With MgB2, the superconducting system designer has the option to use round wire for the fabrication of a variety of different braided strands and cable designs for the cable-in-conduit cable (CICC) windings of certain fusion magnets. Round wire also affords flexibility in adjusting the copper-to-superconductor ratio or incorporating reinforcing elements in the CICC. The PF coils and CC operate at moderate magnetic fields up to 6 T using Nb-Ti, which could be replaced by MgB2, not only for further operating-cost reduction, but also for increasing the operating margin and eventually even achieving a higher operating temperature (> 10 K). With this background, the Sam Dong can contribute the Big Science applications.

Photos and videos