The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 01, 1994
Filed:
Dec. 17, 1993
Scott D Peck, San Diego, CA (US);
General Dynamics Corporation, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A persistent switch system for protecting a large superconducting magnet coil during quench while providing the necessary different resistances needed for operation of the system in coil charging, discharging, persistent and quench modes while minimizing the heat load on the system refrigerator. The system includes a circuit having a combined persistent switch and shunt heater coil using two superconductor coils in parallel with a normal resistive thermal shunt coil thermally linked to the superconducting magnet coil. Switch superconducting coils can be driven normal to provide the switch resistance needed for efficient charging/discharging or the resistance needed to drive sufficient current through the shunt resistor coil during a quench. The quench operation uses shunt coil heating to enhance normal zone growth in the main coil, limiting the maximum quench temperatures reached. This system eliminates the heat leaks resulting from mechanical switches and allows the use of removable charge/discharge leads and their associated high heat leaks to significantly reduce the heat load on the refrigeration system, which typically operates at liquid helium temperatures.