This image is a simplified drawing of the Ytterbium-Barium-Copper-Oxide (YBCO) lead assembly. I hope I've described the assembly well enough in the text before the image that you don't really need to read the description, but I'll try to describe the assembly in a different way here, which might help you understand what it's like.
The largest object in the diagram is the thin-walled cylinder that represents the fiberglass tube. A dark line, representing the Kevlar support fiber, runs into one end of the tube and out the other. (Kevlar is a DuPont trademark.) (Inside the tube, where you can't see it, the Kevlar fiber runs through the centers of 2 support disks. These disks are the same diameter as the tube, so they keep the fiber centered in the tube.)
Three long, thin, solid cyliners sit on the visible surface of the thin-walled tube. These cylinders represent the YBCO leads. (In the real assembly, there are 12 leads.) Squiggly lines representing wires attach to the ends of these thin cylinders and run off towards the ends of the diagram. Another squiggly line attaches to the right-hand end of the thin-walled tube, representing the connection to the heat station.
Return to YBCO PageThis diagram consists of 3 short, fat cylinders and 4 long, thin cylinders.
One of the long, thin cylinders represents the Kevlar twine. (Kevlar is a DuPont trademark.) The Kevlar cylinder runs the length of the diagram, right down the center. The other 3 long thin cylinders represent the magnesium diboride leads. These 3 cylinders run parallel to the Kevlar cylinder, and are evenly spaced around it. (There are really 12 magnesium diboride leads, but I simplified it for the diagram.)
The three short, fat cylinders are spaced along the Kevlar twine rather like beads on a necklace.
The shortest of the cylinders is really just a disk. It has one hole at the center (which the Kevlar passes through), and 3 other holes out near the rim (which the magnesium diboride leads pass through.) This cylinder is a spacer.
The other 2 cylinders are much longer, that is, thicker; their length is about the same as their diameter. They represent the heat sinks. The central cores of these 2 cylinders are depicted in a light color, because they're made of fiberglass. The outer layers are dark, because they're made of a black epoxy. The Kevlar twine runs though the centers of these cylinders (with a black circle where the twine enters the cylinder, representing more epoxy.) The 3 magnesium diboride leads pass through the black outer layers. The fiberglass inner cylinders are not perfect cylinders; they have grooves cut lengthwise for the leads to fit into.
Short cylinders protrude from the black outer layers of the 2 heat sinks. These short cylinders represent short sections of the wires that connect the 2 heat sinks to the heat stations on the helium vent lines. Return to Magnesium Diboride Page