SIGMAPHI

SIGMAPHI is an SME established in 1981 and specializing in the design and manufacture of magnetic systems for particle accelerators. The company with two facilities in France and one facility in China has revenues of € 24 million and a staff of 160. Its customers include physics research centers and cancer treatment centers using hadrontherapy. Exports account for 95 % of revenue. Over the past five years, SIGMAPHI has developed an active R&D policy based on collaborations with research centers, particularly in the field of superconducting magnets. Today, the company possesses significant expertise in the magnetic, mechanical, electronic and cryogenic design of superconducting magnets, with two major contracts currently in progress for the Jefferson Laboratory in the USA and one contract with CEA Irfu. A number of research programs are under way with the aim of maintaining their leadership in this area. These include an Oséo Innovation program with the CEA and another industrial partner for the development of a non-helium superconducting cyclotron and a program with the CNRS for the design and manufacturing of one SMES and one electromagnetic launcher based on HTS 2G tape.

Role:

Sigmaphi is involved in task 5-1 (MgB2 Technology demonstrator: Solenoid 1m in diameter, 2m in length and 5 T) for prototype detailed design and manufacturing.

Sigmaphi has started in 2012 a collaboration with CEA Irfu about MgB2 superconducting wires R&D. A PhD (Raphael Pasquet, also involved in this project) was recruited in 2012 at CEA Irfu for 3 years with the PhD cost shared with Sigmaphi for the study and characterization of MgB2 wires. This first collaboration between CEA and Sigmaphi about MgB2 was very fruitful. Two double pancakes and one solenoid with MgB2 wire were built at Sigmaphi during this collaboration and successfully tested up to their critical current. Some new techniques suitable for MgB2 coil manufacturing were developed and implemented at Sigmaphi including a new winding technique patented by CEA Saclay.

Dr Raphael Pasquet was recruited by Sigmaphi at the end of this collaboration to take in charge a High Temperature Superconducting magnets R&D program (BOSSE project) in partnership with the CNRS and funded by the DGA. This MgB2 high magnetic field ANR project is in keeping with the strategy of SigmaPhi to create partnerships with research centers and develop innovative technologies in the field of superconducting magnets. The results already obtained in collaboration with Irfu are a great example of this commitment

Relevant Projects:

LOTUS

Superconducting helium free cyclotron – 2013-2017 - Public & private funding – Leader for Sigmaphi Frédérick Forest

WAVE

Superconducting vector magnet - Public & private funding – 2015-2018 - Leader for Sigmaphi Frédérick Forest

BOSSE

Superconducting Storage Energy Magnet and Superconducting electromagnetic launcher – Public funding – 2015-2018 - Leader for Sigmaphi Frédérick Forest

Additional Information

Infrastructure

Sigmaphi has a large workshop dedicated for superconducting magnets manufacturing. This workshop offers a large clean space with controlled access and high crane capacity up to 30 tons and 8 meters high.

Infrastructure equipment available at Sigmaphi for superconducting magnets design and manufacturing is the following:

Magnetic measurement and power supplies equipment (hall probes, rotating coils, search coil)
Metrology equipment (Laser tracker, 3d arm)
Electrical testing equipment
Testing cryostat and cryogenic measurement equipment
FEA softwares for magnetic, quench, mechanical and multiphysics calculations

Software for electronic simulations

Key Personnel

Frederick Forest (M) is the technical director of SIGMAPHI Magnets and manages the engineering department since 2001. Engineering department includes 15 technicians and engineers high skilled in CAD design, Magnetic and Multiphysics simulation, Electronic simulation.

He has participated with his teams to tens of project of resistive magnets and leads the development of the superconducting magnet activity within SIGMAPHI since 2009.

Raphael Pasquet (M) is R&D engineer at Sigmaphi and did his PhD at CEA Saclay working on the characterization of MgB2 wire with Sigmaphi sponsorship. He joined Sigmaphi in 2015 to lead the development of HTS magnets (Bosse project with CNRS) and superconducting vector magnets (Wave project with CEA Irfu)

Emmanuel Voisin (M) is R&D engineer and has joined Sigmaphi in 2014 as Senior expert in multi physics calculation. He had a 10 years experience in IRM magnets with ALSTOM and 8 years experience in electromagnetic and multiphysics FEA software with COBHAM.

Publications

P. Brindza, Final Assembly and Factory Testing of the Jefferson Lab SHMS Spectrometer Quadrupole and Dipole Superconducting Magnets – 2016 – ASC

F. Forest, Manufacturing status of the Jefferson lab’s superconducting magnets SHMS dipole and Q3Q3 quadrupoles – 2015 – MT24

F. Forest, Final design of the helium free superconducting magnet for Lotus’s project – 2015 – MT24

R. Pasquet, BOSSE project, 2 kinds of HTS SMES – 2015 – Eucas

CERN Accelerating science

LOTUS

WAVE

BOSSE

Additional Information

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