A Nickel Coating Removal Process for ITER Superconducting Cables

A new method is developed for removing the nickel coating on ITER superconduct- ing cables by mechanical polishing. The obvious advantage of the mechanical method, which uses a nylon brush, is that there is no chemical residual left in the cable, which would otherwise result in passive effects on the joint resistance. The coating resistance test results of this newly devel- oped method are compared with those of the two other methods that can meet the requirements of ITER. An automatic polishing machine is designed and manufactured for the procedure to provide quality under precise control. This new technique can replace the conventional manual method due to its improved efficiency.