Furukawa Electric Review No.55Development of Elemental Technology for Superconducting Motor

Kairi Onyu, Yusuke Yamada, Yoshikazu Okuno, Hiroshi Orito, Tomoaki Toratani

The superconducting phenomenon was discovered in 1911 and the research of making superconducting wire has been advancing since. The superconducting wire was put to practical use and commercial use as the wire to transmit a large current with a low loss. The idea of a superconducting motor using the superconducting wire has been discussed for a long time. And even though a large number of prototypes were produced, there were still a lot of problems for practical use on a commercial level mainly in the technology of cryogenic refrigeration and insulation to maintain the cryogenic state. To solve this problem, we proposed the vacuum insulation structure which was lighter in weight and easier to handle in comparison with the present technology. Further, we produced a prototype of the superconducting motor reflecting the structure and evaluated it. The prototype of the superconducting motor produced this time demonstrated that the superconducting state came into effect easily even though its structure was constructed with a lightweight plastic one.