Sparking plasma sintering method for developing cube textured Ni7W/Ni12W/Ni7W multi-layer substrates used for coated conductors

Mechanically strengthened, highly cube textured Ni-7at.%W/Ni-12at.%W multi-layer substrates used for coated conductors have been prepared by advanced spark plasma sintering technique. The key innovation for developing this weakly magnetic and reinforced substrate was to use a new powder metallurgy and sintering route to bond multi-layers of Ni7W-Ni12W-Ni7W together in order to get an initial ingot, then followed by optimized cold working and annealing. Particular efforts were made in view of the optimization of the design, pressing as well as the heat treatment processes of the starting ingots in order to obtain a chemically gradient composite bulk, thus ensuring the subsequent cold deformation of the bulk. The produced composite substrates have a strong {100} texture on the top Ni7W outer layer determined by EBSD and X-ray. The percentage of the biaxially orientated grains within a misorientation angle of 10° is as high as 97.5%, while the length percentage of low angle GBs ranging from 2° to 10° in the composite substrate reaches 87.2%. Moreover, the yield strength σ0.2 of the tape approaches 333 MPa, and the saturation magnetization is substantially reduced by 81.6% at 77K when compared to that of a commercial used Ni5W substrate.