DEGRADATION STUDIES OF FERMILAB LOW BETA QUADRUPOLE CABLE

The production of high gradient superconducting quadrupoles for the Tevatron D0/B0 Low Beta insertion is currently underway at Fermilab. The two-shell design utilizes a 36-strand Rutherford style cable produced by Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. A measure of cable quality is usually given by a comparison of the critical current of the cable with the sum of the critical currents of the strand. A recent study involving variations in the cabling conditions and dimensional parameters has resulted in a significant decreases in degradation. Over the period of cable production degradation has been reduced from an average of 12% to less than 4%. Some cable samples measured by Brookhaven National Laboratory exhibit Jc's in excess of 3100 A/mm2 @ 5T. The adjustments to the cabling procedure which are believed to be responsible for the reduction in Jc degradation will be discussed.