FFusion for Energy (F4E), EUROfusion and the European Commission have selected ICAS as the winner of the 2024 Fusion Technology Transfer Award. The Italian consortium, specialising in superconducting cables, will receive a EUR €10,000 prize from F4E for taking their expertise from fusion to new research and industrial markets.
Know-how developed for fusion magnets
ICAS (Innovation and Consulting on Applied Superconductivity) was founded by ENEA, Tratos and Criotec in 2010. The company’s original scope was the supply of superconducting Cable-In-Conduit Conductors (CICCs) for Europe’s ITER Toroidal Field (TF) coils through a contract signed with F4E, and similarly for Italy’s voluntary contribution to the TF coils of JT-60SA.
At the time, the technology was not developed at an industrial scale. Therefore, ICAS made significant investments (approximately €5 million) to set up state-of-the-art production lines for the cabling and jacketing of the magnets. They had to qualify critical sub-processes, such as precision wire cabling and complex stainless-steel tube welding, under stringent quality standards.
The efforts proved successful: ICAS not only met but surpassed the requirements for both ITER and JT-60SA. The consortium supplied over 100 km of conductors to F4E’s projects, approximately.
Expansion in the magnets market and emerging opportunities
The know-how and capacity gained through their work for F4E paved the way for ICAS to expand their business in the market of high-field magnets. In the following years, the consortium was awarded contracts from Big Science and research projects all over the world. ICAS has provided tailored superconducting cables for hybrid magnets in prestigious testing facilities facilities such as NHMFL (USA), EMFL (Netherlands) and Helmholtz-Zentrum (Germany). In fact, the Big Science market currently represents an estimated average annual income of €1 million for the company.
Besides Big Science, ICAS’ advanced manufacturing techniques have attracted interest from sectors like power transmission lines and medical applications – markets expected to grow significantly in the coming years. For example, ICAS has applied similar superconducting cable techniques to the production of MgB2 cables for CERN’s Hi-Lumi superconducting links.
The impact of ICAS’ technology transfer
Building on their work for fusion experiments, ICAS has leveraged their skills and technologies to broaden their market reach. Since its foundation in 2010, ICAS has had an annual turnover in the range of 5-15 million EUR, employing in average 20-25 skilled people.
As the private sector investment grows in fusion, ICAS is becoming increasingly involved in the design and production of novel cables and related components, mainly by using new concepts based on superconducting tapes. This market is expected to help ICAS grow further in the near future, possibly doubling its annual revenue and number of employees.
Through strategic investment and technical excellence, ICAS has become a leader in superconducting technology and is poised to keep expanding towards promising emerging fields like power transmission and medical technologies.
For all these reasons, F4E selected ICAS as the winner of the award. Their success story is a testament to the transformative impact of fusion technology and the far-reaching benefits of the European investment to strengthen the fusion supply chain.
Watch here how Europe manufactured the ITER Toroidal Field coils
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