General Cable Superconductors was formed by  Industrial Research Ltd  and General Cable New Zealand as a Joint Venture company to develop and commercially manufacture High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) cabling in New Zealand.

IRL’s nineteen years of research into high temperature superconductivity has produced an effective and cost-efficient method of manufacturing HTS cable. This, coupled with General Cable New Zealand’s background in large scale production of power cables, has allowed us to produce an extremely efficient HTS cable available for commercial applications.

Having access to this cable in New Zealand widens the range of products, such as magnets and transformers, that can be produced locally.

Superconductors are materials which carry electrical currents with effectively zero resistance at low temperatures. Our cable is designed for applications at the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196°C or 77K) and below.

Recent IRL research has focused on the application of HTS technology in devices such as magnets, motors and generators. In finding a process whereby HTS wire can be effectively and cost-efficiently formed into a cable, the IRL researchers have opened the way for much broader uptake of the technology with its potential to carry high electrical currents with lower losses of energy. The cable will be useful in very high current rated devices such as large generators, transformers and motors and also in devices operating with AC current such as some magnets and induction heaters.

IRL HTS research is also developing other technologies which are essential if HTS is to be widely applied within the electrical devices market. In particular, researchers are developing a cooling system that is robust enough to withstand industrial use and significantly cheaper than the currently available cryogenic refrigerators.