Current Status And Future Plan For RRR Grade Niobium Production In Tokyo Denkai.

Tokyo Denkai is a high-purity tantalum and niobium supplier in Japan. It started niobium production in 1968. Niobium items, such as sheets, rods, and tubes, are provided as superconducting cavity material for the world’s accelerator projects. Tokyo Denkai has five EB (Electron Beam) Melting Furnaces and in the future, will install two more. One existing EB furnace, which has a melting power of 400 KW, is currently used only for niobium production. Because the furnace is not sufficient to melt a 270-mm diameter ingot, which is required for the L-Band Single Crystal half-cell, starting from July 2007 we will melt large-diameter ingots with a 1200-KW EB furnace. This paper provides information on our niobium production capacity and future investment plan to meet the large demands of the International Linear Collider (ILC) project. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]