ASG Superconductors is organized in three operative units: Magnets & Systems unit, Columbus MgB2 unit and Paramed MRI unit. Competences and ability to work with cutting edge technology and hi-tech materials will remain as a common background. Managers, technicians and all the people who work at ASG Superconductors renew every day their commitment to increase productive capacity and technological skills, collaborating worldwide with the main scientific research institutes and with sector's market leaders. The aim of the new ASG Superconductors is to increase the synergies and knowledge of the three units with focus to remain an Italian company worldwide leader in the magnets for research and industrial sector as well.
The manufacturing of an UHF - Ultra High Field 11.74T magnet system to become the tip of the spear of the research activities at the Gachon University Gil Medical - is complete. The magnet named “Allegro”, with its weight of 70 tonnes 3.5 metres length is another technological milestone for ASG.
The world's most sophisticated magnet, the first TF coil for ITER project, is ready in the ASG factory in La Spezia. The component weighs 120 tonnes, and it measures 9m wide and 16m high.
ASG wins a contract in the field of high energy physics for the construction of the Multi Purpose Detector Magnet for the NICA collider, that will be installed in the international research institute JINR in Dubna, Russia. In the same year ASG awards a contract for the Transport Solenoid Magnets manufacturing for Mu2e experiment Fermilab, USA.
Another international success for ASG: the company will build 33 superconducting multiplets, worth EUR 50 million, for the Super FRagment Separator, under the FAIR project, an advanced particle accelerators and experimental facility for basic and applied research.
ASG starts a cooperation with worldwide proton therapy systems leader IBA. Nowadays more than 20 Open MRI Systems designed and developed by Paramed are operating worldwide.
In the framework of the High-Luminosity LHC project, experts from the CERN Superconductors team obtains a world-record current of 20 kA at 24 K in an electrical transmission line consisting of two 20-metre long cables made of magnesium diboride (MgB2) superconductor. This result makes the technology developed by Columbus a viable solution for long-distance power transportation.
ASG wins another order from the ITER international project. The order for a series of activities related to project management, engineering and the coordination for the production and supply of six "poloidal" coils.
Russian scientists have successfully tested the world's first hybrid superconducting electrical cable. This small cable consists of magnesium diboride MgB2, a superconductor, and a cavity for the transportation of liquid hydrogen. The latter, while cooling diboride to a temperature of 40 degrees Kelvin, causes the effect of superconductivity.
The new 28,000 square meters plant in La Spezia dedicated to the production of maxi coils for the ITER project is ready for operations.
ASG notches up another pair of success stories when it's selected, respectively, as the supplier of superconducting coils for ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) and JT-60SA nuclear fusion research projects. ITER is the world's largest demonstration fusion reactor, that will be built to illustrate nuclear power's potential as a virtually limitless source of safe and environmentally sustainable energy.
The new MRI system developed by Paramed MRI Unit completely changes the paradigm of MRI examinations, opening up to new possibilities: from Upright MRI of the Spine and Joints, to Dynamic and Functional studies, to Multi Position Imaging, and more. MROpen is a “totally Open” MRI system that provides unparalleled patient comfort, thanks to its innovative and revolutionary Upright magnet design. Furthermore MROpen's green technology provides cryogen-free operation thanks to its innovative high temperature superconductive material (MgB2).
Fast on the heels of its success, ASG creates two start-ups, Columbus Superconductors and Paramed. The former produces MgB2 wire for transporting and storing energy while the latter operates in medical technology through magnetic resonance machines.
ASG improves commercial and manufacturing competences: in these years the company wins an order to build over 400 magnets for CERN's LHC as well as for its main particle detectors, the CMS and ATLAS. ASG also wins an order to supply non-planar magnets for the W7-X stellarator.
New century, new company and new scientific challenges. With a new private investor - Malacalza Family - Ansaldo Magnet Unit changes name in ASG Superconductors with a complete reorganization, investments and a strong step towards greater flexibility in operations and decision-making, accompanied by new challenges presented by scientific research.
The Company establishes itself as one of the benchmark suppliers of magnets for high-energy physics.
Among the technological challenges successfully developed: supplying the dipoles, quadrupoles and sextupoles
for the ELETTRA project in Trieste and DAΦNE project in Frascati , dipoles for HERA project in Hamburg,
as well as the quadrupoles for the ESRF project in Grenoble, and bus-bars and quadrupoles for the LEP
accelerator at Geneva's CERN.
Besides, it participates in all of the thermonuclear fusion projects conducted in Europe, such as the
superconducting toroidal field coils for the TORE SUPRA tokamak, toroidal and poloidal coils for COMPASS
and JET divertor coils.
The Magnet Unit of Ansaldo participates in the construction of the first Italian accelerator, the Electro-Synchrotron at INFN Laboratories in Frascati. It then goes on developing a lot of challenging projects, among them the superconducting dipoles and the superconducting VERTEX detector coil, both for the Super Proton Synchrotron project at CERN.
