Upgrade of operating range for SULTAN test facility

The German SUpraLeiterTest ANlage (SULTAN) test facility at the Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasma (CRPP), Villigen, is a worldwide unique tool to test high current superconductors over a broad range of operating conditions. The key component of the facility is a set of forced flow superconducting coils to generate a background field up to I I T. A flux pump supplies the test sample with current up to 100 kA. A set of pulsed coils generates a transverse, time varying field, with amplitude up to 4 T and field rate up to 65 T/s. The instrumentation and the data acquisition system allow accurate measurements of the dc behavior, ac losses, transient stability, current distribution. A clear definition of the interface between facility and users gives flexible and easy access to external scientists with minimum time requirement for sample replacement. The experiments from the last five years of operation contributed to the progress in understanding design issues for large cable-in-conduit conductors, including quench propagation, copper segregation, coupling loss, joint, stability, and cyclic load.