Abstract:The effect of different stages of the partial melting process on the phase component and microstructure of (Bi,Pb)-2223/Ag strip was analyzed and compared to the normal two-stage heat treatment process. The results show that some of the (Bi,Pb)-2212 phase melted and decomposed into (Sr,Ca)2CuO3, (Sr,Ca)Cu2O3 and rich (Bi,Pb) liquid phase. At the same time, the (Sr,Ca)2CuO3 and (Sr,Ca)Cu2O3 phases grew rapidly. During cooling and phase formation, the (Sr,Ca)2CuO3 and (Sr,Ca)Cu2O3 phases stop growing when they reach a certain size and react with liquid phase to recreate the (Bi,Pb)-2212 phase with good orientation. At the phase formation stages, the (Bi,Pb)-2223 phase during transformation from the (Bi,Pb)-2212 phase inherits the good orientation of (Bi,Pb)-2212 phase. This results in an improvement in the texture and the density of the (Bi,Pb)-2223 phase which in turn results in an improvement of the critical current. The final strip made by the partial melting process has a critical current of 51 A (while the strip made by the normal two-stage heat treatment process have the lower critical current of 36 A). Thus the new method increases the critical current by about 40%.