Manufacturing for a Fleet

Fleet-scale MetroVolt requires repeatable manufacturing of magnets, structures, and DEC modules — a step-change from one-off test hardware.

From one machine to many

A test unit can be hand-built. A fleet cannot. Manufacturing readiness means repeatable, quality-controlled production of the components that make a MetroVolt — high-field magnets, precision structures, cryogenic systems, and direct-conversion modules — at a rate and consistency a fleet demands.

This maturity develops across the FOAK–NOAK–BOAK ladder. FOAK proves a component can be built at all; NOAK proves it can be built again with the lessons applied; BOAK proves it can be built repeatably. Manufacturing readiness is therefore inseparable from the build sequence.

The hard components

High-field superconducting magnets are the pacing item: producing them consistently at volume is an industry still forming. Direct-conversion modules are burner-specific and have no volume precedent. Structures, cryogenics, and power electronics are more conventional. The breeder’s magnet builds seed the hardest chain.

• Pacing item: high-field magnets at consistent volume.
• Novel: DEC modules with no volume precedent.
• Conventional: structures, cryogenics, power electronics.
• Maturity grows FOAK → NOAK → BOAK.