Aluminum Bus Bar Vs Copper

In general bolted connection of unplated aluminum to copper bus bars is discouraged.

Aluminum bus bar vs copper.

Al vs cu busbars. Following years of copper being the material of choice for high power busbar trunking in the uk yet aluminium reigning supreme in the rest of the world schneider electric takes a look at the case for aluminium over copper busbar trunking at a time when cost of materials is having a significant impact on specification choices. Get more information on copper bus bar vs aluminum including qualitative differences strength ampacity resistance cost etc and common misconceptions. This article presents a brief overview of ampacity charts for both copper and aluminum bus bar and shows how to interpret the data within.

Protect connections against corrosion. But performance cost is high in aluminium bus. The aluminium bus bar is cheaper than copper busbar but the resistivity of the aluminium busbar is high as compared with copper busbar. The underside is sealed so the bars can be safely mounted to conductive surfaces.

If you re not sure whether you need copper bus bar or aluminum bus bar just contact us online and we ll get in touch with you shortly to discuss your application requirements. The presence of hydrogen sulfide h2s in the atmosphere is of main concern for base metal cu and silver plating. These bars are tin plated copper and have stainless steel terminals. Aluminum bus bar conductivity can be reduced depending on its alloying agents.

Aluminium busbar current carrying capacity 0 8 busbar width thickness in amps. Aluminium is more cheaper than copper and in case of bus bar there is no compulsion of space so we can also use more flatter or comparatively bigger bus bar rather than using a copper smaller and less flattered bus bar. Aluminum bus bar conductivity is dependent on the alloy and temper. There are a number of considerations that need to be recognized beyond the figures given in the chart.

The majority of al to cu connections are made by applying silver or tin plating to the joint areas of either or both of the conductors. Pure aluminum conductivity is approximately 65 0 of iacs international annealed copper standard. Now what do we do with the. Also aluminium has the less current carrying capacity as compared with copper.

However these charts can only tell you so much. Understanding bus bar ampacity charts.