Due to the rising price of electrolytic copper materials, the price of copper bus is also rising, and the cost of power distribution is also increasing. At present, the bus products on the market are mainly copper bus. Can we find a product with the same performance as copper bus but lower price than copper bus? The answer is yes. Aluminum bus can be used as a substitute for copper bus because of its low price and excellent performance. At present, in the bus market, the unit price of aluminum bus is close to 50% of that of copper bus. Therefore, aluminum bus can replace copper bus in order to reduce cost.
aluminum vs copper bus bars
1.Analysis of the conductivity of aluminum bus:
the conductivity of Guhe copper bus is 99.98%, while the conductivity of copper bar in the market is only 52% ~ 85%. It can be seen that the conductivity of our company's copper bus is much higher than that of other copper buses in the market, and the cross-sectional area of our company's copper bus is larger than that of other companies, which greatly enhances the safety factor of our company's bus. Due to the price and weight of copper bus, Guhe also provides aluminum bus for the majority of customers. Guhe aluminum bus uses aluminum bars with conductivity ≥ 61%. Although the conductivity is lower than that of copper bus, it also achieves the conductivity of some copper buses in the market, and the cross-sectional area of aluminum bus increases. Therefore, in terms of safety, the change of material will not affect the safety performance of bus.
2.Analysis of current density of aluminum bus
Comparison table of current density of aluminum conductor and copper conductor unit: A / mm2
|
|
1600A |
1600A~3150A |
3150A~5000A |
|
aluminum |
2~1.5 |
1.6~1.5 |
1.5~1.15 |
|
copper |
2.5~1.78 |
1.78~1.67 |
1.67~1.59 |
The density of aluminum is 2.7g/cm3, and that of copper is 8.9g/cm3. The density of copper is about 3.3 times that of aluminum. Therefore, under the same weight, the current carrying capacity of aluminum is much larger than that of copper. For example, at 1600A, the current carrying capacity per unit weight of aluminum is 2.67 times that of copper. This greatly reduces the weight of the bus. It is beneficial to reduce the building load and facilitate the installation on the building.
3.Analysis of pressure drop
|
|
Pressure drop of aluminum（V/m） |
Pressure drop of copper（V/m） |
|
1600A |
0.103 |
0.098 |
|
3150A |
0.096 |
0.092 |
|
5000A |
0.086 |
0.080 |
It can be seen that with the increase of current, the difference of voltage drop between aluminum and copper increases slightly, but the difference is not obvious, which will not affect the normal use. If the bus length is 100 meters, the difference between aluminum and copper of 3150A bus is 0.4V. It's almost negligible. Therefore, in terms of pressure drop, the properties of aluminum and copper are basically the same.
It can be seen from the above data that the bus of our company conforms to the national standard. And the aluminum bus of our company is not inferior to the copper bus. Even better than most of the copper buses on the market.
