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what are custom bus bars made of? I'm looking at some C110 copper flat bar is this appropriate for machining into bus bars for inverters and what not? I also have some .125 silicone bronze sheet. would that work just as well? What about connecting bars together? Is it better to mechanically fasten them or is it okay to braze them together with brass or silver solder?
Registered Member #3215
Joined: Sun Sept 19 2010, 08:42PM
Location:
Posts: 780
flattened coper tube is perfect for that
brazing as well as bolting is nice enough, but when bolting you must carefully clean the bars at the contact surface, and maybe even put a small cleaned lead foil between them so pressure fills the tiny gaps and maximises contact surface
Registered Member #2099
Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716
Brazing will be fine for connecting copper busbars. As will soft solder, unless you intend for the bars to operate so hot that the solder would melt.
lightlinked wrote ...
i guess that rules out the bronze. the C110 is full hard so would i have to anneal it before making bends?
Why does 5x or 10x greater resistivity rule out the bronze? Have you made any design calculations of busbar electrical and thermal resistance, and voltage drop or heating at your intended current? If 0.025 Cu would be low enough resistance, then so would your 0.125 bronze. Or 0.050 aluminum?
[edit] The silicon bronze alloy Ash pointed out has electrical conductivity of 38% IACS, so if you're lucky, the stuff you have is plenty conductive. Do you want advice on how to measure it?
Wrought copper gets work-hardened as it's rolled down at the mill. Buy enough extra to make a test bend before you bother with heat treatment. Red-hot is plenty hot to anneal copper. Then OK to quench it in water. I don't know if quenching actually leaves it softer, but it sure won't make it any harder than air cooling.
Here is one site with pictures of formed copper busbars. See also their laminated busbars. Here is one about DIY tin plating to keep the busbars looking good. [edit] The products I design contain many busbars fabricated from 0.050 to 0.125 thick copper sheet, all with bends, all tin plated, and mostly insulated from bars at different voltage by 0.010-thick FR-4 sheet parts. I could find out the material spec if you want.
Registered Member #3414
Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245
klugesmith wrote ...
I don't know if quenching actually leaves it softer, but it sure won't make it any harder than air cooling.
Air cooling is fine, from what I remember when using copper head gaskets. It is plenty pliable after. It age hardens, from what I remember, as well as work hardening.
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bus bar materials / source / construction
