Why must Copper Bus Bar be Tin Plated?

Letter 38265

Why must Copper Bus Bar be Tin Plated?

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Sir,

Why we need Tin Plated Copper bar to be used in 6.9 KV busbar interconnection. My question is What is special with Tin Coating for copper bar?

Thanks and Regards,

ROY L. HARADJI
Oil Co. - Abu Dhabi, UAE

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Copper oxidizes and the oxides do not stay on the copper well. When they come off there is more copper exposed, which in turn oxidizes, and so-on. Also the oxides do not conduct well. This causes poor electrical contact, which then gets hot and increases the oxidation rate. The oxides, because of their poor conductivity, also cause arcing at the electrical contacts, eroding the copper.

Tom Gallant
- Long Beach, CA, USA

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Tin plating has two main technical advantages:

1. The thin tin oxide film (10-30 nm) forms on the surface of the tin coating could act as a shield, inhibiting further oxidation; and

2. Being a relatively soft metal, tin provides a low constriction resistance.

T.S.N. Sankara Narayanan
- Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

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Tin plate works well to prevent corrosion and provide a good, clean contact surface. However, I prefer to heat the end of the copper end of the part to be coated, apply flux and then melt solder onto the surface, which I smooth out with a solder brush. Use lots of flux(soldering paste). The final step is to smooth our the coating and eliminate lumps and drips with a wet rag, wiping quickly to remove excess material.

Come to think of it, it might be easier to tin plate! Why didn't I think of that??

The advantage of soldering the connection surface is the heavy coating that results.

Daryl P. Spindler, Sr., CEF
- Greenbrier, TN

November 4, 2009

we are manufacturing different types of Copper/Aluminium Busduct as well as panels; in these systems we use lot of copper, we inquire the effect of tinning on Copper Bus & Aluminium Bus (meaning Current Capacity ie how many percent increase in current )

Jagdish
power systems - Nashik, Maharastra, India

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