Aluminum alloy conductor cable can replace copper cable?

On June 25, 2013, at the Asian Cable Forum 2013 and the 23rd session of the National Exhibition of Wire and Cable Equipment, Technical Exchanges, and Purchase Orders, Chen Shande, a senior engineer at the Shanghai Cable Research Institute, said. "The 8000 series aluminum alloy conductor cable may replace the copper cable."

Chen Shande said that currently China’s copper resources are in short supply, and many people in the wire and cable industry have advocated replacing aluminum with copper. However, the pure aluminum cable also has its many shortcomings, and aluminum alloy power cable makes up for its many shortcomings: to improve the cable's electrical conductivity, bending performance, creep resistance and corrosion resistance, etc., to ensure that the cable is Maintains continuous and stable performance over long periods of overload and overheating. If you use 8000 series aluminum alloy conductors to make cables, then it is not a small increase, it can not only greatly improve the aluminum alloy cable conductivity, high temperature resistance, but also can solve the problem of pure aluminum conductor electrochemical corrosion, creep and other issues . The electrical conductivity of the 8000 series aluminum alloy is 61% of the most commonly used reference material, copper IACS (percentage of electrical conductivity). Under the same volume, the actual weight of the aluminum alloy is approximately one-third that of copper. According to this calculation, under the premise of meeting the same conductivity performance, the length of the 8000 series aluminum alloy cable under the same weight is twice that of the copper cable. Therefore, the weight of the 8000-series aluminum alloy conductor cable at the same current-carrying capacity is about half that of the copper cable.

In addition, he said, due to the light weight of the 8000 series aluminum alloy conductor cable, it will greatly reduce the carbon emission during transportation and installation. At the same time, the 8000 series aluminum alloy conductor cable does not contain heavy metal elements and is environmentally friendly. It can be said that the 8000 series aluminum alloy conductor cable is a kind of energy-saving, material-saving and environmental protection cable. Under the increasingly scarce environment of copper resources in China, it may replace the copper cable.

2013 Asian Cable Forum & 2013 (23rd) National Exhibition of Wire and Cable Equipment, Technical Exchanges and Purchase Orders jointly organized by China Power Engineering Corporation (formerly China National Electrotechnical Equipment Corporation) and Beijing Wire & Cable Association Hosted by Beijing Yaite Exhibition Co., Ltd., the cable network () and more than 50 media from home and abroad to provide support.

Attached:

8000 series aluminum alloy material introduction data:

The 8000(AA8000) series aluminum alloy material consists of aluminum and other elements. It is a conductor of an alloy cable that has low strength, conductivity of 62% IACS, and cannot be hot-rolled.

Compared with AA8000 aluminum alloy conductors and copper conductors, it was found that their IACS is different due to different resistivity. AA8000 aluminum alloy is 61.8% of copper. When we increase the cross-sectional area of ​​aluminum alloy conductors by two steps or increase the cross-sectional area of ​​copper conductors. At 150%, its electrical performance is consistent.

In terms of tensile strength, the aluminum alloy conductor is only half of the copper conductor. Since the density of the AA8000 aluminum alloy is only 30.4% of that of the copper conductor, the weight of the aluminum alloy conductor is increased even if the cross-sectional area of ​​the aluminum alloy conductor is increased to 150% of the cross-sectional area of ​​the copper conductor. Only 45% of the copper conductor, which makes the tensile strength of aluminum alloy conductors have certain advantages over copper conductors.

The yield of AA8000 aluminum alloy conductor is close to that of copper conductor, so that the creep performance of aluminum alloy conductor is close to the creep performance of copper conductor. In the elongation at break, the aluminum alloy conductor and the copper conductor are basically the same.