Which is Best for Busbar?
Busbars are essential to the effective, efficient transmission of electricity around the globe.
Busbars are an elegant example of engineering. These metallic strips, usually made of copper or aluminum, ensure critical, crucial electrical power gets from point A to point B safely and smoothly. They are typically housed inside switchgear, panel boards, and busway enclosures. Busbars can be produced in a variety of shapes, such as solid bars or rods, but are typically flat with various hole patterns to connect bars used in each phase. The flat shape and the holes are both designed to dissipate heat, keeping the busbar from getting too hot while distributing power.
To fabricate the holes necessary for a high-functioning busbar, CNC machines can either punch, drill or stamp holes into copper or aluminum material. But here’s the question at hand regarding punching vs. drilling busbar: which is the best for busbar?
Methods of Fabricating Busbar
The punching process creates holes in the material by using hardened tools with an applied force to shear out the unwanted material. The force applied can be generated by electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, or even manual methods.
Drilling removes material using a drill bit that spins rapidly while the cutting edges remove a little volume of material with each revolution as pressure is applied. The force applied to a drill is usually done through a drill press or a machining center. Drilling is limited in geometry. Since it requires rotation to be performed, only circular holes can be created with drilling.
Stamping, or pressing, is the process of placing flat sheet metal in either blank or coil form into a stamping press where a tool and die surface forms the metal into a net shape. This can be a single-stage operation where every stroke of the press produces the desired form on the sheet metal part or could occur through a series of stages.
All of these processes have their advantages and disadvantages, but punching has become the best option to provide optimal material removal.
Punching: The Premier Choice
Using CNC punching machines for copper and aluminum busbar is the optimized solution for busbar production. Why?
Speed, versatility, accuracy.
Speed: Overall, punching machines are relatively fast, however, there are a select few that are exceptionally quick. This gives punching an advantage in cycle time duration when compared with other hole-creating processes.
Versatility: In punching, different geometries can be used to create holes in the material. The punching tool does not have to be round; this means that punching can create squares, triangles, ovals, and other shapes.
Accuracy: Thanks to advanced technology, CNC punching machines are extremely precise with a hole accuracy of .004” from hole to hole during production.
Offering the Best Busbar Solution
EHRT punching machines check all the boxes for providing high-quality fabricating and processing of copper and aluminum busbar.
EHRT designs, develops, and delivers high-performing, long-lasting equipment for fabricating and processing busbar of all materials that provide the speed, accuracy, software capabilities, and automation options that make punching faster, more accurate, more efficient, and more productive.
Precision, Speed, and Power
EHRT’s CNC busbar punching machines and CNC busbar bending machines feature precise tolerances while our proprietary software helps to reduce production time and minimize scrap. EHRT’s standard line of CNC busbar punching machines can handle copper and aluminum materials from 3mm to 16mm thick, while EHRT’s professional line punching up to 20mm thick material.
The EHRT FlexPunch & FlexPunch Compact punching machines provide fast, highly accurate punching of copper bus bar and other flat bar materials. With tooling to create holes, slots, chamfers, and more, it is the perfect 40-ton and small run punching machine.
The most versatile and accurate punching machines on the market are EHRT’s Professional Line of punching machines. The Professional Line is designed for the high loads, extreme durability, and high speed that high-volume industrial applications demand. Running a three-shift operation is ideal. Because they are constructed with three CNC-controlled axes, EHRT machines allow for parts to be made practically perfect. The operator is only responsible for starting the machine, feeding in the material, and then removing the production parts.
Sophisticated Software
If your business creates parts from copper or aluminum, the right software can increase efficiency and minimize waste. That’s why EHRT busbar punching machines utilize our PowerCut and PunchPro proprietary software applications.
Our decades of experience helping manufacturers of all sizes maximize production has resulted in the most easy-to-use, flexible, powerful software on the market. With our software, each part can be visualized on a screen so operators can control what is being produced. This allows full-scale production of a single part as well as limited production of unique parts. Parameters can also be adjusted during production if necessary.
PunchPro automatically optimizes the nesting of parts within raw material to minimize scrap, and it can also specify the utilization rates of materials for tracking and planning. Mirroring allows you to program one punched hole and then easily duplicate it wherever you need it. Macros give you the ability to combine a complex set of programs into a single process.
The software’s database helps manage programs and share information between the back office and each EHRT machine. Once saved to the database, every part can be produced on any machine, updated or modified, and called into production quickly.
Your Punching Technology Partner
EHRT has been developing and producing punching and bending machines for almost six decades. Our technical expertise and vast industry experience have made EHRT a world leader in the precision machining of flat materials.
We design, develop and deliver a wide range of high-quality, high-performing, specialized machines that can process copper and aluminum with maximum flexibility and efficiency. We continually innovate new technology, integrate new functions, and develop new equipment to meet the most demanding and challenging customer specifications for power and precision.
Does your business process copper busbar, aluminum busbar, or steel bar? If so, please explore our website to learn more about CNC Busbar Punching Machine Solutions and contact us today with any questions you may have. We look forward to helping your business save money and increase productivity with the right equipment and software