Copper, Brass, Manganin are the most widely used materials for shunt resistors. As a professional shunt manufacturer, we devoted ourselves to these materials for more than 15 years, and here we introduce them as below.
Basic Materials for Shunt Resistors
Copper is used in a wide range of products due to its excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, good strength, good formability and resistance to corrosion. ETP (Electrolytic Tough Pitch) copper is the most widely used grade of copper in electrical applications. Unless special marked, we choose T2 copper which contain 99.90% copper to produce our shunt resistors. T2 copper is Chinese Standard, equivalent to C11000 in USA, C102 in UK, or ECu-58 in Germany.
Brass is an alloy that consists of copper with zinc added. Increased amounts of zinc provide the material with improved strength and ductility. The suitable models for shunts are H59, H62, with price a little cheaper than pure copper. We usually use the brass to make the neutral terminal type shunts.
Manganin is a manganese-copper-nickel (CuMnNi) alloy consists of 12% manganese, 4% nickel, and copper as balance. In China, the most widely used models for shunts are 6J13 and 6J12. Due to its low temperature coefficient of resistance, pure manganin plates can be used as current sensing modules. We can manufacture EBW shunt resistors which should be punched from bimetal strip. The processing for such strip is called electron beam welding, introduced by the article as below.
As a summery, the properties of materials which constitute a shunt are shown as below table.
| Material | Applications | Model | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper | Busbar, Copper Lugs, EBW Shunt | T2 | Purity > 99.90% |
| Brass | Terminal Block Shunt | H59, H62 | Copper and zinc alloy |
| Manganin | Manganin Plate, EBW Shunt | 6J13, 6J12 | Low TCR value at room temperature |