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`Electrical Conductivity of Materials - Blue Sea Systems
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`Innovative Electrical Systems — Built to last
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`Electrical Conductivity of Materials
`
`May, 15 2002
`
`The differences in electrical conductivity of various materials used in marine electrical products are often not well
`understood. Making assumptions about the electrical conductivity of a material because it looks similar to another
`conductive material of known ampacity can lead to disastrous results.
`
`Perhaps the most common form of this error is the substitution of brass or bronze for copper in electrical applications.
`Brass is only 28% as conductive as copper. Some bronzes are as low as 7% as conductive as copper!
`
`Copper is the standard by which electrical materials are rated and conductivity ratings are expressed as a relative
`measurement to copper. These ratings will frequently be expressed as "28 IACS". IACS is the abbreviation for International
`Annealed Copper Standard and the number preceding "IACS" is the percentage of conductivity a material has relative to
`copper, which is considered to be 100% conductive. This does not mean that copper has no resistance (is 100%
`conductive in an absolute sense), but rather that it is the standard by which other materials are measured. The higher the
`% IACS, the more conductive the material is. This standard refers to a pure, "standard" copper having a resistivity of
`1.7241 microhm-cm at 20°C (68°F).
`
`Armed with this knowledge it is interesting to examine the IACS conductivity values of some common materials.
`
`Material IACS
`
`Silver
`Copper
`Gold
`Aluminum
`Nickel
`Zinc
`Brass
`Iron
`Tin
`Phosphor Bronze
`Lead
`Nickel Aluminum Bronze
`Steel
`
`% Conductivity
`105
`100
`70
`61
`22
`27
`28
`17
`15
`15
`7
`7
`3 to 15
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`https://www.bluesea.com/resources/108/Electrical_Conductivity_of_Materials
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`APPLE 1029
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`2/12/24, 9:09 PM
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`Electrical Conductivity of Materials - Blue Sea Systems
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`Perhaps the most interesting fact revealed by this chart is how low most copper alloy materials rank in relative conductivity.
`One might easily assume that alloys such as the brasses and bronzes, because they are mainly copper, are nearly as
`conductive as copper. This is not the case. The small percentages of tin, aluminum, nickel, zinc and phosphorus that make
`up these alloys degrade the electrical performance of the resulting alloy to a far greater percentage than their
`compositional percentage in the alloy.
`
`One should not conclude from this, however, that brass should never be used in electrical applications. There are
`instances where the superior tensile and machining characteristics of brass make it a better choice than copper as long as
`the sectional areas are increased proportionately to achieve the conductivity that a copper part would have in the
`application. Size for size, however, copper is exceeded only by silver among the materials commonly used for electrical
`applications.
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`https://www.bluesea.com/resources/108/Electrical_Conductivity_of_Materials
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