ShWe have two types of Panel Board Busbars, Copper braid insulated busbars and Laminated copper insulated busbars. This video presents the different types of panel board conductors available from Tranect Ltd.
Copper Braid Insulated busbars
Copper braid insulated busbars for panel board applications are made from tin plated copper wire with heat shrink insulation. Using copper braid provides maximum flexibility and using heat shrink insulation allows colour coding, by phase (red / yellow / blue or Brown / Black / Grey) or function such as Green-Yellow for earthing.
The flexibility of the copper braid panel busbars means that they are easy to route in the panel board.
Tranect Ltd can supply these as premade kits for ease of convenience or we can supply the materials and tooling to enable the panel board braids to be made up on site.
Current rating |
Cross sectional area |
Width |
Thickness |
| 125 Amp | 16 mm² | 12 mm | 2 mm |
| 160 Amp | 25 mm² | 18 mm | 3 mm |
| 250 Amp | 50 mm² | 20 mm | 6 mm |
| 300 Amp | 70 mm² | 20 mm | 8 mm |
| 350 Amp | 100 mm² | 24 mm | 11 mm |
| 400 Amp | 120 mm² | 32 mm | 9 mm |
| 500 Amp | 185 mm² | 32 mm | 13 mm |
| 630 Amp | 240 mm² | 32 mm | 25 mm |
Laminated copper insulated busbars
Laminated copper insulated busbars are made up of layers of 1 mm thick plain copper strips of varying width and number of layers. Using copper strips 1 mm thick provides more flexibility than using a solid copper busbar without increasing the space required for the busbar. This makes these ideal for use in confined spaces such as panel boards and distribution boards.
The copper layers are covered with an extruded PVC sheath which provides insulation up to 1,000 Volts and is designed to ensure insulation integrity at bends. The insulation can be easily trimmed from any part of the busbar requiring a connection, so there can be multiple feeds from one busbar, which is a significant advantage over a cable alternative.
Bending of the insulated busbar can be done by hand on smaller sizes and using bench mounted equipment for larger sizes. The bends can only be formed at 90 degrees in one plane however by folding at 45 degrees bends can be made in any axis.
Tranect Ltd can supply insulated busbars either flat or preformed to suit customer requirements.
Typical insulated busbar sizes, more are available, please contact our sales office for more information:
| Current Rating | Number of Strips | Width | Thickness |
| 125 Amp | 8 | 6 | 4.0 |
| 250 Amp | 2 | 20 | 2.0 |
| 400 Amp | 5 | 20 | 5.0 |
| 500 Amp | 4 | 40 | 4.0 |
| 630 Amp | 5 | 40 | 5.0 |
| 800 Amp | 6 | 40 | 6.0 |
| 1000 Amp | 8 | 50 | 8.0 |
| 1250 Amp | 6 | 100 | 6.0 |
| 1600 Amp | 8 | 100 | 8.0 |