Epoxy powder coating and its benefits for insulation of busbars

Epoxy powder coating is becoming increasingly popular when it comes to the insulating of busbars – it has many advantages over traditional sleeving and wrapping of busbars.

Traditionally busbars have been wrapped in fibreglass tape or sleeved in heat shrink tubing. With both processes being time consuming and difficult to apply to complex shapes, many customers are looking for cost effective but robust solutions.

With environmental pressures and governments around the world focusing on reducing the reliance on the combustion engine, many transport manufacturers are moving to more ‘pure’ electric powertrains and not just hybrid. Therefore, there is a growing demand by manufacturers to fit more busbars in to a compact space, meaning ever more complex shaped busbars are being designed that present new challenges to the insulation process. This is where epoxy powder coating comes into its own.

Epoxy powder coating is an electro static process, so regardless of how complex shape the busbar is, it can be coated as the insulating powder is attracted to the metal.  Furthermore, the insulation is only 0.25 mm thick, so it’s less bulky than traditional methods, making it lighter than traditional sleeving. This in turns promotes greater efficiencies right down to the impact on the organisation’s bottom line.  Epoxy powder coatings are also highly durable, which means when applied to busbars, the coatings help to maintain performance and longevity of the part.

Electropak has been engineering epoxy coated busbars to a range of organisations that are making electric powertrains for new generation of road, sea and air electric vehicles. We can also test the thickness, detect any pin holes and also measure the dielectric strength at 5000 v DC. Typically 1.4 Terra ohms.

We believe that in the coming years, all manufacturers of electric vehicles will phase out traditional sleeving and wrapping approaches in favour of epoxy powder coatings. If you would like to know how Electropak can help your business, please contact us on 01772 251444.