A busbar is an electroconductive metallic bar that distributes current to subsystems in intensive electrical applications, such as electric vehicles. In EVs, a well-designed busbar is a critical component for efficient power distribution across the vehicle. Designing the right busbar can be complex, however—engineers must work with multiple constraints. The right busbar design is important for achieving optimal electrical performance, but requires you to work within the boundaries of both form factor constraints and heat dissipation requirements.
Busbars in electric vehicles are often made of pure Copper, due to the material’s high electrical conductivity. Pure copper has excellent electrical properties, but is a difficult material to work with in traditional manufacturing: which means high price tags and long lead times.
Working within the additive manufacturing industry, I am firsthand witnessing the struggles that automotive suppliers are facing to quickly and cheaply prototype Copper parts. These components are critical, and it is exciting to realize that our technology can help alleviate these challenges. Considering the busbar’s performance demands are within the capabilities of metal 3D printing today, it’s a pretty perfect candidate for a strong, high-value additive application.
Typically, getting a busbar prototype in hand through traditional manufacturing processes will cost somewhere around $200 per iteration, with a lead time of around three weeks. While it typically takes a series of iterations to arrive at an optimized part, it’s common for high costs and long lead times to force a compromise in the number of iterations designers can go through. The need to meet tight deadlines may mean that a truly optimized part may not be realized.
The ability to 3D print in pure Copper to prototype busbar designs offers electric vehicle suppliers several competitive advantages: reducing cost on each iteration, avoiding long lead times due to bottlenecks in machining centers, and empowering engineers to rapid prototype on experimental designs. Printing a busbar prototype with the Metal X System in pure Copper would typically cost around only $55 with a lead time of just three days. The Metal X can turn around nine iterations in the same time it takes to get just a single iteration through traditional fabrication—allowing engineers to test designs in real-world conditions with time that would otherwise be spent waiting for parts to arrive.
Our Metal X system makes it faster, cheaper, and easier than ever to rapidly prototype with electroconductive materials. It’s the first metal 3D printer that is capable of printing pure Copper parts. Alternative metal AM technologies can print only Copper alloys; since production busbars must be made of pure Copper, prototyping alloys will not yield the same performance insights needed for the production part.
The Metal X system is a powerful tool in the toolbox for designers, engineers, and technicians to address a broad range of both prototyping and production challenges. If you’re looking to 3D print industrial prototypes, tools, spare parts, or end-use parts, reach out to our team to help you evaluate if the Metal X is a fit for your organization’s manufacturing needs.