When the cruising range of new energy vehicles exceeds the 1,000-kilometer mark, when the domestically produced large aircraft C919 soars into the sky, and when the high-speed rail crosses the frozen soil of the plateau at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, behind these “heavy weapons of a great country” lies a silent revolution concerning material performance. In this revolution, a copper flat wire with a thickness of only 0.08 mm is quietly pushing motor technology into a new era.
The dilemma of traditional technology
When electromagnetic wire becomes the performance ceiling
In the core of the “electrical energy-kinetic energy” conversion of the motor, the electromagnetic wire is like the capillaries of the human body, and its performance directly determines the efficiency, life and reliability of the motor. However, traditional polyimide copper flat wires have long been trapped by process bottlenecks:
1. Weak insulation at the four corners: The coating process causes the paint film thickness at the corners to be only 50% of that in the flat area, which becomes a potential breakdown hazard
2. Unbalanced mechanical properties: The tensile strength is less than 200MPa, and the breakage rate during winding is as high as 3‰
3. Poor temperature adaptability: embrittlement and cracking at -50℃, and a cliff-like drop in insulation performance above 200℃
These problems are sharply magnified in extreme scenarios such as the 800V high-voltage platform of new energy vehicles and the liquid hydrogen cooling system of aircraft engines. Until the advent of TST cable extruded polyimide copper flat wire, this technical deadlock that lasted for decades was finally broken.
Disruptive breakthrough
Three dimensionality reduction strikes of continuous extrusion process
Traditional polyimide copper flat wires rely on film stacking or coating processes, and have defects such as interlayer air gaps, uneven thickness, and mechanical stress concentration. The extruded polyimide copper flat wire adopts continuous dense extrusion molding technology to achieve three major innovations:
Molecular bonding to eliminate interface defects
Polyimide particles are directly extruded and coated on copper conductors after high-temperature melting to form a continuous insulation layer with super strong adhesion, uniform thickness, dense, pinhole-free and non-stratified, which completely solves the problem of thin paint layer on the four corners of traditional processes. The insulation thickness can be compressed to 0.08mm and the outer diameter is reduced by 30%-40%.
Nano filler empowerment, corona resistance performance leaps
Nano-level Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ fillers are embedded in the polyimide matrix. After special modification, the PDIV (corona initiation voltage) is as high as 1500V or more, and the corona resistance life exceeds 1000 hours, which is more than N times that of traditional electromagnetic wires.
Dense structure and anti-aging
The air gap-free design increases the breakdown voltage by 15%-25%, and the PDIV attenuation rate is less than 10% at high temperature (280°C), completely breaking the dilemma of “low temperature embrittlement and high temperature softening”.
[Disruptor Profile]
Understand the technology generation gap in one picture
Dimension Traditional wrapped wire Extruded polyimide copper flat wire
Change coefficient
Insulation thickness 0.2mm (including multi-layer coating) 0.08mm (single-layer continuous extrusion) 60% thinner
Tensile strength 250MPa (easy to break) 350MPa (stretched 25% without breaking) 40% stronger
Extreme temperature tolerance -40℃~200℃ Stable operation in -269℃ liquid helium environment Cold breakthrough
Production energy consumption 80kW·h/ton 48kW·h/ton Reduced by 40%
Quadruple pole battlefield
Hard-core verification from deep sea to space
New energy vehicles: the “golden heart” of 800V high-voltage system
When Tesla Model S Plaid refreshed the acceleration record with a 2.1-second 100-kilometer dash, the secret weapon behind it was the extruded PI copper flat wire. In an 800V high-voltage system, this innovative material withstands a 1500V pulse voltage (equivalent to the vehicle voltage in a thunderstorm) with an ultra-thin insulation layer of 0.08mm, while increasing the motor power density by 20%. In contrast, the 0.2mm insulation layer of the wrapped PI wire is clumsy in a compact motor, and cannot meet the 20kHz high-frequency switching requirements of the silicon carbide electric drive system, and is gradually being marginalized as an alternative for low-power models.
Aerospace: “Molecular Armor” to Travel Through the Universe
In a -269℃ liquid helium environment, the wrapped PI wire has lost its insulation ability due to material embrittlement, while the extruded PI wire has shown amazing stability – the “molecular concrete” structure constructed by its nano-Al₂O₃/SiO₂ filler keeps the breakdown voltage >20kV/mm at extremely low temperatures. The actual measured data of a deep space probe motor of the European Space Agency showed that the insulation performance of the material decayed by less than 3% after being subjected to a radiation dose of 10⁶rad, far exceeding the EN 50500 standard requirements.
Industrial inverter: “durable benchmark” in the high-frequency battlefield
When the IGBT module switches at a high frequency of 20kHz, the insulation resistance of the wrapped PI wire drops by 40% after 5000 hours due to the partial discharge caused by the air gap between the layers. The extruded PI wire has a continuous and dense structure, and the PDIV value is always stable at more than 1500V, and the operation and maintenance cycle is extended to 8 years – equivalent to saving 3 shutdown and maintenance costs for each inverter.
Special transformer: “all-round guard” of the ocean and plateau
In a substation on an island reef in the South China Sea, the extruded PI wire achieves a 50% increase in power density with a 0.08mm insulation layer, and there is no breakdown after the salt spray test passes 1000 hours. In contrast, the adhesive layer of the wrapped product is easy to decompose and fail in a hot and humid environment, resulting in a surge in the risk of insulation layer peeling.
Cost game
The victory of long-termists
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