4160 or not

[Besoeker]

Ok, I see where you are coming from. Chances are to save costs, they may build such a transformer the way you have drawn the schematic, so it will use less copper, and likely would do the same with a motor.

I don't see how that would save copper. Each coil has the same current in it and the same voltage across it.

 

[kwired]

I don't see how that would save copper. Each coil has the same current in it and the same voltage across it.

Each parallel component does, and each parallel is carrying less than if there was one single coil, so that leaves the question of does it take same amount of copper to make all the parallel coils as it does to make a single larger coil?

Just looking at what it takes to make say a 400 amp conductor for general use - you can use a 500,000 CM conductor or parallel two 3/0 which would be 105,600 CM X 2 = 211, CM which is less than 50% of the total area of the 500, sounds like a lot less copper to me, why wouldn't similar apply to what is needed to build a transformer or motor?

What I did not originally consider when I opened my mouth (or keyboard in this case) was that maybe the motor and transformer people don't already consider building these items in a way to use less copper if they can, I was only thinking in a single conductor per winding frame of mind, and if that is how they build them then yes a higher amperage unit will take more copper no matter what the voltagte is.

 

[Besoeker]

Each parallel component does, and each parallel is carrying less than if there was one single coil, so that leaves the question of does it take same amount of copper to make all the parallel coils as it does to make a single larger coil?

I took the sketch to mean that the two arrangements would use different amounts of copper for the same output power which is why I questioned it.

What I did not originally consider when I opened my mouth (or keyboard in this case) was that maybe the motor and transformer people don't already consider building these items in a way to use less copper if they can, I was only thinking in a single conductor per winding frame of mind, and if that is how they build them then yes a higher amperage unit will take more copper no matter what the voltagte is.

Transformer manufacturers do put conductors in parallel. I've mentioned before that we build high-current rectifiers. As it happens we have one going through our works at the moment. It's 7,000A and, apart from any other consideration, it would be a bit difficult to form coils out of single conductors at those sorts of currents. But paralleling smaller conductors does allow the copper to be used more effectively.

Here's a picture of a 10,000A unit during assembly:

Although you can't really see it, the brown LV coils are each made up of a number of copper strips in parallel to get the required rating.
What is fairly clear is the positive bar going up the left hand side - four conductors in parallel so less copper than a single conductor and easier to work with.