1　One material, five names

The consequences are real: a process-based definition can put a 0.8 mm continuous-cast conductor under galvanized-steel acceptance limits, and a historical translation such as "copper-plated steel" gets read backwards into a manufacturing process. The remedy is not to argue about names but to declare process, construction, temper and minimum local copper thickness separately – which is what we proposed to IEEE P80 (section 6).

2　China: twenty years, millions of kilometres, one top-down standards system

It started as an engineering problem. Conventional galvanized-steel grids suffered three chronic faults: earthing resistance out of specification, severe corrosion (actual life 7–13 years against a 30-year design standard), and welding heat destroying the zinc at joints so that connections corroded first. The last two are inherent to the material. The power sector therefore pursued copper-clad steel, zinc-clad steel, stainless steel and graphite-based electrodes, and iterated the standards alongside. The 2023 Technical supervision guide for earthing metals in power projects, DL/T 2650-2023, gave the final direction: in medium-corrosion environments, copper-clad steel or hot-dip galvanized steel with cathodic protection; in high-corrosion environments, copper-clad steel, solid copper or a material of equivalent corrosion resistance; in indoor and underground substations, solid copper. Copper-clad steel thereby became the first choice among the new generation of corrosion-resistant earthing materials, and hydro, wind and PV all list it as the main direction for upgrading earthing materials.

Scale and environment. CCS has served as horizontal conductor and electrode in China for twenty years; millions of kilometres are in service under UHV substations, high-speed rail and PV plants, across coastal saline soil, arid alkaline soil in the north-west, acidic red soil in the south (pH < 4.5), plateau permafrost and the humid, rainy south – nearly every hostile environment an earthing conductor can meet. A Gulf desert, a South-East Asian tropical site or an African salt flat has a precedent somewhere in the Chinese installed base.

The standards system: each layer supplies parameters IEEE 80 left open, without departing from its method.

Methodologically aligned with IEEE. The thermal-stability and fusing-current formulae in the annex of DL/T 1312-2023 are IEEE Std 80-2013 eq. (37) with the Table 1 CCS constants; the electrical and corrosion sequence of clause 7.8 is modelled on the sequential method of IEEE Std 837 (a connector standard), applied to the conductor (25 current–temperature cycles at 350 °C → 10 freeze–thaw cycles → 500 h of 5% salt spray → three fault-current shots at 90% of fusing current, with a quantified resistance-change limit at each stage). The section your consultant sizes with IEEE 80 and the tests they read through IEEE 837 are the same equations and the same procedure as in a Chinese report.

3　United States: a century-old family term; plated rods, pressure-bonded strand

The United States is where copper-clad steel originated, and the market where its roles are most clearly divided.

• Ground rods: UL 467 requires a "coated solid rod electrode" to have copper ≥ 0.25 mm (0.010 in) at any point, to pass an adhesion test and a 30° bend test, and names no process; most North American rods are electroplated, in 5/8 in and 3/4 in sizes. The rod constants in IEEE 80-2013 Table 1 are declared for exactly this construction (1020 steel core, 0.010 in soft copper, 17% IACS).
• Wire and strand: ASTM B227 (hard-drawn CCS wire), B228 (strand) and B910 classify by conductivity grade, 30% / 40% IACS, and temper; the typical product is pressure-bonded (including hot-roll bonding) and then drawn, hard temper, and is used widely as down conductor and bonding conductor in telecom, broadcast and utility work. The CCS wire constants in IEEE 80 Table 1 rest on the ASTM B910 construction (copper ≥ 5% of diameter).
• Substation grids: traditionally still bare copper; rising copper prices and theft are pushing CCS into substation, PV and line earthing.
• Design method: thermal stability by IEEE 80 eq. (37); clause 11.3.1 calculates thermal capacity and resistivity for any CCS construction from geometry and composition, with the bonding process outside the calculation – the direct basis for our "declare separately" position.

The US system is clear on the family term, accepts by conductivity grade and thickness at any point, and is process-neutral; but it has no minimum copper thickness for horizontal conductor by soil corrosivity as China has, and no annealed temper in the code – thick-layer, soft horizontal conductor is still an open space in the US.

4　Europe: accepted under a lightning-protection standard, with the process written into the definition

• IEC 62561-2:2025 (LPS components – conductors and earth electrodes) defines copper coated steel by process (continuous electroplating, "permanent molecular bond") and sets minimum copper by form: rods ≥ 250 µm, conductors ≥ 70 µm; it tests bond under lightning-impulse duty and environmental corrosion (salt spray and humid sulphur, visual assessment), with no power-frequency thermal-stability test.
• IEC 62561-7:2024 (earthing enhancing compounds) uses the undefined term copper-plated steel, gives separate polarisation-resistance limits for copper-plated and galvanized steel, and judges "other materials" against the galvanized-steel limit – so a non-plated CCS electrode is assessed as galvanized steel however thick its copper.
• Practice: copper-bonded rods are in general use (national codes such as BS 7430 in the UK accept CCS electrodes); horizontal conductor is mostly bare copper tape in the UK and hot-dip galvanized steel tape in the German-speaking countries; thick-layer annealed CCS horizontal conductor is not yet common in Europe.
• What this means for a Chinese product: a 0.8 mm continuous-cast conductor exceeds every measurable requirement of IEC 62561-2 – thickness, bond, bending – by a wide margin, yet does not match a definition worded around "plating". That is a terminology problem, not a performance problem. The practical route is into the project specification by declared parameters and third-party witness testing, not an argument about the name.

5　The three systems compared

The three address different duties: IEC 62561-2 is a lightning-protection component standard, UL 467 a grounding-equipment listing standard, DL/T 1312-2023 a dedicated power-earthing conductor standard – and for the technical requirements on a power-earthing conductor, the most comprehensive and the most demanding of the three. The continuing-compliance surveillance built into the IEC / UL certification schemes is supplemented, for our products, by international third-party witness testing and verification on receipt. A detailed item-by-item comparison of the three standards' test requirements (copper thickness, bond, bending, tensile, conductivity, fault current, thermal cycling, freeze–thaw, salt-spray duration, acceptance basis, routine testing) is on the Test evidence page.

6　Our position: one family name, parameters declared separately

In September 2026 we submitted a technical contribution to the IEEE P80 working group (revision of IEEE Std 80) proposing a unified definition of copper-clad steel in clause 3: a composite earthing material of a steel core with a bonded outer copper layer, covering electrodeposition, cast bonding (including continuous casting) and pressure bonding (including hot-roll bonding); manufacturing process, product construction, final mechanical state and design parameters declared separately; and a definition of "minimum local copper thickness". The contribution also proposes a footnote to Table 1 stating that the constants apply to the stated constructions, with other constructions calculated from declared parameters per clause 11.3.1.

This is not a bid for status for any one process. The opposite: the definition ranks no process, excludes no form and proposes no numerical durability grade – it simply lets buyer, seller and design institute select under one name on four measurable parameters. It is also how every product data sheet and every sizing report on this site is written.

The full definition text, the cross-standard evidence table and English working translations of the Chinese clauses are available on request.