How to Identify the Quality when Purchasing Wires and Cables

High-quality wires and cables should use copper conductors, but the same copper conductors can be divided into high-quality and low-quality. Recycled copper contains many impurities, and some low-quality copper wires are even inferior to iron wire in conductivity, which can easily cause electrical accidents. Now, there are many wires and cables suppliers in the market, with different varieties, specifications, and prices. How to choose a buyer? For example, the same specification of 2.5MM2 house wiring cables, the prices can vary by 20% to 30% because of different suppliers.

Why is there a big difference in the price of the same wire?

In fact, the price difference between wires and cables is due to the different raw materials used in the production process. The main raw materials for the production of wires and cables are electrolytic copper, insulating materials, and sheath materials. At present, the electrolytic copper in the raw material market is about RMB 50,000 per ton (October 29th, 2020), while the recycled miscellaneous copper is only about RMB 30,000 per ton; the price of high-quality products of insulating materials and sheath materials is RMB 8,000 per ton To RMB 8,500, and the price of defective products only RMB 4,000 to 5,000 per ton, the choice of raw materials is different, resulting in a huge price difference. In addition, the length and glue content in insulators is insufficient that will also important reasons for price differences. The length of each reel is 100 meters for high-quality products, while only 90 meters for inferior products; the insulator contains 35% to 40% of glue content for high-quality products, while defective products are only 15%. Generally, it is not difficult for buyers to find the difference in the sales price of finished wires and cables is caused by the difference in materials.

How should buyers purchase wires and cables in China?
First of all, you can see whether the manufacturer has done some relevant certification. Among them, ISO is one of the international standards formulated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the IECEE-CB system is a system for the global mutual recognition of electrical product safety test results established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Organization for Qualified Testing and Certification of Electrical Products (IECEE), UL is Underwriters Laboratories Inc. CCC is China Compulsory Certification, and there are some certifications that need to be imported to the local, such as SAA in Australia.

Secondly, you can ask the manufacturer for samples for testing. The main testing has the following aspects:
1) Pay close attention to the cross-section of the copper core of the wire. The high-quality copper is bright in color and soft in color. The copper core is reddish in yellow, indicating that the quality of the copper used is better, and the yellowish-white is a reflection of low-quality copper.
2) It is recommended to bend a wire head repeatedly by hand. Anything with soft hand feel, good fatigue resistance, plastic or rubber hand feeling and elasticity, and no cracks on the wire insulator are excellent products. The outer plastic skin of the wire should be bright in color and fine in texture. There should be no open flame when ignited with a lighter.
3) Cut a section of the insulating layer to see if its core is located in the middle of the insulating layer. What is not in the center is the eccentricity caused by the low craftsmanship. If the power is small, it can still be safe during use. Once the power consumption is large, the thinner side is likely to be broken down by the current.
4) It must be checked whether the core thickness meets the standard. It is stipulated in the relevant standards that the error of the wire length cannot exceed 5%, and the cross-sectional wire diameter cannot exceed 0.02%.

Finally, if you can’t judge yourself and you are purchasing for an important project, you can send it to a third-party organization for professional testing.

JZD cable is a manufacturer specializing in the production of wires and cables with 20 years of production experience. All products have passed ISO and IEC system verification, and have multiple certifications such as SAA, TUV, and others. We provide wires and cables for more than 1000 projects worldwide.