5 Basic Cable and Wire Terms Purchasers Should Know

The next 10 years, the worldwide wind, solar, nuclear and other new energy industry will be in the explosive growth stage, wind power, solar, biomass installed by 2020 will reach at 600 million kw, 300 million kw, 60 million kw, respectively, than the current 300 million kw, 63 million kw, 39 million kw, greatly increased twice or more. With the expected renascence of nuclear power construction around the world, by 2020 the world's nuclear power plants in operation to reach 95 million kw, 63 million kw under construction. With the rapid development of the world's new energy industry chain, there is a huge demand for wind power cable, photovoltaic cable, nuclear power cable and other special cables including swa xlpe cable. For many electric wire company, it's a good chance to develop or expand their business more largely.

Wire and cable is a kind of electrical products used to transmit power, transport information and realize electromagnetic energy conversion. Since 1836, the first low-voltage electric power wire (copper wire with rubber tape packaging) produced in the world, with the development of human civilization, wire and cable has developed into a wide range of products with various types. 

There is no strict distinction between wires and cables. Generally, bare wires without insulation, or products with simple structure, small diameter, fewer cores and low performance requirements are called wires. Cable is generally a product with thick insulation core and multiple insulated cores with shielded or unshielded sheath. Wire performance requirements more projects, higher, such as although radio frequency cable  often is single structure, not multi-core, it has higher performance requirements, known as the cable.  

In modern social life, wherever people lives, wherever there is any production, transportation and other economic activities, no matter in the sky, underground, water and other need to explore, development or any scientific and technological innovation research, are inseparable from the application and transmission of electricity and electromagnetic waves.

This article dedicated to introduce some basic professional term about cable and wire, whatever you are purchaser or general consumer, definitely it will help you a lot.

Classification of wires and cables (by purpose)

• Bare wire: products with only conductor but no insulation layer, copper, aluminum and other metals and composite metal round single wire, stranded wire, soft wire, wire and profile for various structures of overhead transmission lines.  
• Winding wire: wire, enameled wire, wrapped wire, inorganic insulating wire, etc. used to generate current by cutting magnetic force line in magnetic field in the form of winding, or by current to generate magnetic field.  
• Power cable: The cable (insulated) product used in the trunk line of a power system to transmit and distribute high power electrical energy. In the power cable family, the swa xlpe cable has been more and more popular, swa xlpe cable refers to the steel wire armoured layer and xlpe insulation materials.
• Communication cables and optical cables: cables used to carry telephone, telegraph, cable, broadcast, facsimile, data and other telecommunication information.  Local communication cable, long distance symmetric cable and coaxial (trunk) communication cable, transmission frequency is audio - tens of megahertz.
• The last is wire and cable for electrical equipment, which belong to the most common used cable and wire: Wire and cable used to transmit electrical energy directly from the distribution point of a power system to the power supply connections of various electrical equipment and appliances. This kind of product is the most widely used, the most variety of a kind of product. Wires and cables used in electrical equipment are conventionally divided into eight categories according to the purpose of the product:

Signals and control wires mainly refer to the wires and cables used to transmit signals or control operations between the control center and the system.

Connecting wires of instruments and equipment mainly refer to internal installation wires and external wiring of instruments and equipment. 

Wires and cables of transportation vehicles mainly refer to the supporting wires and cables of automobiles, locomotives, ships, aircraft, etc. 

Wires used in geological resources exploration and exploitation mainly refer to wires and cables used in coal, ore and oil field exploration and exploitation. 

DC high-voltage cables mainly refer to the wires and cables used for Supporting X-ray machines and electrostatic equipment.​

Heating cables mainly refer to wires and cables used for heating, plant cultivation, pipe insulation, etc.   

Low-voltage distribution wire and cable mainly refers to fixed laying and mobile power supply wire and cable. 

Special wire and cable mainly refers to the wire and cable with high temperature resistance, low temperature resistance, flame retardant, fire resistance, low smoke halogen-free, nuclear power plant and so on.  

Now the photovoltaic systems has been more and more popular because of the target on green energy all over the world and more and more purchasers are asking for the photovoltaic cable, PV wire 10 awg is the most common used size and consist of tinned copper and xlpe insulation material. 

Classification of wire and cable (according to voltage)  

Wires and cables are divided into the following categories according to the voltage grade used:  

Low voltage :1KV and below, namely 550V, 380V. 

Medium voltage: 6-10kV, that is, 6KV, 10KV.  

High voltage: 35-220kV, namely 35KV, 110KV, 220KV. 

Ultra-high voltage (EHV)330KV and above, 1000KV below, namely 330KV, 500KV. 

Ultra-high voltage (LHV):1000KV and above.  

Terms about Cable and Wire

•  conductor  

Uncoated conductor, metal coated conductor, magnesium-tin conductor, solid conductor, stranded conductor, stranded conductor, bunched conductor, soft conductor, fan-shaped conductor, compact conductor, bunched conductor.  

•  the insulation  

Extruded insulation, mineral insulation, thermoplastic insulation, thermosetting insulation, crosslinking insulation, elastomer insulation.  

• shielding  

Conductor shielding, insulating shielding, insulating wire core shielding, grounding (metal) shielding.  

• into a cable 

Pitch, pitch to diameter ratio, twist, insulated wire core, filler, wire core.  

• Cladding layer and various components  

Isolation layer, lining layer, jacket, outer jacket, armored, braided layer, inner jacket, waterproof belt.  

Electrical Wire Company Selection

There are lots of electrical wire company including trader, supplier, wholesalers, manfuacturer. For the general consumer, go to shopping market online or local wholesalers are the better choice, however if you are a buyer or purchaser, choose a reliable manufacturer is more important. JZD Wire&Cable as the TOP3 manufacturer in China and had exported their swa xlpe cable, photovoltaic cable, in particular pv wire 10 awg to 19 countries, for example Australia, The Philippines, Cambodia and so on. Welcome to contact us for quote or other affairs.

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