Types of Copper Wire

In daily life, people use copper wire as a practical wire. Because of its good conductivity, many copper wires are used to make wires, cables, and brushes. This article starts with information about copper wire and a brief introduction, but it also leads to some related knowledge. I hope you will get something from reading it.

What is the copper wire?

Copper wire is typically defined as a single conductor for electrical signals, differentiated from a copper cable wherein multiple copper wires are grouped into a typical jacket. The many types of copper wire share a common function — the conduction of electricity with minimal resistance, which causes voltage drops and energy dissipation in the form of heat. Copper has been used since the 1820s when the first technology requiring electrical conductivity was developed. No other metal can compete with its conductivity, plus copper wire requires less insulation and can be stretched more effectively than other metals.

What is the application of copper wire?

Copper is the electrical conductor in many categories of electrical wiring. Copper wire is used in power generation, transmission, distribution for telecommunications, electronics circuitry, and countless types of electrical equipment. Copper and its alloys are also used to make electrical contacts. Electrical wiring in buildings is the most important market for the copper industry. About half of all copper mined is used to manufacture electrical wire and cable conductors.

• Telecommunication

In the early stage of its use, copper provided wires for telephone poles. Copper’s free-moving electron structure allows signals to be sent through telephone wires easily. Telephone poles use copper unshielded-twisted pair (UTP) wiring, and the twisted pairs provide increased bandwidth.

• Supplying Electricity

Copper wires provide a means of transport for power sources to deliver energy to homes, commercial, and industrial facilities. Copper’s high ductility allows it to shape into numerous places to supply power anywhere in a household. Another major reason copper frequently appears in power transmission is that it is not an expensive precious metal.

• Automobiles and Marine Wire

Climate durability is in high demand for industries like automobiles and underwater applications; therefore, copper demand increases by around 5% annually in these industries. Aside from being extremely electrically conductive, copper provides benefits like ductility, high melting point, and corrosion resistance. Like these industries, copper provides safe and efficient use in places where climate changes.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of copper wire?

Copper Wire Advantages

1. Low resistivity: aluminum wire and cable resistivity are about 1.68 times higher than copper wire and cable.

2. Good ductility: the ductility of copper alloy is 20~40%, the ductility of copper for the electrician is more than 30%, while the aluminum alloy is only 18%.

3. High strength: Respectively, the allowable stress at room temperature is 7~28% higher for copper than aluminum. Especially the stress under high temperatures, the difference between the two is very far.

4. Fatigue resistance: aluminum is easy to break after repeated bending, and copper is not easy. Elasticity indicators are also higher than aluminum, about 1.7 ~ 1.8 times.

5. Good stability, corrosion resistance: copper wire oxidation, and corrosion resistance, while the aluminum wire is susceptible to oxidation and corrosion.

6. High capacity: due to low resistivity, the same cross-section of copper wire cable as aluminum wire cable allowable capacity (able to pass the maximum current) is about 30%-50% higher, especially the increasing number of household appliances, home furnishing basic copper wire.

7. Low voltage loss: due to the low resistivity of copper wire and cable, the same section flows through the same current. Copper wire and cable voltage drops are small. Therefore, the same transmission distance can ensure higher voltage quality; or, under the conditions of the allowable voltage drop, copper wire cable transmission can reach a longer distance. That is, the power supply covers a large area, which is conducive to the planning of the network and reduces the number of power supply points set.

8. Low heat generation: At the same current, the heat generation of copper wire cable with the same cross-section is much smaller than that of aluminum wire cable, making the operation safer.

9. Low electrical loss: Due to the low resistivity of copper, it is obvious that the electrical energy loss of copper cables is low compared to aluminum cables. This helps improve the power generation utilization rate and protect the environment.

10. Oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance: copper wire and cable joints are stable and will not cause accidents due to oxidation. Aluminum wire cable joints are unstable and often cause accidents due to oxidation, increasing contact resistance, and heat. Therefore, the accident rate is much greater than that of copper wire cables. Especially in some copper and aluminum wire butt place, slightly not connected to a long time on the problem. So the copper and aluminum wire butt must be strictly required to connect well.

11. Convenient construction.

① Copper wire is flexible and allows a small radius of bend, so it is convenient to bend and easy to put through the pipe;

② copper wire fatigue resistance, repeated bending is not easy to break, so wiring is convenient;

③ in the high mechanical strength of the copper wire can withstand a large mechanical tension, to the construction of laying brings great convenience, but also for the mechanization of construction to create the conditions.

Copper Wire Disadvantages

The high price of copper wire and the high ratio of copper wire both determine the high cost of copper wire. As a cable with a lot of performance advantages is the high price! So we commonly do not use copper wire. It is too heavy, so the overhead line often uses more aluminum wire, and the ground wire usually uses copper wire.

What are the common types of copper wire?

Among the common types of copper wire includes beryllium copper wire, copper alloy wire, copper clad aluminum wire, copper clad steel wire, copper Nickel & Nickel plated copper wire, oxygen-free Highly conductive copper (OFHC) wire, and titanium clad copper wire.

What is the difference between brass and red copper?

First of all, physically, copper is divided into red copper and brass.

Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, and red copper, often called pure copper. What is the difference between the two?

1. Appearance: red copper has a layer of red cuprous oxide on the surface, often purplish red or rosy red, while brass is usually golden yellow.

2. Composition: The main component of copper is copper, and the copper content is high, but brass is mainly composed of copper and zinc, and special brass will also contain other substances.

3. Electrical conductivity: brass and copper contain copper so they can conduct electricity, but because brass has more other elements and copper composition of red copper is better, the performance of red copper wire than brass is better.

4. Density: brass density is 8.52-8.62, copper density is 8.9-8.95, so red copper’s density is a little larger than brass.

5. Corrosion resistance: brass＜red copper

6. Cutting performance: brass > red copper

7. Price: red copper is more expensive than brass

8. Use: red copper is commonly used in the wire and cable industry. Brass is mainly used for valves, water pipes, radiators, etc.

Therefore, the choice of red copper as the raw material for the wire quality to be better.

What is the difference between copper-clad aluminum and pure copper?

• Copper-clad aluminum cable wire

Copper-clad aluminum cable wire is the main body of the aluminum-copper core cable. The outer edge of a certain percentage of copper coating cable wire can be used as a coaxial cable with conductors and electrical equipment weapons equipment in the conductor of the cable wire. The proportion of aluminum wire is small, but its welding performance is not very good, so in the aluminum wire outside the copper layer, this copper-clad aluminum wire can use the advantages of a small proportion of aluminum, but also to improve the welding performance. Applicable electric power engineering, household appliances field, type level for the national standard.

• Pure copper

Pure copper conductivity is very good, a large number of wires, cables, brushes, etc.; good thermal conductivity, often used to manufacture magnetic instruments, instruments to prevent magnetic interference, such as compasses, aviation instruments, etc.; excellent plasticity, easy hot pressing and cold pressure processing, can be made into tubes, rods, wires, strips, strips, plates, foils and other copper materials.

Pure copper, as the name implies, is the copper with the highest copper content because the color, also known as purple copper, the main component is copper plus silver, the content of 99.5 to 99.95%; the main impurity elements: phosphorus, bismuth, antimony, arsenic, iron, nickel, lead, tin, sulfur, zinc, oxygen, etc.; used to make conductive equipment, advanced copper alloys, copper-based alloys.

Pure copper is a rose-red metal. The surface is purple after forming copper oxide film, so pure industrial copper is often called purple copper or electrolytic copper. Density is 8-9g/cm3, melting point 1083°C.

• Comparison of pure copper and copper-clad aluminum in terms of performance.

1. Mechanical equipment performance

Pure copper conductor has compressive strength and elongation than a copper-clad aluminum conductor; in other words, pure copper in the mechanical equipment performance level than copper-clad aluminum good. A copper-clad aluminum conductor is much lighter than pure copper. Thus copper clad aluminum cable in the overall net weight than pure copper conductor cable to light, which will make the cable delivery and cable erection project construction convenient. In addition, copper-clad aluminum is a little softer than pure copper, with copper-clad aluminum conductor manufacturing cable in the level of flexibility than pure copper cable is a little better.

2. Electrical equipment performance

The poor electrical conductivity of aluminum copper makes the copper-clad aluminum conductor resistance measurement larger than the pure copper conductor. When the frequency exceeds 5 MHz, there is no significant difference in the attenuation coefficient of the communication AC resistance of the two different conductors. In the 5MHz condition, the current flows in a thin layer of about 0.025mm near the surface, while the copper layer of the copper-clad aluminum conductor is about twice as thin as this thickness. For coaxial cable, because the transmitted data signal is above 5MHz, thus the actual effect of copper-clad aluminum conductor and pure copper conductor transmission is the same. At a certain level, it can be said that the cable with copper-clad aluminum is better than the return loss index of the cable with a pure copper conductor.

3. Reasonableness

The price of a copper-clad aluminum conductor is higher than the same net weight of a pure copper conductor. But the same total weight of copper-clad aluminum as that pure copper conductor length is much longer, and the length measures the cable. With the same net weight, copper-clad aluminum wire is 2.5 times the length of the copper heart wire. The price is just a few hundred dollars more than a ton. Comprehensive sex out, copper-clad aluminum is very advantageous. Because the copper-clad aluminum cable is lighter, the logistics costs of the cable. Installation and construction costs will be reduced, giving a certain degree of convenience in the project’s construction.

4. Easy maintenance

The application of copper-clad aluminum can reduce network problems to prevent Internet staff in the maintenance of “winter son cut core, and summer son cut skin” (aluminum tape around the package or aluminum alloy tube goods). Because the copper inner conductor and the aluminum outer conductor of the cable are relatively far apart, the aluminum outer conductor extends more, and the copper inner conductor shrinks relatively so that it cannot sufficiently touch the ductile metal shrapnel in the F-head seat in the sweltering summer; in the cold winter, the aluminum outer conductor closes more, so that the shielding layer falls off. When the coaxial cable selects the copper-clad aluminum inner conductor, it has a small distance from the aluminum outer conductor’s linear expansion coefficient. The common failure of the cable extraction core is greatly reduced when the temperature shifts, enhancing the Internet’s transmission quality.

What is the difference between the copper wire and aluminum wire?

1. copper wire has excellent flexibility and can bend back and forth, which is not easy to break with fatigue resistance; the aluminum wire is the raw aluminum material, silvery-white, easy to break when bending, and flexibility is not as good as copper wire.

2. copper wire has antioxidant and corrosion-resistant properties, and aluminum wire is very easy to oxidation, which makes the resistance becomes large, reducing the wire load, prone to safety problems; relative to the stability of copper wire performance is better.

3. copper wire resistivity is small, less than 1.68 times the aluminum wire; aluminum wire resistivity is high, with high power loss, and serious heat generation, indirectly affecting electricity utilization.

4. the price of copper wire is several times higher than aluminum wire, and the weight is much heavier than aluminum wire, so the overall price has also increased.

What is the difference between the soft copper wire and hard copper wire?

1. Soft copper wire has a higher load capacity than hard copper wire.

2. In the same cross-section, the surface area of soft copper wire is much larger than the surface area of hard copper wire. The skin effect of alternating current makes the capacity of soft copper wire higher than that of hard wire. In addition, due to the large surface area, soft copper wire’s heat dissipation effect is also better than hard copper wire.

3. The price of soft copper wire is higher than hard copper wire.

4. The hard copper wire construction process will generally be less than soft copper wire. Soft copper wire is generally softer, and if you want to use it, you generally need to go through plenty of winding can be, while hard copper wire is thicker and has only one wire. If you want to use it, then you can directly wear it. Hard copper wire lining is beautiful, and soft copper wire generally needs to match the line groove to be beautiful.

5. Hard copper wire will generally last longer than soft copper wire. Because the hard copper wire is only one wire and thicker, it is generally not easy to be oxidized. In contrast, soft copper wire generally has multiple strands of fine copper wire, so the air easily oxidizes it.

For the difference between tinned copper wire and pure copper wire, you can read the article Why Use Tinned Copper Wire?

How to connect soft copper wire and hard copper wire?

1. if you want to connect the soft copper wire and hard copper wire, you should first peel off some of the outer layers of insulation of the soft copper wire and be twisted into a strand of the soft copper wire to facilitate the connection later. The outer layer of hard copper wire insulation can be stripped slightly less.

2. the next should be the soft copper wire in the hard copper wire wrapped around a few turns when winding must be tight. Secondly, you should use a vise to clamp the head of the hard copper wire and then bend it in the opposite direction of the rotary so that the hard copper wire can be pressed against the soft copper wire, thus preventing the soft copper wire off, safer and more solid.

3. use the insulation cloth on the soft copper wire, and hard copper wire between the connected position wrapped can be. If there are conditions, it is best to weld. The soft copper wire and hard copper wire between the welding is the most solid method of connection, but also more secure and fast.

Single-core wire and multi-core wire, which is better?

Home commonly used single-core and multi-core wires belong to the copper-core wire, have good electrical conductivity, low resistance, good electrical performance, and are more stable and reliable. Still, single-core and multi-core structures are different, and all have different roles and advantages.

1. construction: multi-stranded wire is easy to build

Because the single-stranded wire is made of a thick copper wire, compared to multi-stranded, a little hard, so in the construction of threading, relatively difficult to thread, and multi-stranded wire threading is much easier.

2. heat dissipation: the multi-stranded wire has certain advantages

A multi-stranded wire is composed of multiple fine copper wires, and there is a certain gap between them, so the heat dissipation has certain advantages.

3. the price: single-stranded wire is relatively cheap

A multi-stranded wire is composed of multiple fine copper wires, in the production and processing, the process is slightly more complex so that the cost will be a little higher, and single-stranded wire is relatively cheaper. Under careful consideration, multi-core wire is better than single-core wire.

What is the difference between the marking of the multi-stranded copper core wire and single-stranded copper core wire?

The difference between the multi-stranded and single-stranded copper wires is in the specification type.

R stands for flexible wire, representing multiple strands; for example, RVV polyvinyl chloride insulated sheathed flexible cable.

BV wire is referred to as plastic copper wire, the name is general purpose single-core hard conductor unjacketed power cable.

B represents the category, cloth wire, T represents the conductor for a copper conductor, and V represents the insulation for polyvinyl chloride.

Multi-stranded soft structure copper core is generally represented by R. For example, RVV / VVR / KVVR / YJVR, etc.

Where to buy copper wires?

After reading the above article, I believe you have a general understanding of copper wire or even further knowledge of copper wire. If there is still something you do not understand, you can look at the articles on our website, or if you have copper wire procurement needs, you can contact us directly; we will be honored to serve you.