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Copper-clad aluminium wire

Type of electrical conductor

Type of electrical conductor

CCA is also seen in counterfeit unshielded twisted pair networking cables. These cables are often less expensive than their full-copper counterparts, but the official specifications such as Category 6 require conductors to be pure copper. This has exposed the manufacturers or installers of cable with fake certification to legal liabilities. No known counterfeits of CCA low voltage building wire exist currently.

A common misconception of CCA is that it has the same termination issues as aluminium building wire. There is no known history of connection overheating problems associated with copper-clad aluminium wire.

Properties

The properties of copper-clad aluminium wire include:

  • Less expensive than a pure copper wire
  • Lighter than pure copper
  • Greater electrical efficiency when sized per NEC 310.16
  • Higher strength than aluminium
  • Electrical connections and terminations are identical to pure copper terminations

Disadvantages

  • In very niche applications where physical space is severely limited, upsizing from copper to CCA conductors could cause fill issues.

Skin effect

The skin effect forces alternating current to flow on the outer periphery of any wire; in this case, the outer copper cladding of the conductor which has lower resistance than the mostly unused aluminium interior. The better conductor on the outer path causes the wire's resistance at high frequencies, where the skin effect is greater, to approach that of a pure copper wire. This improved conductivity over bare aluminium makes the copper-clad aluminium wire a good fit for radio frequency use.

The skin effect is similarly exploited in copper-clad steel wire, such as the center conductors of many coaxial cables, which are commonly used for high frequency feedlines with high strength and conductivity requirements.

References

References

  1. "Method of producing copper clad aluminium wire".
  2. (26 December 2013). "APPLICATION NOTE Copper Clad Aluminum(CCA) Cables". Fluke Networks.
  3. "Potential Legal Liabilities for Manufacturers and Installers of Category Communications Cables Made with Copper Clad aluminum Conductors". Communications Cable and Connectivity Association, Inc. (CCCA).
  4. "Aluminum Wire Info - Home - the Basics".
  5. NEMA Technical Services Department Bulletin. https://www.nema.org/docs/default-source/technical-document-library/copper-clad-aluminum-conductor-requirements-in-the-national-electrical-codee113fe89-240e-4699-bd0c-7d4a147181d0.pdf?sfvrsn=dde12188_3
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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