Electrical wiring can be byzantine. Moreover, electrical wires are designed to carry current from one element to another. The popping query is how an electrical wire is even made. Electrical wiring is made up of metals such as copper, aluminum, etc. These metals are used to make wires.
Copper compounds used in electric wiring
Most wires are made out of copper because it conducts electricity with suppleness and with least confrontation. The first stage of wire manufacturing is the wire-drawing conductor through which electricity can flow.
Copper is an ideal metal for electrical wires for several reasons.
- It is highly electrically conductive
Surpassed only by silver, copper is a highly conductive metal. It means electricity can pass through it with ease, making it idyllic for use in electrical wires.
- It’s inexpensive
Copper is also relatively low-cost when compared to other metals. Gold, for example, is an exceptional conductor of electricity, but it outlays several times more than copper. If companies used gold to manufacture electrical wires, they’d be bankrupt.
- It’s supple
Copper isn’t just conducive; it’s also squashy and supple. In other words, you can crook and stretch copper — to some degree — without it flouting or otherwise sustaining damage. Why is this important? Well, electrical wires must often fold away through walls, floors, ceilings, and other constricted spaces. As a result, they’ll unsurprisingly bend and serpent their way around the home or building in which they are used. The ductile properties of copper allow copper electrical wires to bend and flex. They’ll still convey electricity, and they won’t lose any power strength from silhouette malformation.
- It’s thermal resistant
An advantage of copper electrical wires that’s often ignored is their thermal-resistant properties. According to a survey,
“Electrical fires are highly responsible in residential house fires each year — and that’s not accounting for commercial/business fires.”
Copper electrical wires are innocuous to use than wires made of most other conductive metals because they are impervious to heat.
Electrical wires went through several processes to enhance their conductivity, and to add up the highest quality compounds in the making process of electrical wiring.
Annealing process
When wires endure a heat treatment it is called annealing. Annealing is a process of heating metal and allowing it to cool gradually to remove core pressures and strengthen the metal. The motif of this conduct is to increase the conductivity of the wire.
Insulation of electrical wires
Insulators are different synthetic materials that are used to insulate electrical wires. When the current runs along the outside of the copper wires, insulation became mandatory. They are insulated from other wires and conductive exteriors.
Characteristics of an insulation material
It depends on the characteristics of the cable required. Mainly, it depends on two basic characteristics:
- Insulation capacity
- Heat resistance.
Electrical power transmission cable
It has layers of conductive wires thereby providing an outer layer of wires and an inner layer or layers of wires is defined as
- Bringing together the wires while smearing flowable polymeric compound around at least the wires forming the inner layer or layers.
- Putting elements of a water swellable material having a particle size not greater than 200 microns into contact with the polymeric compound.
- Extruding a layer of semi-conductive material everywhere the wires; and extruding a layer of insulation around the layer of semi-conductive material.
As you can see, copper is the BEST OF HIGHEST QUALITY COMPOUND and preferred metal for electrical wires to avoid any fiasco on the residential and commercial level.
