Depending on the electrical project you undertake, you will need one type of cable or another or several types at the same time for different sections.
These types of cables are differentiated according to the measurements of the cable, both by its length and its thickness, by the most frequent colors, the different types of insulation for each model, or what are the types of conductors.
What is an electric cable?
An electrical cable is a hose that contains a conductive element, an electrical wire, or several insulated conductors, constituting an electrical conductor.
The conductive element is covered by a protective hose made of insulating material.
The utility of an electric cable is to conduct electricity. To achieve this, due to their high degree of electrical conductivity, electrical cables are mainly made of copper.
What are the parts of an electric cable?
The main parts of an electric cable are the conductive element, the insulation, a filling layer, and a covering layer. Each of the parts that are part of the electrical cable fulfills a different function.
- Electrical conductor: it is the fundamental component of any electrical cable; it is the material that carries electricity and can be made up of one or more wires.
- Electric wires are usually made of copper or aluminum as a fundamental element.
- Insulation: it is the element that covers the conductive material. Its function is to prevent the electric current from leaving the cable, and also to prevent the electric current from being transported from the beginning of the conductor to the other end of the conductor wire.
- Filler layer: it is located between the insulating element and the conductive wire. Your task is to make sure that the electrical cable maintains its circular appearance because very often the conductive elements are not round or are made up of more than one electrical wire.
- The filling layer ensures that the electrical cable maintains a round shape and a homogeneous appearance.
- Cover layer: it is the material that covers and protects the electric cable from the elements of being outdoors (solar radiation, humidity, rain, …) and from possible external elements of any kind (blows, heavy objects, pressure elements, …).
Main types of electrical conductors
The conductive element is the component of the electrical cable that carries electricity. The types of cables electrical conductor are:
- Bare wire conductor. It is a single solid-state wire. It is not flexible and has no coating.
- Its most common use is grounding together with grounding rods.
- Insulated wire conductor. The only difference from the bare wire conductor is that the insulated wire conductor is covered with a layer of insulating plastic material.
- The function of this coating is to prevent the insulated wire conductor from contacting another element such as other electrical conductors, external metallic elements, or people themselves.
- The use of the insulated wire conductor is much more common than the bare wire conductor, both in private homes and in company offices.
- Flexible cable conductor. It is the most popular, most widely used, and best-selling flexible electrical cable.
- The flexible cable conductor is made up of multiple fine wires covered by plastic material.
- Being made up of many fine wires, and not a single much thicker conductor wire, this flexibility is achieved, being able to bend and mold with some ease.
- Cord conductor.
- Cord conductors are made up of more than one cable or wire.
- These cables or wires are then all tied together and re-wrapped again, together.
- The result is that each wire has the insulation of each conductor, and all have extra insulation that joins them all at the same time.
What are the types of insulation of electrical cables?
Almost all types of cables especially electrical cables, except the bare wire conductor, have a coating layer or an insulation layer to protect them and prevent them from coming into contact with each other and generating a short circuit.
The type of electrical cable insulation is identified by the abbreviations, in English, printed on the cable itself.
The cables used for electrical installations in homes and work centers are THN, THW, THHW, and ThWN.
The meaning of the spellings is:
- T «Thermoplastic»: thermoplastic insulation. All Types of cables especially electrical cables have this insulation.
- H “Heat resistant”: insulation resistant to heat up to 75 degrees Celsius (167 degrees Fahrenheit).
- HH “Heat resistant”: insulation resistant to heat up to 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees Fahrenheit).
- W «Water resistant»: insulation resistant to water and humidity.
- LS «Low smoke»: insulation with low smoke emission and low content of polluting gases.
- SPT «Service parallel thermoplastic»: also called a duplex cord. These spellings are used to identify a cord formed by two flexible and parallel cables, with a plastic material insulation, and that both cables are joined together.
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