What Are The Advantages Of Copper Cable Compared With Aluminum Cable?

The vast majority of wire and cable products use aluminum core or copper core as conductor material. The unit price of copper materials is much more expensive than aluminum materials. What are the differences between the two wire conductor materials?

1. Low resistivity: The resistivity of the aluminum cable is about 1.68 times higher than that of the copper cable.
2. Good ductility: the elongation rate of copper alloy is 20~40%, the elongation rate of electrical copper is more than 30%, and the aluminum alloy is only 18%.
3. High strength: the allowable stress at room temperature is 7~28% higher than that of aluminum. Especially the stress at high temperature, the difference between the two is very far.
4. Anti-fatigue: aluminum is easily broken by repeated bending, and copper is not easy. In terms of elasticity index, copper is also about 1.7 to 1.8 times higher than aluminum.
5. Good stability and corrosion resistance: copper core is resistant to oxidation and corrosion, while aluminum core is susceptible to oxidation and corrosion.
6. Large current carrying capacity: due to low resistivity, the copper core cable of the same section is about 30% higher than the allowable current carrying capacity (the maximum current that can pass through) of the aluminum core cable
7. Low voltage loss: due to the low resistivity of the copper cable, the same current flows through the same section. The copper cable has a small voltage drop. Therefore, the same transmission distance can ensure higher voltage quality; In other words, under the allowed voltage drop conditions, the copper cable transmission can reach a long distance, that is, the power supply coverage area is large, which is conducive to network planning and reduce the number of power supply points.
8. Low heating temperature: under the same current, the heat output of the copper core cable with the same section is much smaller than that of the aluminum core cable, making the operation safer.
9. Low energy consumption: Due to the low resistivity of copper, compared with aluminum cables, the power loss of copper cables is low, which is obvious. This is conducive to improving the efficiency of power generation and protecting the environment.
10. Oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance: the connection head of the copper core cable is stable and will not cause accidents due to oxidation. The unstable joints of aluminum core cables often cause accidents due to the increase of contact resistance and heating due to oxidation. Therefore, the accident rate is much greater than that of copper core cables.