There are various types of electrical wire and cable used in essential equipment across a wide range of sectors including medical, healthcare, utilities, transportation, telecommunications, shipping, mining, chemical processing and more, as well as in a number of everyday items in our homes and offices such as kettles, toasters, laptops, mobile phones and so forth.
These wires and cables include precision wire, resistance wire, and bare and insulated conductor wires, all of which play a vital role in electrical current transfer, ensuring that machinery and equipment is able to operate effectively, oftentimes in testing conditions.
But what is the manufacturing process for each of these types of wire?
Precision wire is commonly used in items that need a heating element – kettles, toasters, ovens, geysers and heaters, for example – or high heat environments such as in engines across the aerospace industry, for example, which relies on the wire’s properties of conductivity and ductility that let the wire heat up when electrical current is passed through it.
It is also used in applications where fine strands are combined to produce a very strong but flexible wire, for example in medical devices such as catheters, and in applications such as springs in engines which rely on the wire’s properties of flexibility.
Precision wire can be manufactured from most metals, from mild and carbon steel to nickel alloys, stainless steels, copper, brass and titanium and in a range of alloys, depending on the requirements of its intended use.
Resistance wires are almost always nickel-based alloys, for example nickel and chromium, a process during which the two metals are combined at high heat in a specific ratio (80%/20%, for example) to produce a malleable wire with the right conductive properties.
Precision wire begins as a raw material metal rod which is then processed and refined in an extrusion machine to reduce its size, alter its properties and produce the finished product.
Extrusion is a process that forces the metal rod at high heat through a series of dies to create a particular shape, and then through a process of annealing – heat treatment – which gives the wire its flexibility. Wires can be combined at this point to create multi-strand cables, or used as solid wires.
Wires can be shielded or unshielded, depending on where they will be used, and can be given an outer sheath to add protection – this outer material can be made from various materials such as metals, Kevlar and cotton to offer different types of protection depending on the application.
Find out more about our range of precision and resistance wires. Contact our team today on 01707 645261 or wire.sales@knight-group.co.uk.