# Why aluminum conductors are used for overhead transmission instead of copper conductors

**URL:** <https://forumautomation.com/t/why-aluminum-conductors-are-used-for-overhead-transmission-instead-of-copper-conductors/9913>\
**Category:** Electrical\
**Created:** [October 13, 2021, 5:18am UTC](https://forumautomation.com/t/why-aluminum-conductors-are-used-for-overhead-transmission-instead-of-copper-conductors/9913 "2021-10-13T05:18:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![instrumentationtechi](https://forumautomation.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/50afbb/32.png) [@instrumentationtechi](https://forumautomation.com/u/instrumentationtechi)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2021, 5:18am UTC](https://forumautomation.com/t/why-aluminum-conductors-are-used-for-overhead-transmission-instead-of-copper-conductors/9913/1 "2021-10-13T05:18:39Z")

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Explain why overhead transmission lines uses aluminum conductors

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**Author:** ![ashlin](https://forumautomation.com/user_avatar/forumautomation.com/ashlin/32/3775_2.png) [@ashlin](https://forumautomation.com/u/ashlin)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2021, 5:23am UTC](https://forumautomation.com/t/why-aluminum-conductors-are-used-for-overhead-transmission-instead-of-copper-conductors/9913/2 "2021-10-13T05:23:55Z")

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An aluminum conductor has low density, high ductility, good corrosion resistance, and good conductivity, which makes it suitable to use as an electric conductor for the transmission and distribution of electricity. Copper is heavy, costly, and not easily machineable. Aluminum is light in weight, cheap, readily available, easily machineable.

But when it comes to conductivity, copper is best, it has low resistance to the flow of electrons.