Copper is one of the most vital metals in the world as it is widely used in wiring for homes and electricity conducting as well as decorative work in wire.
Copper wire is used for high conductance and strength of the wire used in the products.
In this forum, in detail, one would want to know the factors that make Copper wire to be the most preferable as compared to other wires available in the market.
- High Conductivity and Resistance
- High Melting Point
- High Tensile Strength
- Ductile and Malleable
- Solderability
High Conductivity and Resistance
Copper wire is the type of wire that offers high conductivity as well as high resistance.
These are also in a position to transferring higher loads of electricity than the non-precious metal.
Copper also has better heat and rusting resistance power and for this reason it is mostly used in marine appliances and underwater equipment.
High Melting Point
The other properties include high melting point, Copper is one of the metals that has a very high melting point. It is heat resistant and does not quickly turn into a liquid.
High Tensile Strength
Copper is quite strong tensile and it can withstand several mechanical failures. Hence, copper is selected over aluminum.
Ductile and Malleable
The copper wires used are even thinner that the human hair strand. It can be turned and bent in any direction as desired and yet it cannot be split. They use it in electric posts and for headphone wires, they also construct thick electric wires from it.
Solderability
A Copper wire can help make connections easy especially at the transmission and termination points. This pull through is possible because of the strength that is attributed to these types of rollers.
Why is Copper most used for electrical wiring?
- Copper is a chemical element and its symbol is Cu.
- It has an atomic number of 29.
- Copper is found to be slightly less oxidative than other metals which makes it not corrode while at the same time being capable of conducting electricity.
- Copper is negligible to oxidizing than silver and has a lesser resistance.
- Metals with high electrical resistance will have the low conductivity while metals with low electrical resistance will be highly conductive.
- Copper is metal and therefore, it can be stretched into very thin wires.
Why is electrical wiring usually made of copper, but not silver?
Silver costs more than copper.
The only metal that conducts electricity better than copper is silver, which is a valuable metal. But compared to copper, it is a costly material. So, copper, not silver, is generally used for electrical wiring.
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