What is the difference between cables and wires?

Although it is impossible that cables and wires are used in daily life, how much do you know about the difference between cables and wires, and how much do you know about their material structure?

Wires are generally used for conducting metal wires carrying current, and come in various forms, such as solid, stranded or foil braided. It can be divided into bare wire and insulated wire according to the insulation condition.

A cable is an insulated conductor consisting of one or more mutually insulated conducting wire cores placed in a sealed sheath. It can be covered with a protective layer for the transmission, distribution of electrical energy or transmission of electrical signals. The main difference between it and ordinary wire is that the cable size is larger, the structure is more complex.

1. Different Materials

Cable: is usually composed of one or more mutually insulated conductors and external insulation layer, each group of wire insulation between each other, often twisted around the center, the appearance is highly insulated completely covered, has the characteristics of power inside the cable, external insulation.

Wire: Usually consists of one or several soft wire, the appearance is protected by light soft protective layer, by copper, aluminum flat wire and overhead stranded wire and a variety of types.

As can be seen from the above, the cable conductor is protected by insulation, and the exterior is protected by high-density insulation, while the cable only has light and soft protection. Each cable is a conductor, each conductor can be used as a wire, the structure is also more complex than the wire size, on the contrary, the structure of the wire is simple.

2. Different Structure

Cable and wire in the structure of the largest difference in size and structure, the cable complex large, wire simple small volume. The cable covers a small space, the insulation distance is small, is not polluted by the environment, the interference to the environment is small

3. Different Uses

Bare wire No wire without any insulation or protective coating, in addition to the transmission of electrical energy and information to the wire, but also used in manufacturing machines, electrical components and connecting wires and a variety of special requirements of insulated wires. Cables are protected by an insulating layer and are used to transmit, distribute power or transmit signals

4. Conductor Physical Form Difference

Wire is divided into solid conductor, stranded conductor, braided conductor and other types. There are two kinds of bare wire and insulated wire according to whether the wire and cable have insulation layer. Bare wire refers to the wire that has no outer insulation or protective sheath outside the conductor. Cable, on the other hand, is a large wire composed of one or more independent insulated wires with a conductor core and a protective layer. The conductor core number of wire is small, and the conductor diameter of wire is small, and the structure is simple. But the conductor core number is larger, the diameter is larger, the structure is more complex.