Electrical Wire & Cable Specialists

You probably knew that household wiring was usually made from copper conductors. Copper has excellent conductivity, low resistance, and is fairly ductile, so it can be bent into shape mechanically where necessary. It’s also fairly affordable, making it a useful material for wiring. What you may not have known was that household wiring is limited in its scope of applications, and that there are many other specialized forms of wiring that are useful within their scope of use. For example, photovoltaic cables are, among other things, resistant to weathering and UV light so that they can be used outside with solar arrays. Welding cables that are meant to be used with welding equipment have to be made as flexible as possible while still remaining resistant to the widest range of environmental stressors possible. Another specialized form of electrical wiring is marine electrical wire , also known as marine grade cable or wire. While marine grade wire and battery cables are also made...

Fire alarm cables are the cables that carry power and information to and from the nodes on a fire alarm system. When one alarm node sounds off, the system communicates that information with the other sensors on the network as well as with any control center that operates them. These systems are a critical component of the safety of manmade infrastructures and are regulated as a matter of law. That makes alarm wire and cable another matter that falls under this same umbrella of importance. Because an operable fire alarm system is so important to security as well as with legal compliance, it helps to understand the nature of the cables and wires that feed and service these systems. Here are some of the terms you are liable to come across in your search. Riser rated vs. plenum rated - Riser rated cables are rated for use in the vertical spaces between the floors of a building, and plenum rated cables are rated for use in plenum space - the space above a drop ceiling. Shielded vs. uns...

Fire alarm cable is a specific type of alarm cable or instrumentation cable that possesses certain features that make it suitable for its use. Unsurprisingly, and as you could have guessed, fire alarm cable is the cable that is used to monitor and control a fire alarm system. As these systems are regulated and prescribed by law, it is imperative that they function as intended and that only components that are well designed for their use are put into place. As the security of inhabited buildings is of the utmost importance, these special cables can often be found classified accordingly in order to ensure their fitness for an application. Power Limited vs. Non Power Limited - The basis of the difference between power limited and non power limited alarm cables has to do with their compliance according to the National Electric Code. To keep things as simple as possible, power limited cables can only be used with power limited circuits whereas non power limited cables can be used with ci...

Alarm and security systems require a certain grade of wire according to the National Electric Code (NEC) that differs from other kinds of common wiring in several ways. Proper security alarm cable is designed for installation in various Power Limited Control Circuits, as well as an array of different intercom and fire alarm systems. The main defining element when it comes to security alarm cables are their smaller gauge, and the specially designed insulation that is meant to reduce interference from potential frequencies that could throw off the system and send false alarms. This would obviously create a variety of problems, so the integrity of such wires needs to be high in quality in order to fully prevent potential mishaps. The Importance of High-Quality Security Alarm Cables Regardless of the nature of the job, you need quality cables that are up to the right specifications and won’t fail when the time comes. Depending on the system, whether it is a fire alarm system or anothe...

Two situations are possible at the outset of this article. Either you are familiar with electrical wiring or you are not. Taking this a step further in the event that you are familiar with electrical work, there are two more dichotomous routes you could take. Either you are familiar with marine electrical wiring or you are not. That will dictate how this article sits with you. If you do not fall within the latter cohort, then you might be surprised to learn that not all electrical wiring takes the form of the familiar copper conductors with which most people are well familiar. There are many other kinds of electrical wires and cables out there that are highly specialized to their purposes. It might surprise you to learn then, that some cables are made from aluminum instead of copper. In fact, at one point in history, most cables in the United States were made from aluminum, partly due to copper rationing. This is not necessarily because aluminum is superior; it does have good conduct...

Security and alarm cable might not keep the lights on, but they sure do make it possible to keep the lights on. If you aren’t directly familiar with the roles that security and alarm cable fill, then here is what you need to know. Most building wire is used for carrying power to a building to power its lighting, appliances and equipment. Building wire is typically capable of carrying 600 volts, although there are larger wires that can carry much more, and thinner wires and cables that can only carry less. In addition, some other types of wires are specially designed for a specific purpose. For example, security cable cannot carry enough current to power a building’s lighting, but there’s a very specific reason for that. Alarm cables, like Belden security and alarm cables , are specifically designed to allow for monitoring of systems and communication between the nodes on the system. When it comes to alarm systems like fire alarm systems or security systems, communication and ...

There are so many different types of electrical wire and cable out there that the corpus can quickly get very overwhelming. This is true enough even if you have a background in electrical engineering, but for those that don’t the variety is simply frightening. There are so many different types of wire and cable that are not only defined by the color coding of their insulation but by their purposes that volumes could be written on the score. To make things simpler, we’ll be looking at a specific class of cables in this article to shed some light on its specifics and designation. Consider that you may have heard of different types of wire and cable styled as “armored cable,” “ground wire,” “alarm cable” or even others in the past. We won’t be touching on these in this article, although it might seem somewhat familiar what their uses are from their names. It would therefore follow that wire or cable styled as marine battery cables and terminals would be used in a marine environment. Bu...