Preference of copper’s use as electrical wires over other metals

Copper is one of the best conductors of electricity. Therefore it is used extensively as electrical wires. It is a ductile metal meaning to say that it can be converted into wires under heavy tensile stress. Some of the important properties of copper which makes it a good favorite to be used as alloys and electrical wires are electrical and thermal conductance, corrosion resistance, being anti-bacterial, ductility, toughness and non magnetic in nature. There are many products of copper such as tin copper wire, copper wire, copper flat wire and copper foil which are used extensively in the electric domain.

Copper wires are widely used in electrical wires, cable industry, in motors and electric generators. Several machines are employed to extract, purify, and design copper in form of fine wires for all commercial and industrial purposes. Pure copper is quite soft and malleable therefore it is annealed first that is it is toughened by firstly heating it to a considerable temperature till it glows hot and then cooling in air. Afterwards tin is used as an insulating material to cover the copper wire as tin is a non conductor of electricity. This coating to form tin copper wire is mainly done by either electrolytic process or hot dip process.

Copper flat wire also called as electromechanical strip is rectangular or square shaped wire having been rolled from round wire. A roll-draw unit is used to draw copper flat wire from circular inlets in one go. Two stands of sheet like rolls are produced by flattening circular copper stands. Afterwards annealing is done at the vacuum annealing unit in tamper-proof gas atmosphere to produce copper flat wire.

This is mainly used in copper windings in transformer, transport motors bus bars and trolley motors.

Copper foil are mainly used for decorative purposes as an alternative to lead. Here coppers are cut into sheets of varying width and are used as covering to make colored or stained glasses. These are kept as arte facts in churches, cathedrals and houses of wealthy people to give an aesthetic and picturesque look. Copper foils are also used to make printed circuit board where copper sheets are laminated onto a non conductive substrate.

There are plenty of copper manufacturers facilitating a plethora of copper products. Though there are other metals in line none can be as good as copper in the electric domain, thus copper continues to be one of the most important metal in the life of man even today.