Application analysis and prospect exploration of aluminum alloy cable

If the Chinese cable market, which has nearly 10,000 enterprises brutally competitive, is a complete red sea, then the aluminum alloy cable with aluminum alloy instead of copper as a conductor is increasingly becoming a broad blue ocean in the development of China's cable industry.

A new forecast data shows that in the next 5-10 years, even if the use level of China's aluminum alloy cable only reaches the current international general level (30%), it will quickly form a huge market of up to 300 billion yuan per year. At present, this is considered to be the virgin land that needs to be developed in China's cable market, and it is a blue ocean in the true sense.

The invention of aluminum alloy cable is a major technological breakthrough in conductor materials

Aluminum alloy cable first originated in the North American market, in the sixties and seventies of the last century, the United States Southern Cable, as the earliest inventor of aluminum alloy cable, began to vigorously promote aluminum alloy cable in the North American market, as a replacement for copper or pure aluminum alloy Cable products with aluminum as a conductor. Aluminum alloy cables are mainly used in airports, military bases, office buildings, residences, hotels, supermarkets, colleges, stadiums, hospitals, factories and other construction projects. Aluminum alloys were successfully applied in the United States For more than 50 years, there has never been any safety accident.

In terms of actual performance, although the conductivity of aluminum alloy cable has not been improved, its physical and mechanical properties such as bending, compressive creep resistance and corrosion resistance have been greatly improved. Compared with copper cables, aluminum alloy cables have a significant impact on weight, The price and engineering installation and other aspects have incomparable advantages of copper cables. In other words, under the premise of the same electrical properties and better mechanical properties, aluminum alloy cables are more economical and have a wide range of applications Pan.

However, aluminum alloy cables have high technical content and large investment in production equipment, which requires mature material formulas, production processes and talents. The production of conductor aluminum alloy materials requires a patented formula, and needs to be smelted and cast and rolled by themselves to ensure the alloy materials Material quality. Cable production also needs multi-channel toughening and other production process requirements, special technology, mature technology, special production, management personnel, special production equipment, etc., in order to produce qualified alloy cable products. industry The threshold is high, and it is difficult for manufacturers who are not professional, do not have the strength and mature production conditions to participate.

Aluminum alloy cable manufacturing is highly professional, has high equipment requirements, and is difficult in technology and technology

All copper cables start from conductor processing, because copper conductor is a single metal material, and the quality of the material is easier to control. However, due to the different conductor materials of aluminum alloy cables, the production equipment, production technology and process are similar to the production of traditional copper cables Big difference. It is necessary to invest in the equipment and technology of conductor alloy smelting, continuous casting and rolling of conductor alloy materials, special equipment, special technology and special production process for cable production of aluminum alloy cables. The production of aluminum alloy cables, the quality of the put The control starts from the smelting of alloy materials, and after casting and rolling under equipment support, strict process and technical control, a qualified conductor aluminum alloy rod is formed. The quality assurance of aluminum alloy rods is the premise of ensuring the quality of aluminum alloy cables. if If you can't produce conductor aluminum alloy rods by yourself, the quality of the rods cannot be controlled at all, and the quality of the aluminum alloy cables produced cannot be talked about. Compared with traditional cable production, alloy cable production has higher equipment, technology and process requirements. More advanced. At present, domestic non-professional aluminum alloy cable manufacturers do not have these conditions and capabilities.

There are major cognitive errors in the application of domestic aluminum alloy cables

Copper cables are made of a single metal material, and after decades of application, the application technology of copper cables and accessories such as connection terminals have been very mature. Because the conductor of aluminum alloy cable is aluminum alloy material, there is no match in China at present Gold cables, aluminum alloy copper connection terminals and other supporting accessories with consistent performance. Nowadays, the industry uses copper-aluminum transition terminals, which were originally used to connect aluminum cables, and the so-called high conductivity, which is only used to improve the conductivity of terminals, has recently appeared Copper transition terminals with microalloyed electrical rates (also claimed to be aluminum alloy terminals, but in fact confusing the concept), in fact, these application solutions are extremely wrong. Aluminum alloy cable is to improve the physical, mechanical, compressive creep resistance and so on of pure aluminum cable The performance is defective and insufficient, and there are potential safety hazards in the use of the new conductor material, and now the application of aluminum alloy cable, aluminum or other non-conductor aluminum alloys that are inconsistent with the performance of aluminum alloy cables are used in the connection As a connection, then all the defects of aluminum or non-conductor aluminum alloys still exist, and the safety hazard still exists. As we all know, the safety hazards of cables in applications are basically in the connection. At present, the aluminum alloy cable is connected because With the existence of aluminum or the so-called non-conductor aluminum alloy, the advantages and value of aluminum alloy cables cannot be exerted and reflected at all, what is the difference between this and the direct use of aluminum cables? The really correct and perfect connection scheme should be made with aluminum Gold cable consistent aluminum alloy copper connection terminals as connection accessories.

How to look at the different prices of cables and choose cables more wisely

According to the analysis of industry insiders, the difference in the price of copper cables is mainly due to the different raw materials used in the production process. The main raw materials for the production of copper cables are electrolytic copper, insulating materials and sheath materials. Currently raw materials market The on-site electrolytic copper is about 50,000 yuan per ton, while the recovered miscellaneous copper and recycled copper are only about 40,000 yuan per ton; The price of qualified insulating materials and sheath materials is 8,000 yuan per ton, 10,000 yuan, and the price of defective products is each Only 4,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan per ton, the price difference is huge. In addition, the conductor cross-section is not enough, the good and bad copper doping, the cable length is insufficient, etc., are also important reasons for the price difference. The qualified cable products are produced according to the requirements of national standards products, non-standard products or defective products are not only raw materials are fake and shoddy, cable cross-section, length, etc. do not meet the requirements of national standards. There is a difference in the price of aluminum alloy cable products, because the main raw materials of qualified aluminum alloy cables are in addition to conforming In addition to the chemical composition of the international AA-8000 series aluminum alloy conductor material and the electrical performance requirements of the conductivity of the alloy conductor, it is also necessary to meet the requirements of the aluminum alloy conductor in terms of elongation, conductor flexibility, tensile strength, creep resistance, etc Mechanical property requirements. The qualified aluminum alloy cable has the characteristics of a full range of products with various flame retardant levels of cross-linked polyethylene insulation and flame retardant sheath, the sheath does not contain heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, and aluminum alloy is interlocking armor.

It is understood that at present, there are only two American companies in China's factories and a very small number of professional manufacturers with alloy cable intellectual property rights technology and equipment in China. Qualified aluminum alloy guide The cost of bulk is similar to that of high-quality electrolytic copper, and the cost advantage of aluminum alloy cable over copper cable is mainly that different lengths of cables can be produced with the same weight of materials. The cost of conductor materials for unqualified so-called alloy cables is basically aluminum material cost. The unqualified alloy cable on the market, first of all, the conductor material is unqualified, and secondly, the manufacturer does not have the core formula technology, mature alloy cable production technology and production process, and the alloy cable products produced cannot be reached To the requirements of qualified alloy cables, it can be said that it is not a real aluminum alloy cable at all, and this kind of shoddy and counterfeit products can only be sold at a low price. Some domestic manufacturers even sell aluminum cables as alloy cables, although they are all deceptive The user's bad behavior, but compared with the sale of shoddy and counterfeit aluminum alloy cable products, at least the electrical performance of the aluminum cable is better when used. Therefore, aluminum alloy cable products are not the same thing at all, and the difference is too great. Therefore, there must be a price difference. Through comparison, it is not difficult for consumers to see that there are differences in the sales price of finished cable products, mainly in terms of product material, production according to standards and not according to standards, whether the product has quality, and whether there is mature production Technology, production process guarantee, whether the product is really aluminum alloy cable, etc. Unqualified copper cables bring potential safety hazards, and unqualified aluminum alloy cables will bring greater safety hazards. Alloys that are actually substandard The cable is not as good as the aluminum cable, because the unqualified alloy cable due to technology, process and other reasons, the electrical performance of the product can not reach the level of aluminum's electrical performance, and the improvement of physical and mechanical properties is impossible to talk about. For the sake of economy Due to the selection of unqualified aluminum alloy cables, it is better to directly choose aluminum cables, because aluminum cables are more economical and more valuable than unqualified aluminum alloy cables.