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In today’s world of technology innovations, staying on the right track becomes a challenge. Keeping up with the latest trends and developments in technology and choosing what the most appropriate product is for a certain project is crucial and more than often lifesaving from an engineer’s perspective.
When we are talking about the network cable, the biggest dilemma is choosing between copper clad aluminum cables (CCA) (figure 1) or full copper cables (figure 2). This dilemma is also becoming a growing problem on the market of networking equipment. Copper is an electrical conductor that has been used in electric wiring since the 1820s. Copper is ideal for wiring systems because of its properties. It is a strong material capable to withstand huge forces and stress. It can be bent, twisted or pulled without being broken or stretched. However copper often is costly for most companies so they are trying to find an alternative. The alternative are the Copper Clad Aluminum cables.
The Copper Clad Aluminum cables are cables that use aluminum conductor coated with copper for transmission as shown in figure 1. The process of manufacturing of these cables is less costly than the process of manufacturing full copper cables. As a consequence it provides a huge financial benefit to the companies which are using it. These cables are more than often used for voice coils in headphones and speakers. They are lighter than the full copper cables, yet stronger than full aluminum cables. Because of their price they are also being used in network environments even though they are not compliant with UL and TIA standards which demand solid copper conductors.
Figure 1:
Copper Clad Aluminum Cable
Figure 2:
Full Copper Cable
They main concerns regarding copper clad aluminum cables are their properties. They have low flexibility, making them vulnerable to breakage. Another main concern is the fact that aluminum oxidizes over time when in contact with air. Eventually they will fail and cause the whole network to act as a giant troubleshooting center point. Copper clad aluminum cables have also higher resistance to DC current which is about 50% greater than full copper cables. This makes them almost impossible to use with PoE solutions because they will produce more heat and provide less power at the other end of the connection. Their bending radius is much lower than with full copper cables, meaning they can’t bend as much as full copper making them heavy to work with during installations and maintenance. Pulling or bending them too much could cause e breakage in single conductors.
When purchasing equipment for a certain networking project, it’s important to know how to tell the difference between these cables. The first and main difference is their price. Copper clad aluminum cables are much less expensive than full copper cables. Other than this, a neat trick to notice the copper clad aluminum cable is to scrap away the thin copper surface on the wire to reveal the aluminum. Finding the silver ending beneath the copper coating is also a guaranteed sign of a copper clad aluminum cable. Another sign is their weight. When buying copper cables you can’t fail but notice the weight of their boxes when they are delivered. However, the weight of copper clad aluminum boxes is by far less heavy than the full copper boxes.
We should keep in mind that, as with everything else, on the market there are a lot of counterfeit cables being offered as full copper cables and instead they are copper clad cables. Even though these cables are marked as full copper or cat5 and cat6 categories, they don’t comply with the industry performance and fire safety standards. If by any chance copper clad aluminum cables are bought, it’s critical to consider the percentage of copper in the CCA cable. However, buying them consciously and deploying them in a live network environment is risky and it should be avoided by all any cost.
