Having a single solid core, this wire will retain a formed shape.
Also ideal for use in conjunction with breadboards for prototyping.
Overall diameter is 1.2mm (16AWG), rated at 1.8A, 1kV.
Tech Tin Files: Forms of wire
Solid wire, also called solid-core or single-strand wire, consists of one piece of metal wire.
Solid wire is useful for wiring breadboards. Solid wire is cheaper to manufacture than
stranded wire and is used where there is little need for flexibility in the wire.
Solid wire also provides mechanical ruggedness; and, because it has relatively less
surface area which is exposed to attack by corrosives, protection against the environment.
Stranded wire is composed of a number of small wires bundled or wrapped together to form a
larger conductor. Stranded wire is more flexible than solid wire of the same total
cross-sectional area. Stranded wire tends to be a better conductor than solid wire because
the individual wires collectively comprise a greater surface area. Stranded wire is used
when higher resistance to metal fatigue is required. Such situations include connections
between circuit boards in multi-printed-circuit-board devices, where the rigidity of solid
wire would produce too much stress as a result of movement during assembly or servicing;
A.C. line cords for appliances; musical instrument cables; computer mouse cables; welding
electrode cables; control cables connecting
moving machine parts; mining machine cables; trailing machine cables; and numerous others.
At high frequencies, current travels near the surface of the wire because of the skin effect,
resulting in increased power loss in the wire. Stranded wire might seem to reduce this effect,
since the total surface area of the strands is greater than the surface area of the equivalent
solid wire, but ordinary stranded wire does not reduce the skin effect because all the strands
are short-circuited together and behave as a single conductor. A stranded wire will have higher
resistance than a solid wire of the same diameter because the cross-section of the stranded
wire is not all copper; there are unavoidable gaps between the strands (this is the circle
packing problem for circles within a circle). A stranded wire with the same cross-section of
conductor as a solid wire is said to have the same equivalent gauge
and is always a larger diameter.
However, for many high-frequency applications, proximity effect is more severe than skin
effect, and in some limited cases, simple stranded wire can reduce proximity effect. For
better performance at high frequencies, litz wire, which has the individual strands insulated
and twisted in special patterns, may be used. A braided wire is composed of a number of small
strands of wire braided together. Similar to stranded wires, braided wires are better
conductors than solid wires. Braided wires do not break easily when flexed.
Braided wires are often suitable as an electromagnetic shield in noise-reduction cables.