What Is Copper Strand Electrical Wire?

Flexibility

• Stranded wire is more flexible than solid wire. Solid wires cannot bend very much without breaking. This greater flexibility makes stranded copper wire more generally useful in connecting different electrical components together. Solid wires cannot always reach, and cannot always be used in moving parts.

Electrical Characteristics

• Stranded copper wire also preserves the electrical characteristics of the wire while bending more easily than solid copper wire. When solid wire bends, its surface becomes creased and distorted due to its thickness. This changes the surface area of the wire, which is where much of the electricity flows. This distortion changes the conductive properties of the wire. The way that the strands in a stranded wire are twisted around each other distributes force due to flexing, and distributes it over a wider area. This results in lower distortion of the shape of the wire, keeping its electrical behavior more consistent.

Signal Loss

• Signals sent along stranded wire have a higher attenuation than those sent along solid wire. In other words, the quality of the signal in a stranded wire drops faster than it does in a solid wire. This is because the strands of a stranded wire individually have higher resistances and lower surface areas, which causes some of the signal to be wasted as heat buildup. Stranded wire can lose up to 20 percent more signal than solid wire.

Resistance

• Stranded copper wire has a resistance of 371 ohms for every 1,000 feet of wire for thin 36 gauge wires, down to a resistance of 0.62 ohms for every 1,000 feet of thick 8 gauge wires. Solid copper wires have lower resistances for the same sizes.

Electrical Connections

• A single solid piece of wire can only touch other electrical components along a small part of its outside. Stranded wire can cover other components with many points of contact, both inside and outside of the wire. This makes it easier to get a solid electrical connection with a stranded wire than with a solid wire.