Associated with an economical price, ACSR cable type comes with specifications that make it a perfect replacement for copper cable.
Copper cable comes with features that make it ideal for household and industrial applications but for network distribution purposes and long-distance transmission of electric power between cities ACSR and aluminum cable is an ideal choice.
Not only does the use of aluminum mean a considerable reduction in costs, it also means a much lighter weight of the network which is important from a technical point of view.
For this reason, almost all arial cable we see around us today is made of aluminum.
This type of cable comes in two forms bare conductor areal cable and insulated conductor areal cable.
A compound of aluminum H191350 is used on the outside and steel in the core of the cable the steel part is to increase the mechanical resistance of the cable.
Due to its low conductivity, galvanized steel core is rarely used as a conductor alone.
It's the main function is in fact to act as a guard to protect the aluminum part.
The steel core is produced in several different classes.
ACSR conductors are ordinarily produced based on ASTM B502, ASTM B230, ASTM B549 standards the steel core with the aluminum cover can include 7, 19, or 37 strands it is possible to create lots of combinations of aluminum and steel layers.
They are mainly designed in 6/1, 7/1, 12/7 36/1, 24/7, 26/7, 30/7, 30/19, 54/7, 54/19.
Combinations of strands the construction of ASCR other types of aluminum cable include AAC.
ACSR Conductor Price List PDF
Various elements influence the price of ACSR cable with aluminum conductor some websites provide pdf lists containing the price but without exception they stipulate the date for the price because this price is directly related to the changes in the global market of metals LME for aluminum, copper or any other metal used in the production of cable.
In fact, one main reason for the wide use of aluminum instead of copper is the sudden increase of the global price of copper, this reason alone can justify the replacement of copper by aluminum but there are other reasons too.
Following the increase of the global price of copper, the cost of production of copper wire and cable has also gone up.
This rise decapacitate many newly arrived companies and made them unable to supplement the raw copper they needed for production.
As the price of aluminum is much lower that copper, some factories began implementing aluminum cable production lines.
the high price of copper cable made it an attractive object of theft, in fact it does not matter the copper is used or raw the highly priced metal can be sold and bought freely and is in high demand.
But in the case of aluminum, compared to copper, although theft is not zero, it does not attract thieves as much as aluminum.
ACSR Conductor Size Chart
In order to suit different purposes, ACSR cable with aluminum conductor is deigned in different sizes often presented in charts for ease of use.
In addition to size the presence of absence of insulator is another determining factor.
Compared to ground networks, the construction of areal networks with the application of bare conductors is widely carried out.
Because of the following reasons:
- The ease of installation
- The cost of installation is by far less than ground networks
- Ease of trouble shooting and resolving the issues
- Ease and lower cost of branching
It is not all advantage, though.
The following can be mentioned as shortcomings commonly associated with bare ACSR conductors in areal networks:
- They are not resistant against storm and gusts
- Repeated power cuts. From coming in to contact with tree branches.
- Wildfires due to the contact between tree branches and ultimately destruction on environment
- Power loss coming from leak in network equipment
- Transient hazards from crashes with birds or other objects
- Possibility of making unlawful uses
- Wear and tear of the cable because of unlawful uses
- Catchment issues and environment destruction
- Vulnerability of networks against inclement weather conditions.
ACSR Conductor Specifications
The specifications for ACSR conductor and those of insulated conductor areal cable are different.
With respect to weight, ACSR cables are very light, the steel core in the center of them has a high tensile strength.
The aluminum used is a good conductor of electric power. This type of cable is highly resistant in the face of high temperature.
It can easily be used in power transmission networks of high voltage.
Another important feature of ACSR is, it does not droop.
A quality that makes this type of cable a good choice for long distances between posts as it does not put much pressure on the post.
One the other hand the major pro of using insulated areal cable instead of ACSR is the increased security, but that's not all.
You also get better quality of the electric power.
The use of insulated areal network goes back to two decades ago in Finland and later other countries began to follow suit.
Among different varieties of insulated areal cable, CCT, CC and interval type are only applicable in medium voltage networks.
ABC cables or areal bundle cable is used in medium or low voltage networks. CC and CCT insulated areal cables are more like each other.
Their main difference is in the number and thickness of its insulating layers.
Whereas in CCT type the thickness of XLPE insulator is more and it changes with the voltage and cross section size, with an extra layer of heavy polyethylene HDPE and it has high insulator capacity to resist long contacts of two phases or a phase and the ground, for the CC type the only significant feature is that it is resistant against the half hazard contact of two phase to each other or one phase to the ground.
Considering their intricate requirements and point of application, it is highly advisable to figure in all the technicalities involved to make sure the final choice offers the optimum network compartment.