Conductivity?

Any you guys know if aluminium is conductive , or ,as i do not come accross it much in elecs its safe to assume it is not? ta 4 opinions/advice

 

IIRC, All metals are conductive just some are more so. Copper is one of the best which is why it is heavily used in electrical applications.

 

Aluminium is a good conductor, some electric cable was made from it in the past, but I think that it became brittle. Shouldn't use it as an insulator.

 

I once had some jump leads made of aluminium.

 

all high voltage overhead power lines are aluminium

 

And a lot of underground ones too. I use Ally cables for high voltage network cable replacements at work as copper is too expensive and also gets dug up and nicked before you can even get the bugger connected up. Its as if the scrotes follow the delivery wagon, wait for it to be pulled in to the ducts and then rip it out over night!!!

So yes - conductive - also if it wasnt your engine wouldnt work!!!

 

Aluminium is indeed electrically and thermally conductive.

It's not generally used in Europe for domestic and small gauge electrical cables as it's more brittle and less ductile than copper. It needs different terminal design to be safe, and can cause problems where copper and aluminium wire are joined, due to corrosion of dissimilar metals.
They tried to use it in house building in the USA in the '60s/70s and found the wiring can fracture at terminals and arc over creating a lot of heat which can ultimately lead to a fire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_wire

 

It is, but mainly used because it's cheaper than copper. Copper is better - conductivity, ductility and corrosion resistance.

 

Just stick some gold in there

 

Was tried over here in the late 60s 70s too! Horrible stuff. Nasty T+E and nasty Pyro! Bugger to work with - especially when its been in situ for a few years.

 

The t&e was Stranded as well it was a night mare fault finding

 

^this. Gold's an excellent conductor and doesn't corrode. Perfect for household wiring

 

You can use silver too. Check out this silver mains cable for your HiFi, for the bargain price of £2840.

Yes, that's nearly 3 grand - for a mains cable.



http://www.russandrews.com/product.asp?lookup=1&region=UK&currency=GBP&pf_id=1564

 

A bargain! How do they explain the fact that it's still connected to a manky bit of twin-core-and-earth on the other side of the mains socket ? An audiophool and his money are soon parted...

 

It's like these gold HDMI plugs. Surely the advantage of going digital means slight variations in voltage wont make any difference? With digital it either works or doesn't so a slightly better conductivity will make no difference!

 

There was something on TV (Watchdog?) the other nigth about this - £5 against a £50 HDMI cable - no difference whatsoever....

 

It's not so much the voltage, as the characteristics of the cable degrading the digital signal so that you get an increasing number of bit errors. These'll likely show by pixellation on the screen or, if it's bad enough, the picture vanishing. But...if you don't get any of this stuff, the cable's fine. The £50 - £100 cables are a complete rip-off, but folk still buy them (same folk who buy silver mains cables, presumably).

 

The thing with HDMI is they only supply them in very short lengths so I can't see anyone having much of a problem on a 1m length. Maybe 50m might be a different thing. Am I right in thnkng a digital signal is like it is n industrial systems where it is a positive voltage square wave and a zero volts section. If so it is the voltage that matters as the only problem (with the exception of stray noise) is the voltage over the cable run dropping to the point where the receiver sees a positive pulse as 0V. This is what causes the dropped signal. I can also imagine that the shielding is where a difference in cost could make a difference maybe?