Solid & Stranded Conductor Heating Cable

The conductor of our heating mats and cables can be either solid or stranded. Solid cables are made from solid metal while stranded cables are made of multiple hair-thin strands that are woven together. Each version has a number of advantages and disadvantages over the other.

Solid cables have a core made from a single metal line, and it is more common than stranded. being less costly. The single, thick strand of metal is more resistant to damage such as corrosion and makes the cables easy to manufacture. This also renders them more compact, allowing solid cables to be thinner than their stranded counterparts. Despite being thinner, the solid core makes solid cables less flexible than stranded equivalents. If the cable is bent or moved frequently the wear and tear will eventually cause damage. Thus solid cables are great for applications like in-floor and in-wall wiring.

Stranded cables are made using a collection of thin wires that are bound together to function as a single line. While more expensive to make, stranded cables are ideal for cramped spaces and places where the cable is moved frequently, such as on vibrating machinery. Stranded cables also have higher attenuation, making them better for short distance runs. Having multiple wires instead of a single line also makes stranded cables more vulnerable to electrical interference, and these thinner individual lines are also more easily damaged.

We highly recommend the heating mats and cables with solid conductor:

1. The solid heating mats and cables are less expensive than stranded ones.

2. In the installation of heating mats or cables, the minimum limit of the spacing distance between each heating cable is 50mm with the minimum bending radius of the cable no less than 25mm. In this situation the solid cables are already flexible enough. By the way the regular spacing distance is 80mm with bending radius 40mm.

3. After heating mats or cables are installed underneath the floor, they are unlikely to be bent or moved frequently.

However we can produce and supply stranded mats and cables if customers have special requirements.