Aluminum Wire

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Schneidie

Aluminum is bad. It heats up , corrodes, does not work well eith Copper crimp connectors and does not carry charge very well.

You can use it if you want, but I would advise against it.

These are all misconceptions. Aluminum is OK, it is used in specific areas of the electrical industry all the time where the properties are advantagous for the application. Aluminum doesn't heat up but bad connections where the joint loosens do heat up because of local high resistance. (This can occur with copper and does occur all the time on robots.) Aluminum oxide is conductive but aluminum is subject to the same electrolytic action other metals are subject to under similar conditions. It can be crimped very well but has a different heating expansion/contraction coefficient than copper which cause problems over time. It is only slightly higher resistance than copper but much less than brass which is used all the time for electrical as well. (aluminum is about .0017 ohms per foot vs .001 ohms for copper #10 wire, hence the need to use the next higher guage for the same current.)


Gary,
One of the mentors on my team has been able to convert all the Q&A into a Word document for me in the past. I am not sure if the current system will allow that but FIRST should make that possible. Then it was necessary to do a key word search for an item or a section number.