Hook-up Wires

Hook-up wires are the type of wires which include a conductor consisting of a single wire or group of wires, uninsulated from each other. These wires are used where low current and low voltage (below 1000 V) applications are required. They are used within enclosed electronic devices. These wires have found applications in various fields. They are used in computers, control panels, business machines, and meters. They exhibit the eligibility of meeting the requirements of product safety and standards organizations.


Insulating Materials
Different varieties of thermoplastic and rubber materials are used to insulate hook-up wires. These materials help to check the leakage of current.

• Ethylene propylene diene elastomer (EPDM)
• Neoprene
• Polyethylene (PE)
• Polypropylene
• Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
• Silicon rubber

Conductors Used in Hook-up wires
The conductors used in hook-up wires are mainly made of aluminum and copper. Copper is most widely used for making conductors of hook-up wires. It has comparatively low strength-to-weight ratio and at higher temperature it loses its strength. On the other hand aluminum has good electrical conductivity and has nearly 70% less density than steel, copper, or nickel. Both of them exhibit high corrosion resistance and perfect thermal conductivity. Some other conductors most common in use are:

• Aluminum
• Aluminum Alloys
• Aluminum clad-steel
• Copper
• Copper alloys
• Copper-clad steel

Applications
The mechanical, physical, thermal and chemical properties of hook-up wires are invaluable in the field of electrical industry. They are highly demanded due to their higher reliability and material property improvements. They are used in a number of applications like:

• They are used for doing the internal wiring for a lot of appliances.
• Due to their excellent thermal and electrical properties, they are vastly recommended for miniature cable applications.
• They are used for wiring in back panel areas of electronic equipment such as computers, robotics and other industrial equipment.
• They are specially used for internal wiring-soldering applications because at these places insulation melt back is a typical problem.

Features of Hook-up wires
Hook-up wires show appropriate physical and chemical properties needed for its implementation in electrical fields.

• They possess excellent electrical properties which help them to be used in different applications.
• They have outstanding resistance to heat and sunlight. They have the ability to perform normally in extreme temperatures. They are resistant to ozone too.
• They remain flexible even at lower temperatures.
• They are resistant to water.
• They are also highly resistant to chemicals. They are inert to different alkalis, acids, alcohols, gasoline, solvents, aromatic hydrocarbons.
• They contain good toughness.
• Resistance to oils and solvents.
• Resistance to flame and moisture.

Sizes of Hook-up Wires
Different sizes of hook-up wires are available for a variety of purposes. In North America, American wire gauge (AWG) is used for measuring the size of hook up wires. Higher the AWG number thinner is the wire. At all other places metric measurement is used for expressing the size of hook up wires like square millimeters (mm2).