WCA July 2016

Technology news

Good electrical conductivity and tensile strength

the requirements of the ASTM B624 norm (standard specification for high-strength, high-conductivity copper-alloy wire for electronic application). The high-strength material ISA-CON1000 contains the alloy elements silver and zircon. Wires made of both materials are able to intercept high tensile loads elastically, have a high degree of hardness, are corrosion resistant and retain their properties for long periods of use, even at higher temperatures. ISA-CON wires are delivered as round and stranded wires with diameters ranging from 0.05 to 0.3mm. ISA-CON414 wires are also available in rods with diameters ranging from 0.8 to 1.2mm. Typical fields of application are signal and overhead wires for railways and automotive cables. In light of the need to save space and weight, the automotive industry and other sectors require conductive wires with the smallest possible diameters (miniaturisation) that are also able to reliably fulfil increasingly strict demands in terms of load capacity and required service life. * 1 MPa = 1N/mm² Isabellenhütte Heusler GmbH & Co KG – Germany Website : www.isabellenhuette.de

WIRES with high electrical conductivity as well as high tensile strength properties are required for certain tasks. Because their mechanical strength is too low, pure copper wires, the best of all industrially used conductors, are not usually suited for these applications. However, ISA-CON ® wires, which combine both properties in an optimal manner, are well suited. The brand designation stands for copper-based alloys that have been developed by Isabellenhütte, a manufacturer of high-tech alloys, which produces them in the form of wires. The ISA-CON414 and ISA-CON1000 material types currently form the focus of the production programme. The designations consist of the brand name and the minimum tensile strength (TS) in MPa*. Both alloys have a higher TS than copper (200 MPa). The other important property is electrical conductivity: for pure copper, it is 58 x 106 S/m, which is equivalent to 100 per cent IACS (international annealed copper standard). At 90 per cent IACS when annealed, the ISA-CON 414 material comes very close to copper. The high-strength material ISA-CON1000, at 60 per cent IACS, is also considerably more conductive than the widely used copper-clad stainless steel wires, which achieve 40 per cent IACS. ISA-CON414 is a RoHS-compliant material that can replace similar materials containing cadmium and fulfils

❍ ISA-CON wires well suited for high electrical conductivity and high tensile strength

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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2016