Common Attributes for Stranded hook-up wire

When looking Hook-Up wire there are some common attributes that customers often have questions about.

  1. Wire Gauge expressed in AWG or American Wire Gauge. This is telling you the diameter of the conductor only and does not include the diameter of the insulation. Here is a Table that shows the different gauges. You would need to know if you are hooking this wire up to a contact as the contact would be sized to a specific gauge or range of gauges it will accept and still properly crimp. One note to remember is that the larger the gauge the smaller the diameter of the wire.

  2. Conductor Strand for this example we will look at part 422010 RD005-ND which is a 20AWG stranded hookup wire. Under conductor strand you will see this listed as 10/30 this means that there are 10 30 AWG strands of wire that make up this 20 AWG stranded wire. This can also be calculated as the cross-section area of 30 AWG wire =0.0509mm² so the total cross-section area of the wire would be 10 x 0.0509mm²= 0.509mm². Per AWG standards the cross section of 20 AWG wire would be .5mm.

  3. Insulation Thickness would be the thickness of the insulation measured from the conductor to the outside of the insulation.

  4. Insulation Diameter is the overall diameter of the wire with insulation. This would be the measurement you would want to use if you are needing to run the wire through a grommet or needing to calculate how many wires would fit in a backshell etc.