Classic Wire & Cable offers high-quality aluminum building wire for your residential, commercial, and industrial electrical projects.

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We prioritize safety, ensuring all our aluminum building wire and cable meets industry standards like UL and RoHS compliance.  Our vast distributor network makes it easy to find the right wire for your needs.

What Is Aluminum Building Wire?

For over 100 years, utility end users have relied on aluminum building wire for efficient power transmission and distribution. The reasons are clear: aluminum is cost-effective and boasts a superior conductivity-to-weight ratio compared to alternatives like copper.

Modern aluminum alloys used in building wire offer exceptional conductivity, improved creep resistance, and increased strength, solidifying aluminum’s position as a reliable and cost-effective choice for electrical wiring.

What Are the Benefits of Aluminum Building Cable and Wire?

Compared to copper, aluminum building wire offers distinct advantages in several applications:

• Lightweight Champion: During construction, every pound counts. While slightly larger than copper wire of similar conductivity, aluminum building cable weighs about half as much. This translates to significant weight reduction on large projects without compromising performance.
• Cost-Effective Choice: Aluminum is often half the price of copper. While it may have slightly lower corrosion resistance, the substantial cost savings often outweigh this factor. For applications with minimal exposure to corrosion, aluminum cable becomes even more affordable, especially for large-scale projects requiring significant wire lengths.
• Easy to Maneuver: Aluminum’s flexibility makes it easier to work with than copper, particularly for long runs and confined spaces.

Choosing the Right Wire

Remember, project specifics matter.  Consider the pros and cons of various building wire types to ensure they meet your needs.  In many cases, aluminum will be your project’s most practical, cost-effective, and durable choice. We’re happy to help you select the best option for your specific application.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Aluminum Alloy Cable.

What Are Some Common Aluminum Wire Building Applications?

Aluminum building wire is often used in electrical utility applications due to its exceptional conductivity-to-weight ratio, low cost, and workability:

• Overhead power transmission lines
• Local power distribution lines
• Power grids
• Commercial and industrial buildings and project installations
• Houses and multi-family developments

With its lightweight durability, aluminum cabling has a place in the aerospace, automotive, construction, and transportation industries.

How Does Classic Wire & Cable Help?

Classic Wire & Cable offers a comprehensive selection of aluminum building wire to meet your electrical application needs. Our Team, with over 200 years combined experience, we are committed to providing high-quality products, competitive prices, and exceptional customer service. Our aluminum product line includes the following:

• Type SE XHHW Aluminum Cable (SER/SEU): Ideal for above-ground service entrances, branch circuits, and panel feeders. These 600-volt, 90 degrees Celsius-rated cables are sunlight-resistant, flame-retardant, and meet NEC Article 338 standards for wet or dry environments. SEU cable includes a neutral conductor for use up to the service disconnect.
• XHHW-2 Aluminum Power Cable: This versatile cable finds applications in house construction, conduit, and approved raceways for services, branch circuits, and feeders in dry or wet locations. Available in various sizes and colors, it boasts low-friction installation without pulling lubricant.

• THHN/THWN-2 Aluminum Power Cable: As it is well-suited for feeders and branch circuits in commercial and industrial settings, this cable meets UL standards and VW-1 flame test requirements. It’s ideal for use in conduit and cable trays, with THHN rated for dry locations up to 90 degrees Celsius and THWN-2 rated for wet or dry locations up to 90 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Celsius for oil or coolant exposure). Similar to XHHW-2, it features low-friction, lubricant-free installation.
• Mobile Home Feeder – Aluminum Conductor: Designed to supply power in mobile homes, this 600-volt cable handles conductor temperatures up to 90 degrees Celsius. It meets various industry standards, including UL 44 and Federal Specification A-A-.
• 600 V Aluminum USE-2 RHH or RHW-2: This general-purpose wiring is well-suited for wet or dry locations with exceptional heat, abrasion, moisture, and sunlight resistance. It handles conductor temperatures up to 90 degrees Celsius.

Beyond Aluminum Building Wire

In addition to the building wire mentioned above, we carry a wide variety of other cable and wire products, including duplex, triplex, and quadruplex service drop cables, bare aluminum cables, MC armored cables.

Value-Added Services

We provide a range of value-added services to meet your specific needs.  These include paralleling wires, cutting wires to specific lengths (6 AWG and larger), supplying pulling eyes, and offering same-day shipping for qualifying orders.

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What are the advantages of aluminum alloy cables over ordinary cables

1. Conductivity: The conductivity of aluminum alloy is 61.5% of that of copper IACS, the most commonly used reference material, and its carrying capacity is 79% of that of copper, which is better than the standard of pure aluminum.

2. Creep resistance: The alloy material and annealing process of the aluminum alloy conductor reduce the "creep" tendency of the conductor under heat and pressure. or creep-induced relaxation problems.

3. Tensile strength and elongation: Compared with pure aluminum conductors, aluminum alloy conductors have greatly improved tensile strength and elongation to 30% due to the addition of special components and special processing techniques. It is safer and more reliable to use.

4. Thermal expansion coefficient: The thermal expansion coefficient is used to calculate the dimensional change of the material when the temperature changes. Aluminum alloys have a thermal expansion coefficient comparable to copper, and aluminum connectors have been used reliably for copper and aluminum conductors for many years, and most electrical connectors in use today are made of aluminum, which is especially suitable for aluminum alloys. Therefore, the expansion and contraction of the aluminum alloy conductor and the connector are exactly the same.

5. Strong self-weight bearing capacity Aluminum alloy improves the tensile strength of pure aluminum. Aluminum alloy cables can support the self-weight of meters in length, while copper cables can only support meters. This advantage is especially prominent in the wiring of long-span buildings (such as stadiums).

6. Anti-corrosion performance The inherent anti-corrosion performance of aluminum comes from the formation of a thin and strong oxide layer when the aluminum surface is in contact with the air. This oxide layer is particularly resistant to various forms of corrosion. The rare earth elements added to the alloy can further improve the corrosion resistance of the aluminum alloy, especially the electrochemical corrosion. Aluminum's ability to withstand harsh environments has led to its widespread use as conductors for cables in trays, as well as many industrial components and containers. Corrosion is usually associated with the connection of dissimilar metals in wet environments and can be prevented by using appropriate protective measures such as lubricants, antioxidants and protective coatings. Alkaline soil and some types of acidic soil environment are highly corrosive to aluminum, so the aluminum conductors laid directly buried should use insulating layer or molded sheath to prevent corrosion. In sulfur-containing environments, such as railway tunnels and other similar places, aluminum alloys have much better corrosion resistance than copper.

7. Flexibility Aluminum alloy has good bending performance, and its unique alloy formula and processing technology greatly improve flexibility. Aluminum alloy is 30% more flexible than copper and 40% less resilient than copper. Generally, the bending radius of copper cables is 10 to 20 times the outer diameter, while the bending radius of aluminum alloy cables is only 7 times the outer diameter, which makes terminal connection easier.

8. Armoring characteristics Most of the armored cables commonly used in China are armored with steel tape, which has a low safety level. Corrosion resistance is poor and the service life is not long. The metal interlocking armored cable we developed according to American standards uses aluminum alloy tape interlocking armor, and the interlocking structure between layers ensures that the cable can withstand strong destructive forces from the outside, even if the cable is subjected to greater pressure And the impact force, the cable is not easy to be broken down, which improves the safety performance. At the same time, the armored structure isolates the cable from the outside world. Even in the event of a fire, the armored layer improves the flame-retardant and fire-resistant level of the cable and reduces the risk factor of fire. Compared with steel tape armoring, the aluminum alloy tape armored structure is light in weight, easy to lay, can avoid bridge installation, and can reduce installation costs by 20% to 40%. Different outer sheath layers can be selected according to different places of use, making the armored cable more widely used.

9. Compression characteristics In terms of volume conductivity alone, aluminum alloy is not as good as copper, but the conductors we developed not only improve material properties, but also make great breakthroughs in technology. We use ultra-conventional compression technology , so that the compaction coefficient reaches 0.93, while the compaction coefficient of the special-shaped line can reach 0.95, which is the first in China. Through the maximum compression, it can make up for the lack of volume conductivity of the aluminum alloy cable, so that the core of the stranded conductor is like a solid conductor, which obviously reduces the outer diameter of the core and improves the conductivity. The outer diameter is only 10% larger than that of copper cables.