Electrical Conductor

Electric Insulator - Crystex Composites
We manufacture glass bonded mica material for various technical applications. Our versatile Mykroy/Mycalex products offer efficient electrical and thermal-insulating properties. Learn more.
www.crystexllc.com

Electric Conductor
Search, Shop and Save electric conductor.
shopping.yahoo.com

Buy Trailer Electrical Connectors
Wiringproducts.com sells multi-conductor trailer cable, wire, and trailer connectors. We also carry a full line of other electrical products.
www.wiringproducts.com

Electric Insulators Guide
Electric insulator. Industrial information and services.
www.Industrial101.com

Electronics Conductors
Find electronics conductors at Target. Shop and Save at Target Today.
www.Target.com

Metal Conductor
Find and Compare prices on metal conductor at Smarter.com.
www.smarter.com

Electrical conductor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Electrical conductor. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search ... a conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. ...
en.wikipedia.org

Warning: mkdir() [function.mkdir]: Permission denied in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 12

Warning: mkdir() [function.mkdir]: No such file or directory in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 12

Warning: fopen(/home/templatecore2cache//*cluesnet.com/1a/1a9187ee4fb9d4dc1af4260c09868d3d78f5ad6f.tc2cache) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 130

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 131

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/webs/affiliatelib2/CacheManager.php on line 132

In science and engineering, conductors, such as copper or aluminum, are materials with atoms have loosely held valence electrons. See electrical conduction.

Conductors in context For the purpose of electronics and electrical engineering, materials are classified according to their electrical resistance, which describes how readily they allow electric current to pass when a voltage is applied. Apart from conductors, materials are classed as electrical insulations (very poor conductors), semi-conductors (materials whose ability to conduct electricity can be controlled), and superconductors which (below a Critical temperature#Superconductivity, usually cryogenic) offer no significant electrical resistance, allowing circular currents, once established, to flow indefinitely.

Details Note: The following applies to direct current only. When the direction of voltage/current alternates, other effects (inductance and capacitance) come into play also.

All conductors contain movable electricity charges which will move when an electric potential difference (measured in volts) is applied across separate points on a wire (etc) made from the material. This flow of charge (measured in amperes) is what is meant by electric current. In most materials, the amount of current is proportional to the voltage (Ohm's law) provided the temperature remains constant and the material remains in the same shape and state. The ratio between the voltage and the current is called the resistance (measured in ohms) of the object between the points where the voltage was applied. The resistance across a standard mass (and shape) of a material at a given temperature is called the resistivity of the material. The inverse of resistance and resistivity is conductance and conductivity.

Most familiar conductors are metallic. Copper is the most common material for electrical wiring, and gold for high-quality surface-to-surface contacts. However, there are also many non-metallic conductors, including graphite, solutions of salts, and all Plasma (physics)s. See electrical conduction for more information on the physical mechanism for charge flow in materials.

Non-conducting materials lack mobile charges, and so resist the flow of electric current, generating heat. In fact, all materials offer some resistance and warm up when a current flows. Thus, proper design of an electrical conductor takes into account the temperature that the conductor needs to be able to endure without damage, as well as the quantity of electrical current. The motion of charges also creates an electromagnetic field around the conductor that exerts a mechanical radial squeezing force on the conductor. A conductor of a given material and volume (length x cross-sectional area) has no real limit to the current it can carry without being destroyed as long as the heat generated by the resistive loss is removed and the conductor can withstand the radial forces. This effect is especially critical in printed circuits, where conductors are relatively small and close together, and inside an enclosure: the heat produced, if not properly removed, can cause fusing (melting) of the tracks.

Since all conductors have some resistance, and all insulators will carry some current, there is no theoretical dividing line between conductors and insulators. However, there is a large gap between the conductance of materials that will carry a useful current at working voltages and those that will carry a negligible current for the purpose in hand, so the categories of insulator and conductor do have practical utility.

Thermal and electrical conductivity often go together (for instance, most metals are both electrical and thermal conductors). However, some materials are practical electrical conductors without being a good thermal conductor.

Power engineering In power engineering, a conductor is a piece of metal used to conduct electricity, known colloquially as an electrical wire.

Conductor size In United States, conductors are measured by American wire gauge for smaller ones, and circular mils for larger ones.

For example, a '4/0' conductor is about a half inch in diameter, while a '795 000' conductor is about an inch in diameter. In other places, conductors are often measured by their cross section in square millimeters.

Conductor materials Of the metals commonly used for conductors, copper, has a high electrical conductivity. Silver is more conductive, but due to cost it is not practical in most cases. However, it is used in specialized equipment, such as satellites, and as a thin plating to mitigate skin effect losses at high frequencies. Because of its ease of connection by soldering or clamping, copper is still the most common choice for most light-gauge wires.

Compared to copper, aluminium has worse conductivity per unit volume, but better conductivity per unit weight. In many cases, weight is more important than volume making aluminium the 'best' conductor material for certain applications. For example, it is commonly used for large-scale power distribution conductors such as overhead electric power transmission. In many such cases, aluminium is used over a steel core that provides much greater tensile strength than would the aluminium alone .

Gold is occasionally used for very fine wires such as those used to Wire bonding integrated circuits to their Lead (electronics) frames. The contacts in electrical connectors are also commonly gold Electroplating or gold flashed (over nickel). Silver is a better conductor than gold, however, gold is very resistant to the surface corrosion that is commonly suffered by copper, silver, or tin/lead alloys. This corrosion would have a very detrimental effect on connection quality over time; gold plating avoids that.

Conductor voltage The voltage on a conductor is determined by the connected circuitry and has nothing to do with the conductor itself. Conductors are usually surrounded by and/or supported by Electrical insulations and the insulation determines the maximum voltage that can be applied to any given conductor.

Conductor ampacity The American wire gauge of a conductor, that is, the amount of current (electricity) it can carry, is related to its electrical resistance: a lower-resistance conductor can carry more current. The resistance, in turn, is determined by the material the conductor is made from (as described above) and the conductor's size. For a given material, conductors with a larger cross-sectional area have less resistance than conductors with a smaller cross-sectional area.

For bare conductors, the ultimate limit is the point at which power lost to resistance causes the conductor to melt. Aside from fuse (electrical), most conductors in the real world are operated far below this limit, however. For example, household wiring is usually insulated with Polyvinyl chloride insulation that is only rated to operate to about 60 C, therefore, the current flowing in such wires must be limited so that it never heats the copper conductor above 60 C, causing a risk of fire. Other, more expensive insulations such as Teflon or fiberglass may allow operation at much higher temperatures.

The American wire gauge article contains a table showing allowable ampacities for a variety of copper wire sizes.

Isotropy If an electric field is applied to a material, and the resulting induced electric current is in the same direction, the material is said to be an isotropic electrical conductor. If the resulting electric current is in a different direction from the applied electric field, the material is said to be an anisotropic electrical conductor.

See also

References

BBC - KS2 Bitesize Revision
KS2 Bitesize is an easy-to-use online revision service for the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum Tests (SATs) in English, Maths and Science.

BBC - Schools - KS2 Bitesize Revision - Science
An animated KS2 Bitesize activity for the Science topic: Circuits and conductors

Electrical conductor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In science and engineering, a conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. In metallic conductors, such as copper or aluminium, the movable charged particles ...

Electrical conductivity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Electrical conductivity or specific conductivity is a measure of a material's ability to conduct an electric current. When an electrical potential difference is placed across a ...

Category:Electrical conductors - Wikimedia Commons
Media in category "Electrical conductors" The following 3 files are in this category, out of 3 total.

Nova Electrical Busbars Conductors sliprings cable reeling drums
Nova Electrical manufacturing electrical busbars and cable reeling drums ... Spring Operated Reel . Motor Driven Reel 'C' Track Trolley Plugway Busbar

electrical-conductors.com - Electricians quotes | Free estimates from ...
Select region In 5 simple steps you can compare quotes from several companies in your area quickly and easily on this site. Simply fill in the online

Electrical conductor - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about ...
conductor. Any material that conducts heat or electricity (as opposed to an insulator, or nonconductor). A good conductor has a high electrical or heat conductivity, and is ...

Electrical conductor - definition of Electrical conductor in the ...
conductive. having the quality of readily conducting electric current. conductive flooring. flooring or floor covering made specially conductive to electrical current, usually by ...

Conductors and Insulators
Simply stated, most metals are good electrical conductors, most nonmetals are not. Metals are also generally good heat conductors while nonmetals are not.