What is Copper Clad Aluminium wire?
CCA wire uses an aluminium conductor that is coated with copper, this process presents at face value a production technique that uses less of an expensive material, of which there is a global shortage, bringing commercial benefits to any potential suppliers of CCA network cable over competitors who supply pure copper equivalents. But what about the organizations who will rely on the cables as a vital part of their network infrastructure? This is where the CCA proposition starts to look less appealing: The use of CCA wire in twisted pair network cable is not permitted by the IEC or CENELEC in their cable standards and the lack of any kind of standardization with relation to the ratios of copper and aluminium means that any testing by the industry can only be relevant to the actual piece of cable being analyzed. 3P; an organization that provides third party testing for compliance with industry standards for cable manufacturers strongly advises against the use of CCA wire in twisted pair
