The armoring and stranding of cables are core processes that determine their mechanical strength, electrical performance, and service life. A deep understanding of their principles and material selection is crucial for optimizing the design of products such as power cables, control cables, and communication cables.
I. Functions and Materials of Cable Armoring
Armoring involves adding a metallic protective layer outside the cable’s insulation and sheath, comprehensively enhancing the cable’s protection level in harsh environments.
Enhancing Mechanical Strength and Erosion Resistance
The armor layer significantly improves the cable’s compressive, impact, and tensile resistance, making it suitable for environments such as direct burial, tunnels, and mines. Galvanized steel tape armor provides an economical protection solution for direct burial installation, while in applications requiring higher tensile strength, such as vertical shafts or slopes, a steel wire armor structure with greater tensile strength is necessary.
Providing Biological Protection and Grounding Continuity
The rigid barrier formed by the armor effectively prevents rodents and insects from damaging XLPE insulation or EPR insulation. Simultaneously, the metallic armor layer serves as a reliable grounding continuity conductor, enhancing line safety. This is particularly important for industrial applications that adhere to strict electrical standards.
Achieving Electromagnetic Shielding and Low-Frequency Interference Suppression
Using high-permeability materials such as galvanized steel tape or steel wire for armoring provides an effective magnetic shielding layer for cables, especially for control cables and instrumentation cables. This significantly suppresses low-frequency electromagnetic interference, ensuring the quality and stability of internal signal transmission. This structural design enables armored cables to operate reliably in complex electromagnetic environments such as variable frequency drive systems and industrial automation workshops. For more comprehensive electromagnetic compatibility, galvanized steel tape armor is often combined with an aluminum-plastic composite tape shielding layer, forming a composite shielding structure that addresses both low-frequency magnetic shielding and high-frequency electrical shielding.
II. Functions and Advantages of Cable Stranding
The stranding process fundamentally optimizes the electrical and mechanical characteristics of cables by regularly combining multiple single wires.
Improving Flexibility and Dynamic Performance
Compared to a single-core conductor of the same cross-section, a conductor stranded from oxygen-free copper wires or tinned copper wires offers better flexibility. This makes large-cross-section power cables or cables requiring frequent bending, such as drag chain cables and robot cables, easier to install and move, meeting the high dynamic requirements of automated equipment.
Optimizing Heat Dissipation and Electrical Transmission Efficiency
The stranded structure increases the conductor’s heat dissipation surface area, helping to reduce temperature rise caused by conductor resistance, thereby protecting insulation materials such as cross-linked polyethylene. Additionally, the stranding design reduces the skin effect in high-frequency applications, improving data transmission efficiency. This is a key process for coaxial cables and data cables.
Enhancing Mechanical Reliability and Durability
In vibrating environments such as wind power generation and port machinery, stranded conductors effectively resist metal fatigue through stress dispersion among individual wires. Combined with fixing materials like polyester tape and non-woven wrapping tape, the stranded structure ensures the long-term reliability of special cables, such as reel cables, in dynamic applications.
Conclusion
Armoring and stranding processes are core manifestations of cable material science and structural design. From conductor stranding methods to armor type selection, and the systematic coordination of insulation materials, shielding materials, and sheath materials, they collectively form a complete solution for cables to address complex industrial challenges. With the development of new energy and smart manufacturing and the continuously increasing performance requirements for special cables, armor materials and stranding technology will inevitably evolve toward greater efficiency and specialization.
As a professional provider of cable material solutions, ONE WORLD leverages its deep understanding of armoring and stranding processes to develop a series of high-performance galvanized steel tape and aluminum-plastic composite tape products. Our galvanized steel tape employs unique zinc layer control technology to ensure long-lasting corrosion protection in direct burial environments, while our aluminum-plastic composite tape achieves an optimal balance between shielding effectiveness and processability through optimized lamination technology. We are committed to providing cable manufacturers with comprehensive support, from structural design to mass production applications, through material innovation.
Post time: Jan-30-2026