There are many types of electrical welding. Plasma arc welding, TIG welding, electroslag welding, stick welding, and many others.

They’re all used to join materials. What else do they all have in common?

The welders that practice these operations utilize high quality welding cable.

Now, like other types of application-specific electrical wire and cable (like fire alarm cable or marine battery wire) welding cable for sale is highly specialized.

Are you familiar with the nuances? This post will break them down for you.

The Conductors

Look at the product listing for one of our entries for 4/0 welding cable, which is one of the biggest, thickest entries in our catalog.

With a nominal diameter of .720”, this is a big, thick, heavy welding cable. So much so, that it weighs almost a pound per foot - 734# per 1000 feet, to be exact.

One might expect this cable to be extremely stiff, and if it were a wire, you wouldn’t be wrong. But one of the things that characterizes welding cable for sale are the conductors.

These are 100% pure copper conductors that offer minimal resistance. The cables themselves are rated to 600 volts, but there’s another layer of importance to the design here.

In this welding cable, there are over 2000 strands of individual copper conductors - there are 2014, actually.

This exceptionally high strand count gives the cable a unique ability among electrical wire and cable.

It, like marine battery cable, is exceptionally flexible, despite its significant girth. The reasons for this are similar between the two classes.

When it comes to welding, oftentimes the welder (and his equipment, and that includes the cable) has to go wherever the job is located.

It’s hard enough dragging a heavy cable and welding equipment around. Now imagine if the cable wouldn’t give at all.

So, in a nutshell, welding cable for sale is typically made with a very high conductor strand count, which keeps it very flexible.

This flexibility makes it easier for welders to reach into tight spaces more easily, making their lives easier.

But that is only one half of what makes welding cable for sale special, and different from other types of electrical wire and cable.

The Insulation

The other thing about our welding cable for sale that makes it particularly useful for welding is the insulation with which it’s made.

Our welding cable is coated with a tough, rubber, EPDM coating, a unique polymer that has a wide range of beneficial properties given this application.

Ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) compounds constitute a class of synthetic rubbers that are used widely in many industries as a result of their unique properties.

First and foremost, it is a solid electrical insulator, but that is a given.

Specifically with respect to its use in producing welding cable, EPDM offers excellent flexibility as well as resistance to abrasion and tears - which is needed when carrying or dragging around a long, heavy cable.

EPDM is also resistant to a wide range of chemicals, including most acids and bases. While EPDM is typically not suitable for use in environments in which it will be exposed to oil or gasoline, our welding cable for sale is oil and gas resistant.

The benefits of EPDM continue: it doesn’t bloom, it handles aging and weathering well, and it is resistant to ozone, water, wide temperature swings, and most importantly, UV exposure. This resistance to sunlight is a key trait that enables EPDM-insulated welding cables to be used effectively outdoors.

It also boasts an impressively wide operating range with respect to temperature - between -40℉ and 221℉, further improving its suitability for its use outside.

For these reasons and more, EPDM is widely used in a variety of applications in automotive and locomotive engineering, as well as in construction and industrial applications ranging from roofing, sealing, and weatherstripping, to our focus - electrical insulation.

All of these properties of EPDM make it an excellent choice for electrical insulation of welding cables. Welding cable must often be used outdoors, in the elements, on a job site, with little to no protection from the elements. As a result, it must be abrasion resistant - but the chemical and sunlight resistance are benefits as well.

The Long and Short of Welding Cable for Sale

In a nutshell, welding cable for sale, though it is available in a wide range of different gauges, must be highly flexible in order to make it practical on job sites. As a result of the other conditions it might face, it is also important that welding cable is insulated with an abrasion resistant jacket.

On top of these traits, the electrical insulation of our welding cable is UV, chemical, acid, alkali, oil, and gas resistant.

Here are some other things you should know about our welding cable:

• It is made in the United States of America, so it’s a great choice for buyers looking to source domestically.
• These cables can also be used as leads for motors and generators.
• Our welding cable is sold with both black and red insulation, to keep it convenient for those that would use it for battery lead wiring. Since it is flexible and oil and gasoline resistant, it is highly useful for these applications.
• Because our EPDM insulation is weather, temperature, moisture, and sunlight-resistant, it can also be used practically in solar panel arrays or when wiring inverters. This gives our welding cable the ability to double as photovoltaic cable (AKA PV or solar panel cable).

Questions About Our Welding Cable for Sale?

Our American-made welding cable for sale exhibits high-quality, reliability, durability, and perhaps most importantly, versatility, since it can be used for a wide variety of applications in addition to welding.

If you have questions about our electrical wire or cable before buying, get in touch with us directly at Sales@EWCSWire.com or at 1-800-262-1598. We want you to be 100% satisfied with your order so we are here to help prior to purchase.