Re: fFINAL REPORT Cu COIL vs Al COIL (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:36:11 EDT
From: FIFTYGUY@xxxxxxx
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: fFINAL REPORT Cu COIL vs Al COIL (fwd)

 
 
In a message dated 10/11/07 10:31:21 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:

>    I should mention that all of my thoughts concerned  primaries.  I can't 
imagine any good reason for 
>winding the secondary with aluminum, even if it were possible to  find 
suitable wire.  Copper is fine 
>and probably at least as cheap as insulated  aluminum.


    FWIW, I was on the Dodge Magnet Wire site the other  day, and they 
advertise their various flavors of Thermaleze in *aluminum* as  well from 4 Gauge 
through 30 Gauge.
 
_http://www.pdmw.com/Products/ProductSpecificationIndex.htm_ 
(http://www.pdmw.com/Products/ProductSpecificationIndex.htm) 
 
    I just bought 26 lbs of 17ga (copper!) magnet wire  from the local rewind 
shop. "Inverter" rated wire, ugly imide brown coating,  cost ~$280. The 
manager said the only things he uses aluminum for is  transformers, and some 
contracts for rebuilds spec copper even if the original  used aluminum (leaves an 
empty window, and probably runs a lot cooler!). He also  mentioned the only 
*motors* that he'd seen use aluminum windings from the  factory were some older 
Lincoln motors.
    Come to think of it, the "windings" of the typical  squirrel-cage AC 
induction motor's *rotor* are almost invariably aluminum! Must  be a great 
inertial/weight/cost/ease of fabrication savings in that  application. Conversely, 
most DC motors use copper commutators, bars, and  windings in their armatures. 
But they are notorious for their inertial, weight,  and cost penalty...
 
-Phil LaBudde

Center for the Advanced Study of Ballistic  Improbabilities



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