Wire and cable having conductive fiber core

Abstract

Abstract The present invention is a method of fabricating a wire and cable article capable of meeting stringent aerospace specifications and requirements, particularly that of low weight. The article generally comprises an inner conductive central core of one or more metal-coated fibers. The conductive core is preferably comprised of silver-coated aramid fibers having a silver coating of greater than 30 wt. % of the fiber, and generally several hundred weight percent thereof. The silver is coated upon aramid fibers to provide a cable having approximately half the weight and approximately 15 times the tensile strength of cables having equivalent resistance and/or equivalently sized cores of silver plated copper. The metal coating of the inventive process is accomplished in two steps: (a) a high tensile strength fiber comprising nylon, aramid, etc., is first plated with a first layer of metal such as copper, silver, etc.; and then (b) electrochemically plated with a second layer of metal. Cables fabricated in accordance with the invention can have conductive central core elements comprising one or more metal coated fibers that are either straight, twisted and/or comprised of straight or twisted bundles.

Inventors

• 👤 Mahmoud Aldissi

Bibliographic Details