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I thought I should write this because there's a lot of arguments and all sorts of inaccurate stuff on the front page of google, I figured this thread would be good to discuss this as well.
A brief definition:
Copper Clad Aluminium (CCA) is an aluminium core cable that is coated with copper while full copper has copper at the core.
The main way to tell the difference is other than writing is weight. Full copper ethernet cables weigh more and are much harder to bend.
Theres so many articles even on the front page of google that demonise copper clad aluminium saying that they don't follow standards, are a fire hazard and so on so I'm going to try and prove this false and explain some additional things in regards to industries as well.
While copper has lower resistance electrically, it does not necessarily mean other metals are inferior. When judging a metal in its electrical characteristics, even steel with a higher resistance but can transmit signals well. All metals are good conductors and the main difference is their capacitance, this is the main problem in signaling even on motherboards that use copper because the capacitance effect can disrupt signals. Copper has lower resistance and better signaling characteristics than aluminium but that does not mean having a piece of meter a kilometer wide will transmit signals better than copper a millimeter wide for the same distance even if far as signals only care about the shape of the wave, not its intensity, too much intensity will blow up your NIC as well.
So between signalling, copper and CCA aren't very different, so you use copper only when you do longer runs, because the resistance at longer distances cause huge intensity losses. Copper's better toughness makes it well suited to handle the elements and it wont be bent, not to mention potential power use. You'll also need copper with as low conductor awg as possible as even copper itself if too thin is bad for PoE.
CCA ability to bend easily makes it a good choice for short runs and daily use as its easier to break a full copper cable by bending it sharply instead of aluminium made more flexibly, lighter to carry around too. Even the Ethernet cables you get with your router, even if you buy Asus or overpriced cheapo netgears will come with CCA cable as it reduces cost and weight and let's you pack it tightly too.
Now to break the myth. When it comes to interference, both copper and aluminium have capacitance and are conductors, they will both suffer, this is why you have shielded Ethernet cables for dealing with interference. Higher CAT and shielding help to deal with interference which mostly comes from building installations, where huge amounts of voltages and power cables tend to be in parallel and next to data ( if doing such runs, perhaps consider fiber optics? But back then this was a super costly and unavailable option to most). When using a shielded cable, a higher CAT is necessary which defines increased cable insulation sizes, reducing the capacitance effect between metal core and shield while also reducing the metal core picking up current from nearby voltages. Even full copper without a shield will pick IP interference much more easily than aluminium thanks to it being a better conductor.
Another thing that people demonize CCA about is saying that they aren't certified and a fire hazard noting its much lower melting point. When a metal like aluminium turns into a liquid it can actually help reduce a fire by melting onto the fire itself denying it on oxygen. After it melts it may no longer be usable but even copper can get hot and burn the isolation while staying exposed and in 1 piece. Fire safety of such cables are entirely dependent on the insulation of the cable itself and not the metal as its the toxic plastic that'd kill you and burn, not the metal itself. Whether it melts makes no difference, the insulation will burn once enough energy is given to it and lit up.
Here's why people started demonising CCA. A lot of manufacturers cheaply manufacture cables, even full copper without standards then charge the same price or less. Its very difficult to determine a legit cable and proper testing is expensive and not accessible for many. The other reason is that copper being pricier and much rarer are suffering from lower sales, well if you are an Ethernet cable manufacturer making full copper, make good quality CCA so people can buy your product.
Think of this, we pass gigabits of data through thick insulation of air, concrete, bricks and wood. We get 10% of rated powerline bandwidth on thick electrical copper cabling, so how is it that coating copper on aluminium must perform poorly? How Coax made of steel achieves gigabit speeds while VDSL gets 300Mb/s only within 100meters of the cabinet? Hope I've covered enough of this.
A brief definition:
Copper Clad Aluminium (CCA) is an aluminium core cable that is coated with copper while full copper has copper at the core.
The main way to tell the difference is other than writing is weight. Full copper ethernet cables weigh more and are much harder to bend.
Theres so many articles even on the front page of google that demonise copper clad aluminium saying that they don't follow standards, are a fire hazard and so on so I'm going to try and prove this false and explain some additional things in regards to industries as well.
While copper has lower resistance electrically, it does not necessarily mean other metals are inferior. When judging a metal in its electrical characteristics, even steel with a higher resistance but can transmit signals well. All metals are good conductors and the main difference is their capacitance, this is the main problem in signaling even on motherboards that use copper because the capacitance effect can disrupt signals. Copper has lower resistance and better signaling characteristics than aluminium but that does not mean having a piece of meter a kilometer wide will transmit signals better than copper a millimeter wide for the same distance even if far as signals only care about the shape of the wave, not its intensity, too much intensity will blow up your NIC as well.
So between signalling, copper and CCA aren't very different, so you use copper only when you do longer runs, because the resistance at longer distances cause huge intensity losses. Copper's better toughness makes it well suited to handle the elements and it wont be bent, not to mention potential power use. You'll also need copper with as low conductor awg as possible as even copper itself if too thin is bad for PoE.
CCA ability to bend easily makes it a good choice for short runs and daily use as its easier to break a full copper cable by bending it sharply instead of aluminium made more flexibly, lighter to carry around too. Even the Ethernet cables you get with your router, even if you buy Asus or overpriced cheapo netgears will come with CCA cable as it reduces cost and weight and let's you pack it tightly too.
Now to break the myth. When it comes to interference, both copper and aluminium have capacitance and are conductors, they will both suffer, this is why you have shielded Ethernet cables for dealing with interference. Higher CAT and shielding help to deal with interference which mostly comes from building installations, where huge amounts of voltages and power cables tend to be in parallel and next to data ( if doing such runs, perhaps consider fiber optics? But back then this was a super costly and unavailable option to most). When using a shielded cable, a higher CAT is necessary which defines increased cable insulation sizes, reducing the capacitance effect between metal core and shield while also reducing the metal core picking up current from nearby voltages. Even full copper without a shield will pick IP interference much more easily than aluminium thanks to it being a better conductor.
Another thing that people demonize CCA about is saying that they aren't certified and a fire hazard noting its much lower melting point. When a metal like aluminium turns into a liquid it can actually help reduce a fire by melting onto the fire itself denying it on oxygen. After it melts it may no longer be usable but even copper can get hot and burn the isolation while staying exposed and in 1 piece. Fire safety of such cables are entirely dependent on the insulation of the cable itself and not the metal as its the toxic plastic that'd kill you and burn, not the metal itself. Whether it melts makes no difference, the insulation will burn once enough energy is given to it and lit up.
Here's why people started demonising CCA. A lot of manufacturers cheaply manufacture cables, even full copper without standards then charge the same price or less. Its very difficult to determine a legit cable and proper testing is expensive and not accessible for many. The other reason is that copper being pricier and much rarer are suffering from lower sales, well if you are an Ethernet cable manufacturer making full copper, make good quality CCA so people can buy your product.
Think of this, we pass gigabits of data through thick insulation of air, concrete, bricks and wood. We get 10% of rated powerline bandwidth on thick electrical copper cabling, so how is it that coating copper on aluminium must perform poorly? How Coax made of steel achieves gigabit speeds while VDSL gets 300Mb/s only within 100meters of the cabinet? Hope I've covered enough of this.
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