Wire stripper
A wire stripper is a tool that simplifies the stripping of cables and electrical lines. The aim of stripping is to separate the insulation , which is mostly made of plastic, from electrical conductors such as a wire or stranded wire at the connection point with a defined length so that the conductor is not damaged in the process.
Purpose and methods
The aim of stripping is to make an electrical connection on an insulated conductor. To do this, the insulation must be removed in such a way that no damage such as notches in the conductor or remains of insulation material have a negative impact on the quality or operational reliability of the electrical connections. In the case of stranded wire, which consists of many individual and thin wires, it must be avoided that some of the individual wires are severed or torn off during stripping.
Mechanical wire strippers usually have to be adjusted to the respective wire diameter before use in order not to damage the conductors.
In some cases, as is the case for stripping the sheath, the cable knife or other cutting tools that are only suitable to a limited extent, such as side cutters, are used for stripping. In contrast to wire strippers, using a cable knife requires great skill, care and experience and the probability of errors is higher.
There are also thermal stripping pliers for special cable insulation with thermoplastic insulation.
Wire strippers for single conductors
Wire strippers have a straight, round, or V-shaped cutting opening that does not close completely. The avoidance of conductor damage is achieved as follows:
- The distance between the cutting edges can be adjusted using an adjusting screw
- with several different sized openings for different conductor diameters
- by means of adjustable insulation thickness
- thermal cutting of the core insulation
So-called “automatic” wire strippers adapt to the outside diameter of the cable; the insulation material thickness can be adjusted on them. By pressing the handles together, the cutting and stripping operations are carried out one after the other. This allows you to work quickly and without the risk of damaging the conductor.
Wire strippers with knife cassette
These automatic pliers have several narrow knives inserted in a cassette per jaw. The individual blades adapt to the shape of the conductor insulation. These pliers can be used, for example, to strip all adjacent individual lines in ribbon cables at the same time.
This type also has an adjustment option for the thickness of the insulating material.
Strippers
Cable strippers are for the stripping modified strippers and it exists in two forms:
- Folding handles with internal knives similar to wire strippers: These are pushed over the cable, turned and then pulled off together with the jacket section. They are also called can strippers.
- Tools that only have a single, small, rotatably mounted knife in a guide: these are placed radially on the cable, rotated and removed, then the cut jacket section can be pulled off.
The latter version can also be used to create a longitudinal cut in the cable jacket following the circumferential cut. The knife turns by itself in the longitudinal direction. Longitudinal cuts of this kind are helpful for longer stripping lengths and for sheaths that slide poorly (for example with coaxial cables ).
Enamelled copper wires
Enamelled copper wire can be thermally stripped and directly soldered, depending on the enamel insulation used, but this creates harmful vapors. Alternatively, mechanical stripping is necessary. There are tools for this in the form of tweezers, which are equipped with two cutting edges facing each other. This allows enamelled copper wires to be mechanically stripped by closing the tool several times at different angles around the wire and pulling it off.
Thermal wire strippers
Thermal stripping pliers have two V-shaped, interlocking wire loops or knives that are heated by a current flow instead of the knife . Such pliers can only be used to remove thermoplastic insulation; there is no risk of damaging the conductor. If the temperature is too high, this type of stripping causes harmful vapors and, when used in series, requires appropriate extraction and ventilation equipment.
Related to thermal stripping is stripping with a laser beam , which is only used in automatic production facilities. Here, too, poisonous corrosive vapors are inevitably generated, which are extracted accordingly in the production facility.
literature
- Hans-Günter Boy, Uwe Dunkhase: Electrical installation technology The master's examination. 12th edition, Vogel Buchverlag, Oldenburg and Würzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8343-3079-6 .
- Alfred Hösl, Roland Ayx, Hans Werner Busch: The electrical installation in accordance with regulations, residential construction, commercial industry. 18th edition, Hüthig Verlag, Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-7785-2909-9 .
