Does anyone sell Continuous Flex Wire by the / M
I can only find it for $700 rolls
wanting to replace 3D printer wires
What exactly is “Continuous flex” wire
Cheers Bob
they are cables normally silicone coated with very fine strands 3~10x finer than most strandard cables many brands out there like cicoil, alpha-wire etc , just finding sellers is another situation entirely
there are even some with an electrically conductive liquid inside of them that you seal in when it is soldered at the ends , pretty sure its just solder paste filled
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Hi Christopher
Are you looking for a cable with multiple wires or single wires. I think most common small hook-up wire would be X strands of 0.2 or 0.12mm dia strands. I have seen wires with many many strands of very fine wire used where good flexibility is required but have never been in a position where I have had to purchase. I have never really had to do anything with it either. Worst wire I have worked with is Litz wire but that is another story again. Have not come across (in over 45 years) a wire with a liquid or semi liquid conductor. That is a bit extreme. You are not getting mixed up with Jelly filled cable are you. That is reasonably common outdoors where moisture ingress is a problem.
I think you really need to establish the stranding required and the number of conductors or single wire. You need this info to filter searches in Element 14 or RS Components or other suppliers. For instance I just looked at Element 14 and there are 905 entries for Alpha brand hook up wire. That is just for starters. More information is essential.
Best of luck with your search and sorry I could not be of more help.
Cheers Bob
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cheers , I am just sick of replacing wires every 500 hrs , especially with all the covid-printing I have been doing
lots of cool things out their without any outlets
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That looks interesting. Looks like $$$$$$ though if it ever becomes a commercial reality.
Why do the wires fail every 500hrs or so. How do they fail? I assume they break. If so where? If at the ends near a soldered joint closely inspect this. Solder has a tendency to “wick” back up the wire under the insulation. If this connection is subject to any movement (as with a print head or similar) it WILL break where the solder finishes. Matter of when, not if. This is commonly caused by an iron not quite hot enough or any other reason the operator takes a bit too long making the joint. A very small or even a water cooled heatsink on the wire is used in high reliability situations to prevent this. A properly made crimp connection with the correct tooling goes a long way toward correcting this problem.
You may have to re-evaluate the cable routing and have a close look at what exactly happens when the bits are moving. 500 hrs seems a bit short for this kind of thing to fail. Imagine if this was the norm in something like an aeroplane.
Cheers Bob
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Hey Chris,
Bob’s exactly right, this appears to be a highly experimental product, it’s extremely interesting, but unfortunately, that’s not that kind of part we usually supply. If anyone is interested in it, there’s a podcast from MaterialsToday that I’ve linked below. If you have any questions regarding the parts here at Core Electronics or your projects please let me know!
Bryce
Core Electronics | Support
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Hi all.
Just footnote for interest.
I once had a bit of exposure to a special cable. 6 cores of very flexible (high number stranding) cable of 6 cores, silicone insulation. Not even screened. Maybe screening would reduce flexibility which was very important, Designed to plug into a helicopter while sitting on helipad. Cable just “flopped” on the deck without blowing around in the gale created by rotors. This cable was branded “Raychem”.
The point here is when something very special is required it usually means dollars. $76 per FOOT. Yes I did say FOOT (30cm). Not sure if this was $US or $AU but 25 or 30 years ago it probably did not make much difference. Still very expensive.
Cheers Bob
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