Eastern Railroad Discussion > Aluminum Wiring?

I saw a recent news report of auto manufacturers, including Tesla, switching over to aluminum wiring to save money over the cost of copper. IIRC, didn't GE try this with locomotives some years ago and have issues?

Victor Baird

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/26 13:20 by wabash2800.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> I saw a recent news report of auto manufacturers,
> including Tesla, switching over to aluminum wiring
> to save money over the cost of copper. IIRC,
> didn't GE try this with locomotives some years ago
> and have issues?
>
> Victor Baird

Those GE units with aluminum high voltage cabling had a lot more than "issues"! 

Any automobile having ANY aluminum wiring, had better stay out of those states adjacent to the ocean salt water.

Alco tried it too, it was a complete disaster.

Posted from Android

like HotWater said, plus--- in the 1970's, many new houses were wired
 with aluminum wiring many of those caught fire, because aluminum
 expands and contracts more then copper, causing many bad connections.
 your house wire coming into the main panel is aluminum,
 but those connections on the main panel are high torque connections,
 eliminating the problem. now Teslas will catch fire much easier.
 

The same problem with mobile homes back then.

Americans LOVE re-inventing the wheel.  "Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it".  Or something like that.

It's not just Tesla. Stellantis, BMW, and Ferrari are choosing aluminum wire.  

covered in insulation that has some soy ingredients so little varmets will chew, hikers and forest service folks are leaving their hoods up to deter.  Leaving your hood open the little critters feel less protected to knaw on your electricals.

Aluminum conductor today is not the same as in the disastrous 70's.
The alloys employed in modern aluminum conductors are much better.
Specifically the problem with heat expansion is solved with the use of proper termination fittings.
Locomotive cable using tinned aluminum conductors are feasible.
 

The issue with aluminum house wiring was that the connectors / terminals on traditional receptacles and switches were copper, so it was OK with copper wiring.  Due to the difference is electronegativity between aluminum and copper, the connection point of aluminum wiring would corrode.  This corrosion resulted in intermittent electrical connection / disconnection, which in turn caused sparking.  The sparks would then cause smoldering and subsequent fires.

Manufacturers of receptacles and switches changed to an alloy that was compatible with both aluminum and copper wiring.  If you look carefully at  the back of new devices, you will see that they are marked to be compatible with both metals.  Replacing all the receptacles and switches in a house was a lot cheaper and easier that replacing the aluminum with with copper wire. 

I wasn't a bad fire....  I remember a CSX office car at Washington Union Terminal proving conclusively that one-side HEP run with aluminum wire couldn't carry the load...

Didn't EMD's 35 series (GP35, DD35, SD35) use aluminum wiring?

would the aluminum wiring be intended to handle 480v locomotive connections?

march_hare Wrote:
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> Didn't EMD's 35 series (GP35, DD35, SD35) use
> aluminum wiring?

EMD never used aluminum wiring.

However, both Airbus and Boeing use it quite extensively.

Posted from Android

Here is what aluminum wire on one of my motorcar looked like after spending 3 years near the ocean. The wire just flaked away when attempting to strip it.  Luckily this only involved a small section of wiring, the rest was copper.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

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march_hare Wrote:
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> Didn't EMD's 35 series (GP35, DD35, SD35) use
> aluminum wiring?

EMD never used aluminum for ANYTHING, especially cabling & wiring!

A friend of mine who is an electrician worked several new construction low income housing projects.  He said that they used aluminum wiring in those, as there was a substantially lower rate of theft vs copper wire.

As for aluminum and salt water, the Navy, with all of the focus on galvanic corrosion prevention on ships and submarines, somehow didn't think it would be an issue with the Independence Class Littoral Combat Ship.  Until it was.  Like a previous poster stated, we like to reinvent the wheel.

Dan