On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 14:20:38 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

I have been disapointed in the mechanical strength of the Aluminum
electric fence wire.

Aluminium is not very good material for fence wire and not usually a
substitute for steel in general fencing as it lacks the strength of
steel.

There are fence wires made from a steel core (typically high tensile)
and an aluminium (or aluminium / ~5% zinc) coating, sometimes with a
polymer coating over the top. These products are appearing as the new
"longlife galvanised" fence wires. Commonly the aluminium thickness is
around 30 microns, way less than skin depth at low HF, so they can be
expected to perform about as well as the high tensile steel core.

There are other products with a 200 micron cladding of 60%
conductivity aluminium over a high tensile core, and they look a good
prospect for antenna wire, 80% RF conductivity and 10000% strength
compared to the same diameter HDC. For example Gallagher XL 2.7mm
diameter wire (200 micron aluminium cladding) should have the same
loss as 2.3mm dia HDC, but over 10 times the Gross Breaking Strength.

To determine their likely loss as antenna wires, you need to know the
coating thickness.

Owen
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