Soldering iron flex. Sources of silicone cable

My cheap soldering iron has a rather stiff PVC cable and I'd like to replace it with something more flexible (and heat resistant).

Any reccommendations for replacement? (50W iron).

Would need suitable strain relief too (for iron and base station). The existing SR seems to be heat welded to the existing cable outer. How do you do it with heat resistant cable?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+
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I bought some on eBay at the end of last year - search "Unistrand-3-core-0-5mm-Silicone-Cable-White-suits-Weller-TCP-Soldering-iron-180C"

- if that doesn't work then the seller is 'redwingfish'

Cut to length - £3.50 per metre - free p&p - used it on two of my mains soldering irons that, like yours, had nasty stiff cable.

I seem to recall that Farnell / RS or similar had it, but only in 50m rolls...

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

silicone sealant is one option. Use low modulus, not soft high modulus.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

One does need to be careful some of those thermostatically controlled irons used to have more than three cores presumably for the adjustment of a thermostat. I thought this was why they were so stiff, particularly in cold weather in a shed! Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Is that what they call a "formative youth" Brian?

Reply to
Andy Burns

Rapid and CPC do cut lengths, a bit pricey with P&P on top similar prices though.

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Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

Yes, I recently had need for some two core 2.5mm^2 heat resistant flex. Not a common commodity, but CPC did it by the metre. P&P mitigated by getting a PSU at the same time.

Reply to
Roger Hayter

RS or Farnell - I had some from them a few years ago.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Cheers. Found it...

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

No probs. Makes all the difference - I'm using my iron for soldering on stained-glass - long seams / beads - work better if you're not fighting with the mains cable!

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

How skilled a job is the stained glass soldering? My wife almost volunteered to do a window a few years back.

Reply to
misterroy

Difficult to answer that one without incriminating myself! <grin>

The soldering is of two different types - with copper-foil (aka Tiffany) technique the solder holds the copper-foil together, and is formed into a raised bead, to look a bit like traditional lead-came. There's a skill in getting the finished bead looking right..

With lead-came (as in church windows) the solder is only used at the intersection of the 'H-section' lead came. The trick here is to get a good soldered joint without actually melting the lead itself.

There's other skills to master - like cutting the glass accurately, applying the copper foil or cutting the lead-came and so on.

It's one of those activities where attending a short course, or looking over the shoulder of somebody who knows what they're doing, will get you up & running fairly quickly..

Adrian

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Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

About silicone cable,all you want to know are here

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to content Search for: Search ? Medical Cable Customization Supplier About Us Products Contact Us Blog Download Useful Tools Silicone Rubber Cable As a 18 years old Medical cable manufacturer,we have helped medical industry partners to develop more than 1000 types of cables.Among all the cables we made,Silicone rubber cable ranks 2nd. (TPU cable rank 1st),it is very significant to make an comprehensive introduction to Silicone cable.

What Is Silicone Rubber Cable ? Generally speaking, silicone cable means cable with Silicone rubber insulated?this type of silicone cable is more accurately to call it ?silicone wire? or ?silicone insulated wire? if we study the definition difference tween wire and cable, in which ?wire? is defined as ?A wire consists of a single strand or a group of strands of an electrically conductive material (conductor). This material is normally composed of aluminum or copper. Wires can come bare, or covered in a protective or color-coded sheath.? It fully use the excellent properties of silicone rubber. In some way, when we are talking about the advantages of silicon rubber cable, we are talking about the advantage of silicone rubber.

silicone rubber cable with Silicone Insulation silicone rubber cable with Silicone Insulation custom cable with Silione rubber Jacket custom cable with Silione rubber Jacket So in some situations, we combine the silicone rubber advantages with others to develop a new customized Silicone rubber cable, in which silicone rubber worked as Jacket, not the insulation. The commonest cable with this combination is :Silicone Jakcet+ insulator Teflon(PTFE?FEP?PFA?ETFE) ,this is another type of Silicone rubber cable.

What Is The Key Properties And Advantages Of Silicone Cable? Resistant To Extreme Temperature Resistant To High Temperature Extruded with a suitable compound, silicone cable can work at an operating temperature up to 300 °C for while (Even 350 with suitable conductors like nickel). And maintain its good mechanical performance within 250 °C for long time using.

Thermal conductivity of thermal interface silicone rubber Thermal conductivity of thermal interface silicone rubber Fugure-Silicone cable life long in high temperature Figure of Silicone cable lifelong in high temperature Resistant To Low Temperature Silicone cable?s working low temperature range is -60°C.

And remains good electrical and mechanical performance, softness and flexibility if the temperature is no lower than -40 °C. (Silicone?s indurating temperature of around -115°C). So it does not mean if temperature lower than -40, it does not work. Many factors influence its operation, such as, exposing time, atmosphere situation (like oxygen concentration, ozone), and mechanical stress, tension and so on.

Good Dielectric Properties /Insulation Strength Silicone rubber has high insulation resistance of 1T·m-100T·m, and its insulating properties are stable over a wide range of temperatures and across a wide frequency spectrum. There is almost no decline in performance even when immersed in water, making silicone rubber an ideal insulating material. It has particularly good resistance to corona discharge and arcing at high voltages. Silicone rubber is thus used extensively as an insulator in high voltage cable.

Silicone rubber insulated wires has perfect dielectric properties, combined with flexibility, when making flexible High Voltage cables, such as 4 awg silicone wire,14awg silicone wire,20 gauge or 22 gauge silicone wire, silicone rubber will be our first optional insulation material, even Teflon also has perfect insulation strength.

Figure-Silicone rubber Dielectronic Silicone rubber cable insulation thickness and dielectric breakdown voltage Figure-Silicone rubber cable,s Corona resitance Resistant To Chemical Substances Silicone cables are commonly applied in the industries where they are closely contacted with chemicals, especially lubricating oils ,which is used everywhere, like ?automation, automotive, chemical Industry and so on .Silicone rubber cables has good resistance to lubricating oils and acid-base. Silicone cable has good chemical stability, except for alkali and hydrofluoric acid, does not interact with other chemical reagents. Oil and chemical resistance of common methyl vinyl silicone rubber Type of oil/chemical Immersion conditions Change in properties °C x h Hardness points Weight % Volume % Tensile strength % Elongation % Oil ASTM #1 oil 150 x 168 -10 +10 -10 -10 ASTM #3 oil 150 x 168 -25 +40 -20 -20 GM Hydramatic Fluid 94 x 70 -35 +35 -40 -5 Ford Brake Fluid 150 x 72 -20 +15 -60 -40 Diesel Fuel 50 x 168 -30 +105 ? ? Gasoline 23 x 168 -20 +165 ? ? Skydrol 500A Fluid 70 x 168 -5 +10 -10 +5 Motor oil (SAE #30) 175 x 168 -8 -8 -70 -65 Chemical Acid Conc. Nitric acid 25 x 168 +10 +10 -80 30

7% Nitric acid 25 x 168 < 1 < 1 -50 -30 Conc. Sulfuric acid 25 x 168 Dissolves Dissolves Dissolves Dissolves 10% Sulfuric acid 25 x 168 < 1 < 1 0 0 Acetic acid 25 x 168 +3 +4 -20 +10 5% Acetic acid 25 x 168 +2 +2 -20 +10 Conc. Hydrochloric acid 25 x 168 +3 +4 -40 -20 10% Hydrochloric acid 25 x 168 +2 +2 -50 -50 Alkali 10% Sodium hydroxide solution 25 x 168 -2 -1 -10 0 2% Sodium hydroxide solution 25 x 168 < 1 < 1 0 0 Conc. Ammonia water 25 x 168 +2 +1 -30 +10 10% Ammonia water 25 x 168 +2 +2 -20 0 Other Water 25 x 168 <1 <1 0 0 100 x 70 <1 <1 -10 -10 70 x 168 +1 < 1 -10 +10 3% Hydrogen peroxide solution 25 x 168 < 1 < 1 0 +20 Resistant To Physical Destruction Resistant To Flame And Fire Silicone jacket wire is a typical Sihf cable (Silicone Insulated Halogen free), lszh cable (low smoke zero halogen cable) and UL cable such as UL3512 UL3535 UL4535.

High temperature Silicone cables are flame retardant .In case of a fire. The Silicone Jacket or & and insulation crystallize and generate a silica film to cover the conductors, thus remains its insulation properties and to prevent a disaster of circuit or electricity network.

With special retardant compounds, the LOI value (Limiting Oxygen Index) can be increased up to 120-125%.

Physical Stretch (Elongation) Silicone has high elongation (stretch) which helps flexibility and strength. There is little change in silicone rubber cable even at 250°C.it closely related with the silicone rubber insulation.

Elongation generally refers to ?ultimate elongation? or percent increase in original length of a specimen when it breaks.

Typical elongation ranges are listed here. (Note: silicone rubber?s elongation does not equal to silicone cables, elongation)

HCR ? High Consistency Silicone Rubber typical elongation range from 90 to 1120%.

FSR ? Fluorosilicone Rubber ? typical elongation range from 159 to 699%.

LSR ? Liquid Silicone Rubber ? typical elongation range from 220 to 900%.

*Different processing methods and oven cures change the values considerably.

The thermal characteristics section shows that the elongation of silicone rubber varies linearly with temperature, and holds up longer than most other elastomers.

Tear and Tensile strength of silicone rubber-NOT equal to silicone cable Waterproof And Pressure Resistant Silicone cable has good Waterproof and pressure resistance, combined with its resistant to oil and high temperature, it is an ideal choice for automotive wires user and similar application users

Physical Processing Silicone wires has good resistance to corona, ozone, weathering , UV, aging, radiation.it has good physiological inertness and air permeability .This make it easy to go through many type of physical processing.

Biological Properties Resistant To Fungus Silicone itself is not anti-fungicidal, it is neither a food for fungus, so even when there is suitable damp and temperature, fungus or mold will affect the silicone jacket of the cable. And we can formulate the silicone rubber to improve the silicon wires, fungus resistance properties.

Super Biocompatibility Benefit by the super biocompatibility of silicone rubbers, silicone cable has good compatibility with human tissue and body fluids and an extremely low tissue response when implanted, not to mention a skin contact.

Odorless, tasteless and biological stability, silicones is not a nutrition for bacteria growth and will not stain or pollute others around.

What Are Disadvantage Of Silicone Rubber Cable And Caution When Using Silicone cables can be seriously damaged by ethers, strong alkalis, liquid fuel, esters, chlorinated hydrocarbons and ketones. Silicone cable jacket inflate when touched with naphthenic oils. Silicone cable will be out of service when contacting aromatic base oils at high temperatures (higher than 130-140 °C) Silicone able has poor abrasion resistance. The silicone wire jacket / sheath is cold extruded after vulcanizing the silicone rubber. The density is not as good as Heat extruded jacket of other materials. It is easy to scrape by sharp objects. So it is better to be applied in static situations and keep away from sharp objects or movement on rough surface. Surface is it easy to sticky to dust.

Silicone Cable?s High Price Is A Fatal Disadvantage The main reason for the high price of silicone cable is the high cost of silicone rubber and silicone cable manufacturing progress .The cost of silicone rubber is 2-3 times of common plastic materials, and for medical level silicone rubber, its cost is even higher. For Common plastic jacket cable, it only take one step to finish the Insulation/ Jacket extruding. For Silicone cable, it need two steps:

Step1?Silicone rubber vulcanization

Step2?Cold Extrude

The more steps it take, the harder it is to control and more lose will cause.

Silicone rubber cable manufacturing-Extrduing Silicone rubber cable manufacturing-Extrduing Silicone Cable Applications Applications In Medical No matter it is Class 1, Class 2, or Class 3 medical devices or accessories, Silicone cable application can be found everywhere. Sterilization and Biocompatibility are prior concerns .As mentioned in silicone cable properties, it is clear that silicone cable is absolutely an ideal choice for medical applications. Such as monitoring system sensor, robotic arms, imaging system, Spo2 sensor, ECG/EKG,High-End ESU(Electrosurgical Unit)

Figure-Silicone medical cable,s Steam Resistance (autoclave Resistance) Most Medical cable use autoclave sterilization,to the cable need to be autoclave resistant.Silicone cable has good autoclave resitant

silicone wire SI402X Silicone cable Application-Electronic Silicone wire

Silicone cable Application-Silicone SpO2 sensor cable

Silicone cable Application-Silicone Wire-ECG leads SI403B Reusable Silicone ESU cable Silicone cable Application-Reusable Silicone ESU cable

Silicone cable Application-Silicone ECG lead wire Reusable EEG leadwire Silicone cable Application-Silicone Insulated EEG electrode leadwire Applications In Aerospace Aerospace applications such as spacecraft ? Satellites, which has high requirement for ?Radiation Resistant, Flexibility, Low Outgassing?, silicone cable can deal with these situation.

Applications In Undersea And Naval Naval and undersea (Tow, Tether, Sonar Video, ROV, Lighting, Umbilical, Geophysical) activities usually need the cable to be Flame Retardant, Low Smoke, Low Halogen, there are many considerations such as Buoyancy, Atmospheric Pressure, Ruggedness

Applications In Industry Used in electrical connection between mobile electrical equipment in high temperature environments such as power generation, metallurgy, chemical industry, etc.

need a customize a silicone rubber cable?

Leave us your Specification or Engineer structure!!!

Reply to
Allen Shieh

Soldering-iron-180C"

% Elongation %

+10 -10 -10 ASTM #3 oil 150 x 168 -25
+35 -40 -5 Ford Brake Fluid
168 -30 +105 ? ?

Motor oil (SAE #30) 175 x 168

acid 25 x 168 +10 +10 -80 30

1 -50 -30 Conc. Sulfuric acid 25 x 168

acid 25 x 168 < 1

+4 -20 +10 5% Acetic acid 25 x 168 +2
+3 +4 -40 -20 10%
+2 -50 -50 Alkali 10% Sodium hydroxide

Sodium hydroxide solution 25 x 168

+2 +1 -30 +10 10% Ammonia

x 168 <1 <1 0 0 100 x 70 <1

Hydrogen peroxide solution 25 x

Destruction Resistant To Flame

Use PTFE sheathed flex. Cores are usually silver plated copper.

Reply to
jon

Conectmed custom manufacture and EEG EMG supplies ,Emg Cable EEG Cable with daily 200K units daily productivity.Different types EEG Electrodes and EMG Electrodes optional.Different forms of cooperation, available,such as ?raw emg cable without emg sensor / emg pad?,?Raw eeg cable with one end overmold ,the other end without eeg cup or eeg sensors??,so no Matter you are EEG electrodes and EMG eletrodes manufacturer or Brands distributors,there is always a way that we can be at your service

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Reply to
Allen Shieh

Probably not the 'oldest' reply - after all - it's only two and a half years late - but an example of a totally clueless spammy reply!

Whoever's paying you to spam irrelevant newsgroups is wasting their money!

Sheesh

Adrian (original poster)

Reply to
Adrian Brentnall

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