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> I cannot understand why silicone rubber is not more commonly available for cable insulation Silicone is more flexible and high-temperature resistant, but it
by qurren 23d ago
> I cannot understand why silicone rubber is not more commonly available for cable insulation
Silicone is more flexible and high-temperature resistant, but it does have a major downside of being very easy to cut and strip. That's not great either, especially for power applications where short circuits are a concern.
Silicone also kinda sucks for crimping. Most crimps have one set of tabs which grab the conductor (which is fine) and then another set which grab the insulation, but in the case of silicone the insulation set tend to just slice the insulation and don't mechanically grab it.
- megous 23d agoI bought silicon 2-line cable to replace plastic insulated cable that came with my trafo-soldering-iron originally about 30 years ago. And how easy it is to cut, is what surprised me. It's still a good tradeof for this use case because dents in the plastic from accidentally touching the original cable with hot soldering loop were getting a little scary.