Anyone worked with AWCO cables before..

[markc17]

As some know from a previous thread am working on a report for some clients.. upon trying to find manufacturers details for the cable rating, all i can see on the side of the cable is AWCO Electric cable 600/1000V BASEc. I could find nothing but someone helpful told be AWCO was a subsidiary company for BACO?.. that had a company based in Sheffield in the 70's producing Aluminium soidal cable...
I was wondering if anybody knows anything about this? The building is used 24/7... the contractor who did some work for me is pretty sure the ends he terminated when fitting a new fuse switch to the end of the main ...were copper.. There is nothing to the contrary in any past records to the place i can find although these are sketchy at best. I know very little about aluminium armoured cables and did not see the terminations myself.. although likely copper.. just wondering if anyone could shed some light on AWCO and a 'soidal' cable...? Thanks in advance..

 

[benji]

i think the awco company is/was in swansea, we used some in sheffield in the 60s most ends were crimp lugs some of them bi-metal but did solder some lugs (special flux & solder ) there is data on aluminium cable in the back of the regs book

 

[Engineer54]

Open up a one or both of the switch fuses and check the conductors entering the lugs, you may have to remove a bit of PVC tape or whatever first. (most will have at least a little of the bared conductor showing). You'll soon see if the conductors are copper or Aluminium!!

 

[MarkieSparkie]

It might be worth contacting the British Approvals Service For Cables (BASEC) who may have historical company information and specific cable data if required.
BASEC - British Approvals Service for Cables

 

[Ken1971]

AWCO stood for Aluminium Wire & Cable Company. They have two plants in Port Tennant and Jersey Marine near Swansea when I worked for them in the early 1980s. They were then a third owned by TI Group (Tube Investments), British Aluminium and Vickers. TI bought BA so they ran the company.

They started with 4 inch diameter ingots and would draw it through about 40 dies down to thinnest wire for staples for tea bags. For power cables they would send the bare sectors to Jersey Marine, cover with four colours of insulation, twist together,cover with black insulation, then armour (SWA or ASA) and a final black insulation