By Louis Jones 
Power cables are usually offered by the meter or in packaging units of various lengths. In addition to the cut material, there are pre-assembled extension cables up to 50 meters in length, with the longer variant usually being sold as a cable drum or cable socket with integrated sockets.
Electrical Conductor Classes
Furthermore, the commercially available cables are divided into conductor cross-sections and provided with the international standard IEC 60228. These correspond to conductor cross-sections from 0.5 mm² to 1000 mm² in initially small and later increasing distances. IEC 60228 corresponds to CEI and EN with identical numbers in each case. The German standardization is DIN EN 60228 or VDE 0295.
What Are The Electrical Conductor Classes?
There are further differences due to the division into ladder classes.
- The Class 1 is solid for round or sector-shaped conductor structure.
- In the Class 2 sector-shaped or round and stranded built ladder fall.
- The class 3 and 4 are not assigned.
- The Class 5 is stranded or flexible circuit.
- The Class 6 for extra-fine wire, respectively, highly flexible conductor.
There are additional subdivisions by the respective abbreviations for harmonized lines or power cables according to DIN VDE 0271/0276 belonging to the conductor class.
Note: The conductor classes relate to the flexibility in the line and not to the area of application or the type of use.
What Do The Cable Colors Mean?
Not all cables for cable protector ramp are the same, that’s probably clear. If one cable is to be connected to the other, each individual wire of one cable must be connected to the corresponding wire of the other cable with the correct polarity. So that the wires can be assigned more quickly, they are marked with colors.
With the three-core NYM-J installation cables commonly used in electrical installations, each of the three core cables comes with a colored insulation in the following colors:
- Black or brown
- Blue or gray
- Green yellow
The current-carrying conductor is marked in black or brown. One speaks of the outer conductor or the phase (L). This conductor is live and supplies electricity to the consumer.
Blue or gray are the colors of the neutral conductor (N). The current flows from the consumer back to the power source via this current-returning conductor. The protective conductor (PE) is insulated in green-yellow. It conducts the dangerous contact voltage on conductive metal housings in the direction of earth.