Wire Ferrules

F

FaradayFF

Senior Member
Location
California
Hi All,
I'm looking for a single conductor ferrule that I need for terminating stranded copper wire but with smaller copper sleeve diameter to fit into a device terminal. The device in question I believe was designed with terminations to accept a bare conductor, but per Spec, we need to use a wire ferrule to make terminations. Are there any vendors that you could recommend? This application is for low voltage control wiring.
Thank you,
EE
 
I've almost never used ferrules on my 485 and MSTP lines (twice in 15 years, maybe??), but in talking with the Caterpillar techs who have done EMCP upgrades for me, the ones who were using them all identified a strong, tight crimping tool as being more important than the ferrule itself.
 
Like OldBroadcast said, Mouser is one. Newark and Digikey are also good sources.

And as ModbusMan indicates, you ideally want a good ratcheting crimper that will NOT release until you've "squeezed" thru the entire cycle.
 
When I first started using ferrules, the crimp tool was sort of a ratcheting pair of plyers with jaws that had notches in them. The resulting crimp was sort of 'D' shaped, sometimes with 'ears'. These crimps take up quite a bit more room than the wire itself.

Now you can get ratcheting 'hex' crimp tools that have a hexagonal hole mechanism. The hole gets smaller when you squeeze the handles, making a nearly round crimp. This crimp is more likely to fit whichever device hole you are working with.

For smaller wires (eg. smaller than 14 ga) I've sometimes found that going 1 size down in ferrule still fits the wire just fine, but makes a smaller overall crimp. (I don't know if this would violate listing....)

For some terminals, I've found that the insulating cup at the base of the ferrule gets in the way of inserting the wire. Ferrules are available without the insulating cup.

-Jonathan
 
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There was a recent thread where ferrules and stranded wire connections came up and I commented how their use in electrical construction in the states seems to be very rare. I commented that I really like the idea of using ferruls as many set screw terminals with stranded wire seam to be very poor to me. But anyway a question: does a terminal have to be approved for use with a ferrule? Can I just go ahead and use them, assuming the ferrule is appropriate for the wire of course?
 
electrofelon said:
But anyway a question: does a terminal have to be approved for use with a ferrule? Can I just go ahead and use them, assuming the ferrule is appropriate for the wire of course?
Click to expand...
Quick search seems to imply there isn't an approval for terminals (probably because from the terminal's POV you're inserting a solid wire instead of stranded, Phoenix says it's pretty much up to the end user on pg. 2), but rather that UL listing comes from the combination of using the same manufacturer's ferrule + crimper (Last page, so no mixing and matching between Phoenix and Ideal, for example).
 
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