Litz Wire & Winding Wire
Litz Wire consists of a number of individually insulated magnet wires twisted or braided into a uniform pattern with the primary benefit of reducing A.C. Losses in high frequency windings.
OSCO offer unlimited Litz Wire constructions with multiple layers of insulation to meet UL voltage withstand requirements.
Typically when manufacturing Motors, Transformers and other electromagnetic devices, magnetic fields are created by current in a wire. By raising the frequency, you create stronger fields and higher coupling resulting in a loss in the materials due to two effects – Skin Effect and Proximity Effect.
As the frequency rises, the current migrates to the skin and the current is pushed away by the field of its neighbouring strand making the core of the conductor useless.
Litz Wire mitigates both the Skin Effect and Proximity Effect Losses. OSCO design with strands that are smaller than the skin depth and transpose those strands throughout the length of the wire. The correct size of the skin depth is based on the frequency of the application.
The most important question to consider when designing your Litz Wire is what is your operating frequency for the application? This is due to the most well-known benefit of Litz Wire - a reduction of A.C losses. The operating frequency for your application will determine both the Litz Wire construction and the individual wire gauge size.
Benefits of Litz Wire:
- Increase Copper Density and Efficiencies
- Mitigation of Skin and Proximity Effect
- Reduce A.C. Losses
- Reduction of Footprint and Weight
- Minimum Eddy Current Losses
- Lowered Operating Temperatures
- Avoidance of "Hot Spots"