FAQ: What do cable designations mean?

There are so many difference between cables and how they can be designed and manufactured. It can be dependent on voltage or the materials used for the layers to match demands of specific applications - even the geographical location from which the cable is derived.

Eland Cables' website has a huge variety of cable “types” or names of cables, but how do you read these to understand what each cable will do?

Cable Nomenclature

Different countries have traditionally created their own cable nomenclature, generally with a combination of alphanumeric descriptions which together build up a designation which clearly defines the voltage rating and materials employed.

In the UK, there used to be a nomenclature known as CMA code, which is now being phased out, but this included such designations as 6491X, 6242Y and 694-LSH. These codes were built as below:

 

CMA Code	First Character	Second Characters	Final Characters
6491X	6 (450/750V or 600/1000V)	49 Insulated circular cables and flexible cords	X PVC insulated
6242Y	6 (450/750V or 600/1000V)	24 Insulated and sheathed flat cables - Bare earth	Y PVC insulated and sheathed
694*LSH	6 (450/750V or 600/1000V)	94 Insulated, SWA, sheathed circular cable	*LSH LSH sheathing (* is the number of cores)

 

Other European countries have their own nomenclature systems, with the DIN VDE system (Germany) being the most universally recognised and adopted across a number of cable types.  

Designation codes for power cables according to DIN VDE 0271/0276

There's also been a move towards European harmonisation (HAR), with CENELEC (the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) having complied a number of HD’s (Harmonisation Documents), whereby national variations and implementations for a number of different cable types are contained in a single compendium document, with voltage rating, the insulation materials used, the protection (if any), and sheathing materials used being the defining characteristic.

As an example, HD 603 covers Distribution cables of rated voltage 0,6/1 kV, with a variety of sections dealing with insulation materials allowed (e.g. Part 3 is PVC insulation unarmoured, Part 5 is XLPE insulation unarmoured, and Part 6 is XLPE insulation armoured). 

Within all of these HD’s detailed material requirements are listed along with a number of subsections which deal with the national implementations for each cable type. Within these National implementations sit the national code designations:

Example: HD 603, Part 5 - XLPE insulated

Belgium - EXVB	E Energy Cable	X XLPE insulated	V PVC sheathed	B Confirms to this section
Germany - N2XY	N Cable in accordance with the specification - Copper	2X XLPE insulated	Y PVC sheathed	Confirms to this section
Spain - RV		R XLPE insulated	V PVC sheathed

 

In some areas - specifically cables of rated voltages up to and including 450/750 V and having thermoplastic insulation (HD 21), and cables of rated voltages up to and including 450/750 V and having cross-linked insulation (HD22) - CENELEC have compiled truly harmonised European Norms under the standard EN 50525.

A European Standard (EN) in principle needs to be identically adopted at national level by all CENELEC members whereas the HDs only need to be announced. In both cases national conflicting standards need to be withdrawn. EN 50525 has aggregated all of the national implementations of HD21 and HD22 to arrive at a truly harmonised specification and designation.

See our PDF of Harmonised codes

If you need assistance to understand cable nomenclature and to specify the most appropriate cable for your application, get in touch with the Eland Cables technical team.