What CCA Actually Is
Copper-clad aluminium is an aluminium core with a copper skin. At high frequencies most of the signal travels near the surface, which is why CCA can pass a frequency-domain test that looks at bandwidth alone.
DC does not care about skin effect. Power travels through the whole conductor, and aluminium has roughly 60% of copper's conductivity by volume. That is the whole story in one sentence.
Where The Difference Shows Up
A CCA link can certify on a field tester and still fail to deliver a stable camera feed at 85 m, because the tester measured bandwidth and the camera needed watts.
- PoE voltage drop on long runs — the most common failure
- Conductor heating in fully loaded bundles
- Termination reliability: aluminium is more brittle and work-hardens faster
- Long-term reliability at IDC contacts subject to vibration or re-termination
Where CCA Is Reasonable
Short patch runs with no PoE, low-cost consumer applications, and situations where the buyer has explicitly specified it on price and understands the trade. It is a legitimate product — the problem is substitution, not existence.
The failure mode that damages a supply relationship is CCA shipped against a bare copper line item. Conductor material is stated on the reel label on every specification we ship.
How To Check What You Received
- Strip a conductor and look at the cut end — CCA shows a silver core under the copper skin
- Weigh a known length: a copper drum is substantially heavier than a CCA one
- Measure DC loop resistance and compare against the specification
- Check the reel label and the jacket print against the purchase order
Applying this to a live project? Send the specification and we will tell you how it lands for your case — bare copper vs cca — what the conductor choice costs you is exactly the kind of question we answer whether or not there is an order attached.
