Magnetism and Low Permeability in Aircraft Cable

This edition of The HotWire is a continuation of the magnetism post from a few weeks back (Enough with the magnet test already!?!?).

That post was concerned with identifying the aircraft cable material using a magnet (bad idea). This new post deals with determining a magnetic permeability level that works to your advantage (good idea!).

Just to recap: Magnetic permeability is the ability of a material to carry magnetism, indicated by the degree to which it is attracted to a magnet. Remember: high permeability = strong magnetic attraction.

As Gerry Baril from the LoosCo.com engineering department explains below, knowing your aircraft cable's magnetic permeability is useful in situations where magnetism matters to the application. Read on... 

Here’s a possible scenario:  a customer discovers that the aircraft cable he bought from us is attracted too much (cable permeability is to high) to magnets or magnetic fields in the device that it is used in or around. Basically he wants a lower permeability cable, but does not know the exact permeability that is required. How can we get him theaircraft cable he needs?

One way to tackle this problem is to get the customer to send back a sample of the cable he bought, then LoosCo can determine the permeability range of this cable.  Knowing the range on the cable can aid in the selection of lower permeability metals we use for cables. We can then send the customer a lower permeability cable sample for the customer to test and determine if its permeability fits the application. 

If you have any additional questions about magnetism, or any other aircraft cable related topics, contact a product manager and we’ll be happy to help. Or you can visit LoosCo.com and look around for yourself. See you there!