Litz wire is made with individually insulated strands that range from 28 to 48 AWG. MWS’s standard magnet wire film insulations include polyurethane, polyurethane/nylon in single or heavy build. As a custom option we can provide solderable polyester, solderable polyester/nylon, polyester/polyamide-imide and polyimide – which are used to insulate each strand.

The outer insulation and the insulation on the component conductors, in some styles, may be servings or braids of nylon. Polyester heat-sealed polyester, polyimide and PTFE tape wraps along with extrusions of most thermoplastics are also available as outer insulation if the applications dictate special requirements for voltage breakdown or environmental protection.

AC current flowing through a single wire conductor increasingly pushes the current toward the surface “skin” of the conductor as frequency increases. This physical phenomenon accelerates the wire’s AC resistance in direct proportion to the frequency of the current. Over 98% of the current will flow within a layer 4 times the skin depth from the surface. This behavior is distinct from that of direct current which usually will be distributed evenly over the cross-section of the wire.

Designers can virtually eliminate the skin effect with Litz wire. The key is to choose the diameter of individual wire strands twisted into the Litz construction that are like the skin depth for the given frequency. Doing so causes current to flow through nearly the entire cross section of each wire, thus minimizing AC resistance and heat losses.

With over fifty-five years of experience in the wire business, MWS is ISO9001: 2015 compliant and has a built solid reputation for same day shipment from our inventory or producing a wire to meet just-in-time schedules. And if we don’t have it, we can manufacture litz wire according to customer requirements.