Quote:
Originally Posted by brianinmaine
[sarcasm] Just imagine the wealth one could acquire by leaving out the extra tiny wires! Must be AT LEAST .001 cents EACH! [/sarcasm]
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Well, I recently purchased a small bulk lot of the type with 4 wires at $0.70 each (per cable, retail).
Most of that must have been the manufacture of the finished device.
I have worked on (as a repairman) high speed cable forming machines.
Amazing, whirling, masses of machinery. Parts of which are run in a vacuum chamber to deal with the effects of moving at or above the sound barrier.
(The part that twists the wires, spins so that the wires are moving at or above Mach 0.9)
Just the cost of maintaining 2 different machine set-ups (4 wire vs. 2 wire) must not reach any payback until they have made millions of cables.
Duh...
But, it does cut the copper consumption in half.
And China does have some very strict "conservation" policies, government backed.