On 6/2/23 11:33 AM, Stefan Monnier wrote:
This is very hard to believe. I'm willing to believe that there have been insulation dyes that have proved problematic, but if you've encountered those problems in the 70s I find it *really* odd that it would still affect cables from this century (e.g. sata cables).
Yes, and red-insulated wire has been in common use for many decades, on everything from primary power wiring for buildings (when the "hot" wires for multiple circuits, or for both "hot" wires of a 240VAC circuit, are run together), to automotive wiring, to model train wiring, and I've never heard of red (or any other particular color) insulation (or cable jacketing, heat shrink, split-loom, or spiral-wrap) causing damage to conductors. More likely, it was a particular material, possibly containing a plasticizer that turned out to react with copper. And it's rather unlikely that any such material wouldn't be "deprecated with extreme prejudice" as soon as the problem was discovered.
-- JHHL
