What Are Wire Strippers?

For every business which needs any kind of electrical maintenance and repair, wire strippers are one of the most essential tools that you would require.

What are wire strippers?

A wire stripper is a small portable hand-held tool that is used to peel back the protective insulation sheath from electric wires while replacing or repairing a wire. Also known as cable strippers or a combination tool, wire strippers are not only used for the wire stripping function but are equipped with additional tool functions like plier jaws, cable or conduit-cutting blades, and for cutting bolts. Another purpose of a wire stripper is to strip off the ends of an electric wire to make it easier to connect the ends to other wires, a connector or other terminals.

A standard wire stripper has the following parts:

• A tip for hold, twist or create hooks or loops in a wire
• Several sized slotted cutting blades
• Wire cutter
• Small bolt shear
• Crimpers for crimp connectors
• Loop hole to create hook or loop
• Handle

The slotted cutting blades come in different sizes to fit different gauge wires and are located in the jaws of the stripper. When a wire is pulled through the slot its insulation is peeled off leaving the wires visible. 

Types of wire strippers

Let us take a look at the different types of wire strippers.

Manual wire stripper

This basic wire stripping tool is better used for lighter jobs that do not require much force. Manual wire strippers come with a spring-loaded, self-opening handle and a safety lock.

There are a few variations found that you can select depending on the work needed to be done.

• Adjustable wire stripper: These strippers have both a manual and automatic adjustment mechanism. Once you insert a wire, the stripper will automatically adjust to accommodate it. However, if you need more precision, you would need to do manual adjustments.
• Triple action wire strippers:  This stripper, as the name suggests, features triple action stripping.  It can be used to perform three different types of cutting action – spiral, linear, and rotary.
• Sheath strippers: Sheath strippers are auto-adjustable strippers and are perfect to cut two and three core materials.
• Pistol wire stripper: This stripper has a self-adjusting blade that can both do grip and strip cabling in a single motion.
• Steel armored strippers: This model features a reinforced blade intended to cut through the toughest materials like steel, copper, or aluminum shielding and conduits in fiber optic or armored cables.
• Insulated strippers: Insulated strippers are insulated from electrostatic discharge with a VDE handle.

Automatic wire strippers

Automatic wire strippers have synchronized jaws which allow users to easily cut through and strip away wire sheathing with a single squeeze of the handles.

Laser wire strippers

If you require a wire stripping tool that needs to do a high-precision job like stripping a cable with a narrow diameter or a wire with a tough insulation, a laser wire stripping tool is what you would need. Laser radiation is used to vaporize the insulation material without damaging the inner wire or conduit.