VFD cable, bought in Tennessee
Drive upgrades and motor replacements leave shielded cable behind, usually in short lengths that never got pulled. We buy those runs in Tennessee, with the shield intact and the tag still readable.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
A drive upgrade is not a cable project for most plants. The electrician pulls new shielded cable between the drive and the motor, cuts what the run needs, and the remainder goes back on the reel or into the pile behind the shop. What is left is usually short, often under a hundred feet, and almost always still marked with the original tag.
That short length is still inventory if the tag can be read. VFD cable carries a foil shield, a braid, or both, and the rating printed on the jacket says what the cable was built to carry. We look at the tag before we look at the footage, because shielded cable with no identification is a hard thing to place with anyone.
Send a photo of the tag and the cut end, and most of our questions are already answered.
Lot basics
- Voltage class
- 600 V through 2 kV
- Construction
- Three conductor plus ground
- Shield
- Foil, braid, or both
- Insulation
- XLPE
Shielded drive cable, 600 V through 2 kV
We buy three conductor cable with ground, shielded with foil, braid, or both, rated from 600 volts up through 2 kV. Insulation is almost always XLPE, and the jacket carries sunlight resistance and oil resistance markings. Sizes run from 16 AWG up to 4/0, though the small and middle sizes are what dominate the material that comes out of a retrofit.
The cable may be on the original reel with the tag and the cut sheet, or it may be a coil in a crate. Both are worth looking at. What settles it is whether the conductor count, the voltage class and the shield type can be established from the print on the jacket or from the tag, rather than from someone's memory of the job.
Short runs still move when the shield is intact
The reason short VFD lengths hold value is that the next drive installation needs short lengths too. A plant replacing a forty horsepower motor does not buy a thousand feet of shielded cable. It buys a reel and uses eighty feet of it. A ninety foot remnant with a readable tag is therefore not scrap, and we do not price it as scrap.
Shield integrity decides most of it. A foil shield crushed by a forklift, a braid cut back at the jacket, or a drain wire pulled out at the cut end all narrow what the cable can be used for. We look at both ends, and we look along the jacket for crush marks, abrasion and the flattening that comes from sitting under something heavy.
Where VFD remnants come from in Tennessee
Most of what we see comes out of three situations: a drive replaced on an aging line, a motor swapped for a different frame or speed, and a line reconfigured so the drive moved closer to the motor. In each case the pull is short and the leftover is shorter. Water and wastewater work produces a steady trickle as pumps are changed out.
New construction tends to leave full or nearly full reels rather than remnants, because the contractor bought to the pull plus a margin. Those reach us as cancelled or over-ordered material with the purchase paperwork still in the shipping sleeve. Different situation, same cable, and a different set of questions about how it was stored and how it was handled.
How to show us a shielded remnant
A photo of the reel tag, a photo of the printed jacket legend, and a photo of the cut end will settle the identification. Add the length if it is marked, or the starting and ending counter readings if the reel was measured at some point. If the cable is coiled rather than reeled, lay a tape along it so the photo carries its own scale.
We will tell you what we can do from those photos before anyone moves the material. If it needs to be cut back to sound cable, we will say so and say how far. If the shield is compromised past use, we will say that too, and the cable goes to insulated scrap rather than to a buyer looking for drive cable.
Related pages
- Tray cableTray-rated power and control in the same lots
- Control cableMulticonductor runs from the same cabinets
- Partial reelsHow remaining footage is established before quoting
- Medium voltage cableShielded cable above 2 kV from the same plants
- Reading a reel tagWhat the tag tells us before we quote
- Storing conductorKeeping cut remnants identifiable between projects
Questions sellers ask
Do you buy VFD cable cut down to short lengths?
Yes, if the tag or the jacket print identifies it. A remnant under a hundred feet with a readable legend is worth quoting. Below roughly twenty feet, and without a tag, it is more likely to be handled as insulated scrap, because there is not enough length left to plan a pull around.
Which shield types do you accept?
Foil, braid, and the combination of both, which is the usual construction for drive cable. We also see cables with a spiral copper shield and a separate drain wire. The shield has to be continuous to the cut end at one end at least, or the cable cannot be reused as drive cable.
Is 2 kV VFD cable bought the same way as 600 V?
The same way, but valued differently, because the higher rating serves medium voltage drives and fewer buyers have a use for a remnant. Bring the rating into the conversation early. A 2 kV length with a clean tag is a specific item rather than a generic shielded cable, and it should be quoted that way.
Can you collect a single reel from a plant?
For one reel we usually work from photos and a freight quote rather than sending a truck, since the carriage can outweigh the cable. Where a plant has several lots together, a collection run makes more sense. Tell us what else sits in the storehouse and we will look at it as one pickup.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Have shielded cable left from a drive job?
Send the tag, the jacket legend and the cut end. We will tell you what it is worth before it moves.
Tennessee only · statewide pickup planning