Tray cable buying in Maryville, Tennessee
Tray cable accumulates faster than any other family in a plant storehouse. We buy the partial coils and the full ones, sorted by construction and conductor count.
Multi-conductor tray cable coils on warehouse shelving
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.
Tray cable is the general-purpose multi-conductor cable that runs in a plant's cable tray: power, control and signal in one family, from two conductors up to dozens, with or without a ground. Because it covers so much ground, every project buys some, and almost every project finishes with a coil it did not use. The count and the size decide almost everything that follows.
Maryville has two reasons to hold a lot of it. DENSO's plant here runs continuous improvement projects that re-route trays, and the aluminum industry's long history in Blount County left a supplier base that keeps stores of its own. The result is shelves of part-used coils. Both keep stores built for projects rather than for a counter.
Lot basics
- Types
- TC and TC-ER
- Voltage
- 600 V
- Sizes
- 18 AWG to 1,000 kcmil
- Market
- Blount County
The difference that decides where it can go
TC is tray cable rated for use in a cable tray, in conduit or in other recognized raceways. TC-ER adds an exposed run rating, which allows the cable to leave the tray and run without conduit for a limited distance to equipment. The ER marking is printed on the jacket and it changes who can use the cable. An ER marking is a permission, not a quality grade.
A plant project that used TC-ER because a run left the tray will leave TC-ER behind, and that material is more useful than plain TC for the same reason. If the print has faded, look for the ER suffix after the temperature rating. Where it cannot be read, treat the cable as TC and price it as such. Unreadable print always prices at the lower rating.
Pairs, grounds and what the jacket says
A tray cable designation reads as a count and a size: two conductors, three, four, seven, twelve, nineteen. Some have a ground conductor, marked with a G, and some are ungrounded. The number of pairs matters in control and instrumentation work, where a twelve-pair cable is a different product from a twelve-conductor one. Count the conductors at the cut end rather than trusting the carton.
The jacket print also gives the insulation type, the temperature rating, the flame rating, and whether the cable is sunlight resistant or direct burial rated. Those ratings are what an inspector checks. For pricing, the count, the size and the remaining length carry most of the weight, with shielded and armored constructions above plain. A sunlight-resistant jacket matters on a tray that runs outdoors.
How tray cable collects in a storehouse
Every project specifies its own count and size, so the coil left over rarely matches the next job. A seven-conductor 14 AWG coil is useful to one project and useless to another, and stores will not scrap it because it cost real money. It goes on a shelf and stays through several counts. That mismatch is the reason the family accumulates in the first place.
The practical answer is to sort by count and size rather than by project. A rack of two, three and four conductor coils in common sizes will move as a lot; the same coils in job-lot cartons will not. Label each coil with count, size and length, and keep the shielded material on a separate shelf because it prices higher. One rack, one count, one label per coil.
The city and the cable
Maryville plant context and the tray cable its projects leave.
Questions on this lot type
Can TC be used where TC-ER is required?
No. The exposed run rating is what allows the cable to leave the tray without conduit, and plain TC does not carry it. If your print is legible and shows only TC, we price it as TC even if it was installed in a run that needed ER. The rating follows the print, not the job.
Do you buy tray cable with faded print?
Yes, at a TC price unless the ER marking can be verified. A photograph under good light sometimes recovers enough of the print to settle it, and the carton label can help. Where nothing can be read, the coil is bought as unidentified tray cable and priced accordingly. A clear photograph of the print is worth more than a description.
What about armored tray cable?
It is a separate family and prices higher. Interlocked armor or a continuous corrugated sheath changes both the handling and the applications, and buyers for it are looking for the armor type as much as the conductor count. Keep it off the same pallet as unarmored coils. Armor type and conductor count are the two questions a buyer asks.
Are twelve-pair and twelve-conductor the same thing?
No. A twelve-conductor cable has twelve individual conductors; a twelve-pair cable has twenty-four conductors arranged as twelve twisted pairs. The pair construction is what suits signal and control work, and the two are not interchangeable. The print or the carton label should say which you have. Check the carton label before you cut the tie.
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.
Tray cable coils in Blount County?
Send the conductor count, the size and the length on each coil. We will sort TC from TC-ER.
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