A hybrid cable is a cable with multiple types of conductors. They can contain various AWG size wires, coaxial and ethernet cables, fiber optics, and even more. They are built with an outer cable jacket that can be heat, moisture, and UV resistant. They also include the type of shielding needed for each installation.
A composite cable contains multiple cables of the same medium. That could be all copper or all fiber. The copper cables can range from single strands to twisted pairs, using both shielded and unshielded cables. Fiber versions often mix single-mode and multi-mode fiber. In both cases, the cables are all bound within the same outer cable jacket used for hybrid cables.
While these are the official TIA definitions for hybrid and composite cables, the terms are often used interchangeably or even combined.
The benefits of these cables are that they provide a much more compact cable than several loose cables. They can also provide remote power and data on the same cable. That means only one cable to stock and manage. Plus, they can be relied upon batch after batch to meet the precise requirements of the installation.
Hybrid composite cables are used for telecommunications, networking, instrumentation, security monitoring, traffic monitoring, inspection measurement, aerospace, and more. The range of industries includes transportation, military, aerospace, process control, industrial automation, cellular installations, and security systems.
