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All our products with PTFE outer covering are available in 10 standard electronic colours.  MIL-STD-104 specifies the shade limits with light and dark shades for each colour.  The ten colours with their codes are:
 

Black	0		Green	5
Brown	1		Blue	6
Red	2		Violet	7
Orange	3		Grey	8
Yellow	4
			Natural	N

The British specs, such as BS-2G-210, sometimes specify use of Pinkcolour also. Lighter shades of Blue andGreen offer 2 more choices (minimum order may apply) making a total of 14 solid colours. 

For interconnections requiring larger number of colours, single-striped -- (bi-colours, i.e. solid colour with one distinct coloured stripe) and double-striped (tri-colours -- solid colour with 2 distinct coloured stripes) are also offered by us.  In striped constructions, the common nomenclature to use the base colour as first followed by the stripe colour.  For example, Yellow/Green refers to wire with yellow base and green coloured stripe.

These are generally as per MIL-681-B with some modifications of our own.  For striped colours, caution is advised to see that the contrast between the base and stripe colours is good and they are distinctly visible against each other.  For insulated diameter from 0.5 to 1 mm, one stripe is preferred because two stripes could be confusing.  For diameters above 1 mm, 2 stripes are possible, but 3 stripes are not recommended.

Non-destructible Stripe

It is sometimes noticed that the stripe on the wire can be scraped off with a sharp object.  However, in our case, it is a special feature that the stripe cannot be removed.  This helps in retaining the idenfication properties of colours.  With regard to abrasion, the following clause  of MIL-W-16878is relevant. 

3.6.15Marking and Stripe Durability. A minimum of 125 cycles of the mandrel shall not remove the printed marking or color code stripe from the wire sample (see 4.5.16).

Another related issue is the retention of colour codes (including that of stripe) within the normal use conditions of the wire:

3.5.5 Colors.  Colors shall be in accordance with MIL-STD-104, class I, except pastel colors shall be acceptable when crosslinking is done by irradiation.  When insulation surfaces have been color coded with inks or dyes, they shall be nonconductive, permanently fast and shall not change, face, run, or bleed when used in direct sunlight and within the specific temperature rating of the insulation used.

Scheme 1. In one colour scheme followed by us, in case of some confusion, i.e., lack of colour contrast or sharp definition, the colour coding scheme will help in clearing the doubts.  For example on a given body colour (which according to MIL standard can only be white and in some exceptional cases can be natural), the first stripe will be with the lowest colour code identification number, the second stripe can be only any one of the next higher code numbers.  Thus, taking 9 as code for white body, it would be possible to have 918, but not 933 or 932.  The advantage of this scheme is the availability of a larger number of colour combinantions in one and two stripes without the need of more expensive and clumsy three-stripe combinations (as will be necessary in MIL Standards).  This scheme is as given below:

SINGLE STRIPES: Left digit is body colour and right digit is stripe colour.

MIL-STD-681-B        Our Modifications

          90                   90    80    70    60    50    40    30    20
          91                   91    81    71    61    51    41    31
          92                   92    82    72    62    52    42    32
          93                   93    83    73    63    53    43
          94                   94    84    74    64    54
          95                   95    85    75    65
          96                   96    86
          97                   97
          98                   98

Similarly for the double stripes.

Scheme 2.After careful review of possible colour combinations, we have drawn up a list of good combinations and these are given below.  These are based on experience and not approved by any MIL Standards and the user must accept full responsibility.
 

In spite of above recommendations, our customers sometimes specify various other colour combinations and we try our best to give good colour contrast for each selected bi- or tri-colour. 
 

        For Free Design Service, Contact: mukul@druflon.com; druflon@gmail.com; nkrishna@druflon.com