ACSR and AAAC, side by side on the drum.

ACSR is aluminium conductor steel reinforced. Hard-drawn 1350 aluminium wires are laid concentrically over a central steel core, and the stranding is written as two numbers, aluminium first and steel second. The steel carries the tension and the aluminium carries the current, which is why the core cannot be ignored.

AAAC is all-aluminium alloy conductor. Every wire is 6201 alloy, heat treated to a temper that gives it the strength the steel would otherwise supply. There is no core to separate, no bimetallic joint and no galvanic couple between two metals, so the whole drum goes one way in processing.

Code names are how the trade refers to a conductor, and they map to a defined stranding and overall diameter. Rail, Drake, Cardinal and Bittern each describe particular aluminium and steel counts. Two conductors with similar names can differ in strand pattern, so the stencil is read rather than guessed.

Stranding also sets the outside diameter, and diameter decides which compression fittings, deadends and suspension clamps will actually close on the conductor. A drum with the right code but an unusual strand pattern is a fitting problem for whoever tries to reuse it, which is why buyers read the full line.

The first question is not about length. It is about construction, because ACSR carries steel that has to be separated before the aluminium has value, and AAAC does not. A mixed lot of both needs sorting before anyone can describe the metal fraction honestly or say what the drum is likely to become.

The second question is alloy. In AAAC the grade and temper decide strength and conductivity, and a buyer wants the stencil rather than an assumption that all aluminium alloy is the same. In ACSR the core type matters, because galvanised steel and aluminium-clad steel behave differently in service and in processing.

Conductor that has been in service carries whatever the atmosphere gave it. A grey surface oxide is normal on aluminium. Pitting, black deposits and strands flattened by a badly set running board are not, and they are pointed out at the drum rather than discovered later by a crew trying to string it.

The strongest lots arrive with the utility's release, a clearance confirming the line is isolated, de-energised and grounded, and the drum list. Where a utility still holds the material under its own disposal process, that process runs first and the review waits. Whether a drum is a surplus asset or scrap follows from those same facts.

Two drums of the same diameter and weight can review differently on construction alone. The stencil is the cheapest piece of evidence in the yard.