Flexible flat cable (FFC) is a thin, flat electronic piece made up of many strands of wire used in cell phones and laptops. It rarely uses plastic plugs and has small metal pins that fit into receptor holes. FFC is capable of infinite flexing and is commonly bonded to a stronger plastic film. Its size is described by pitch and exposure length.
Flexible flat cable (FFC) is a type of flexible electronic piece made up of many strands of electrical wire placed next to each other in a large, flat assembly. Similar to the ribbon wire used in electronic devices such as computer printers, flexible flat cable is used in cell phones and laptop computers where a space-saving electrical connection is required. Unlike the typical electronic connector, a flexible flat cable rarely uses a large plastic plug soldered to the end of the strands. This type of wire does not use added wire connectors; instead, small metal pins protrude from the end of the flat ribbon and simply fit into the receptor holes in the receiving end of the device.
As electronic devices become thinner and smaller, the method of connecting internal components must also become smaller and smaller. Many manufacturers have abandoned the stranded copper wire typically used in making electronic devices and have adopted single-stranded wire which is encased in a thin, flat plastic sheet. This flexible flat cable is capable of infinitely flexing, bending and folding back on itself without breaking. Thin, flexible flat cable is commonly bonded to a slightly stronger plastic film to give the wire the strength needed to allow a worker to insert the wire into the required receptacle without bending the pins.
The size of a flexible flat cable is described as having a certain pitch. Pitch refers to the distance that the lead wires, used in creating the flat strand, are spaced apart. To find the pitch of an undimensioned flexible flat cable, the width of the flat cable must be divided by the number of connective strands that are inside the outer plastic cable. Since the most common type of plastic jacket used to manufacture cable is colored and not transparent, this is accomplished by counting the number of connector pins that are exposed at the end of the cable.
Another descriptive and dimensional identifier for flexible flat cable is known as the exposure length. This refers to the length of any electrical pins or contacts that have been left exposed at the end of the flat cable. Many cables use what is known as a stiffener at the terminated end of the wire. The stiffener is a thin protective strip that commonly has a conductive material placed on each wire extending from the flat flexible cable. This acts as a type of plug to provide a little more force when inserting the cable into the receiver.
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