What is the difference between SWG and AWG?

Wire size standards are essential as it gives numerical chart of used wire sizes which are easy to remember. But one of the issues with these standards is that they are not always compatible with themselves. A good instance for this is the AWG and SWG wire. One major difference between this two wires is their place of origin. AWG originated from North America, basically Canada and the United States and it means American Wire Gauge, while SWG originated from the United Kingdom, and it means British Standards Wire Gauge, leaving the ‘British’ part. When compared, the British Standard Wire Gauge would be bigger in size or diameter than the American Wire Gauge, though they are of the same gauge.

Their number of steps is another difference between the wires, as SWG as 50 steps, which makes the diameter of the wire to be the thinnest of 0.001 inches. On the other hand, AWG has only 40 steps and 0.003 inches diameter is the smallest under it.

If you have ever tried to wire something, you may go to the hardware store to purchase wires or look online. You may notice that there are numbers attached to these wires. That is because not all wires are the same. There are different sizes of wires. You will need to know the right type and size of a wire before installing it because not all wires will fit.

Two types of wires are known as the SWG and the AWG. The SWG wire stands for the Standard Wire Gauge and the AWG wire stands for the American Wire Gauge. The main difference between these two types of wires is where they came from. The SWG is the British wire and the AWG came from North America.