KVV Cable Cross-Reference: GB/T 9330 vs IEC 60227 and BS 6004

01What a control cable is, before the code letters

A control cable does not carry power to a load. It carries the signals that decide what the power does: close and trip commands, status and interlock signals, relay and contactor coil circuits, analogue and digital I/O between a PLC and the field. The conductor cross-sections are small — 0.5 to 10 mm² in the Chinese family — and the circuit is a low-current one, but the cable still runs through the same trays, ducts and trenches as the power cable next to it, and it has to keep its signal clean while it does so.

That combination — low current, small cross-section, many cores, installed alongside power — is what the standards below are written around. It is also why a control cable is one of the most mis-cited products in the market: because the voltage is 450/750 V, the same as some PVC wiring cable, a datasheet will often reach for the wiring standard and stop there.

02GB/T 9330: the Chinese reference, and what it actually covers

China's control cable standard is a three-part document:

• GB/T 9330.1-2008 — General requirements. Sets the product code, the marking rules, the technical requirements and the inspection rules for plastic insulated control cables up to 450/750 V.
• GB/T 9330.2-2008 — PVC insulated and PVC sheathed. The part that the common KVV, KVVR, KVVP and KVVP2 types answer to.
• GB/T 9330.3-2008 — XLPE insulated. The cross-linked polyethylene insulated types — the KYJ series.

The scope of Part 1 states the object plainly: it specifies the product code, marking, technical requirements and inspection rules for extruded-insulated and sheathed control cables of rated voltage U₀/U 450/750 V and below, and applies to cables used in control, monitoring and protection circuits at that voltage.

The single most misquoted fact on a KVV datasheet

The rated voltage of this family is 450/750 V, and it is the only class. A datasheet that lists “300/500 V and 450/750 V” together is describing two different products: 300/500 V belongs to the GB/T 5023 family of PVC insulated cables and cords, not to GB/T 9330. There is no second voltage option to select.

03The product code, decoded field by field

The Chinese control cable code is positional. Read it left to right and each letter or digit names one physical layer or one construction feature.

Reading the construction field

Two fields do the work that catches people out. The first is the screen field: P is a copper wire braid, P2 is a copper tape and P3 is an aluminium/plastic laminate. The second is the armour field, written with the classic two-digit convention: 22 is double steel-tape armour with a PVC oversheath, 33 is steel-wire armour with a PE oversheath. A designation like KVVP2-22 therefore means braid-free tape screen and steel-tape armour in one cable, and its minimum bending radius is set by the tape, not by the plain construction.

These fields combine. The standard itself gives five worked examples in clause 4.2.5, and they cover most of the family:

04IEC 60227: the standard that is most often cited, and why it does not fit

IEC 60227 is the international standard for PVC insulated cables of rated voltage up to and including 450/750 V. The voltage matches, which is exactly why the mistake happens. But the standard's own scope names what it covers: rigid and flexible cables with PVC insulation used in power installations of nominal voltage not exceeding 450/750 V AC, with the particular types set out in Parts 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the series.

Those parts divide the product up like this:

• IEC 60227-3 — non-sheathed cables for fixed wiring (single-core, rigid and flexible).
• IEC 60227-4 — sheathed cables for fixed wiring, light PVC sheathed at 300/500 V.
• IEC 60227-5 — flexible cables and cords, up to 300/500 V.
• The series also carries parts for lift cables and for screened flexible multicore cables, each again divided by product type rather than by application.

Fixed wiring cable, sheathed wiring cable, flexible cord. There is a type list and a code for each — 60227 IEC 01, 60227 IEC 10, 60227 IEC 52/53, and so on — and none of those codes describes a many-core control cable with a braid or tape screen. The family that IEC 60227 produces is a wiring and cord family, not a control cable family.

Where GB/T 5023 fits, and why it is still not the answer

China's PVC wiring standard, GB/T 5023, is the one that corresponds to IEC 60227: GB/T 5023.1-2008 is identical to IEC 60227-1:2007 — its cover states IDT, unlike the power cable standard GB/T 12706.1, which is only MOD from IEC 60502-1. GB/T 5023 is split the same way as IEC 60227 is: Part 1 general requirements, Part 2 test methods, Part 3 non-sheathed cable for fixed wiring, Part 4 sheathed cable for fixed wiring, Part 5 flexible cords, Part 6 lift cable, Part 7 screened and unscreened flexible multicore.

So the wiring family maps cleanly across the two systems — but a control cable is still not in it. GB/T 9330 and GB/T 5023 are two different Chinese standards for two different products, and neither is the control cable in the other's clothing.

05BS 6004 and BS 6500: the British wiring and cord standards

The British standard most often cited in place of GB/T 9330 is BS 6004. It is the standard for PVC insulated, non-armoured cables for voltages up to and including 450/750 V, for electric power, lighting and internal wiring — again a wiring standard, again not a control cable standard.

What matters for cross-referencing is that BS 6004 has narrowed. In its current edition, BS 6004:2012+A1:2020, the scope is specifically 300/500 V PVC insulated and PVC sheathed cable for electric power and lighting, covering the British national types 6181Y, 6192Y, 6241Y, 6242Y, 6243Y and the low-temperature arctic flexes. The harmonised single-core wiring cables — 6491X, 6491B and the H05V/H07V family — were moved out of BS 6004 and BS 7211 in September 2012 and now sit in the BS EN 50525 series. A British datasheet that cites BS 6004 for a flexible or a 450/750 V single-core cable may be using the citation loosely.

BS 6500 was the British standard for flexible cords rated up to 300/500 V for domestic and office appliances — the flexible-cord family. It has been withdrawn. It was superseded by BS EN 50525-1:2011 together with BS EN 50525-2-11, -2-12, -2-21 and -2-71:2011. The BS 6500 cord names are still used in the trade alongside the harmonised codes, but BS 6500 itself is not a current British Standard.

06The screen, decoded: P, P2, P3 and the “shielded” question

Three screen types appear in the GB/T 9330 code, and they are not interchangeable.

• P — copper wire braid. Made from soft or tin-plated round copper wire with a braid density of not less than 80 %.
• P2 — copper tape. Soft copper tape 0.05 to 0.10 mm thick, applied overlapping.
• P3 — aluminium/plastic laminate tape. 0.05 to 0.10 mm, applied overlapping — a foil screen rather than a copper one.

The braid and the tape do different jobs for different frequencies, and the choice changes the mechanical behaviour of the cable as well: a taped or armoured construction raises the minimum bending radius, so a screened type cannot be pulled round the same bend as a plain one without crushing the screen.

07What does not translate

Four points where the cross-reference is not a simple letter swap.

1. There is no IEC “control cable” standard to map onto

GB/T 9330 is a Chinese product standard for a product family — plastic insulated control cable — that the IEC and British systems do not carry under that name. IEC 60227 covers PVC wiring cable by voltage; BS 6004 covers PVC non-armoured wiring cable; the closest European product names, such as CY or SY flexible screened control cable, are trade families rather than the scope of a single numbered standard. The honest cross-reference is: quote GB/T 9330 where the product is a GB control cable, and do not relabel it with a foreign standard whose scope excludes it.

2. The voltage class is not shared with the wiring standard

Because both the GB control cable and some GB wiring cable are rated 450/750 V, it is tempting to treat them as the same class. They are not the same product. The control family has one rating, 450/750 V; the 300/500 V figure belongs to the wiring and cord family. A datasheet that lists both is describing two products.

3. The screen letter means different things in different systems

In the GB code, P, P2 and P3 are the screen types. In other conventions a “P” or “S” can mean the screen is present without saying which kind. Never assume a foreign product with an “S” or a “shielded” label has the same screen construction as a KVVP; check the screen type in the construction drawing.

4. Flame-retardant is a prefix, not a default

A standard KVV is not a flame-retardant product. It passes the single-core vertical flame test to IEC 60332-1, which is a different test from the bunched-flame classes in GB/T 19666. Flame-retardant versions are ordered by adding the class to the code — ZA-, ZB- or ZC- — with the matching compound. Fire-resistant types carry an N- prefix and low-smoke halogen-free types WDZ-.

08What this page publishes, and what it will not

This page gives the standard relationships, the code decode and the construction facts. It does not decide whether a specific product complies with a specific project specification, and it does not state certification outcomes — those are confirmed against the certificate for the exact construction, and by the receiving authority for your project. Where a figure is a published product parameter rather than a clause of a standard, it is presented as such; where a standard's table value is not in our library, the page points to the table and does not invent the number.

Reviewed by Luo Qiang — Senior Cable Application Engineer, Sorivo
15+ years in industrial and renewable energy cable specification. Experienced in cable specification aligned with IEC standards.

How this was written: every figure in this article is checked against the standard or datasheet listed in Sources before publication. Where a value is our own measurement, it is labelled as such.