Professional cable manufacturer
Engineering tool · Standard cross-reference
One type code in. Every standard out.
Type a cable designation — YJV, THHN, KVV, H07RN-F, H1Z2Z2-K, TECK90, N2XY — and the tool returns every national and international standard that names it, the product code each system uses, and the adoption label that tells you whether the codes actually correspond.
15Product families mapped
40+Standards indexed
6Naming systems
3Adoption labels decoded
Result
Waiting for a type code
Start from any designation on a quotation.
The index holds 15 product families across six naming systems. Type a code, a standard number or an application, or start with one of the six that get asked about most.
Schedule parser
A customer schedule is a list, not a type code.
Paste the rows as they were written — 3Cx95 mm² PVC/SWA/PVC 0.6/1 kV, 4Cx35+1Cx16, THHN 12 AWG, NYY-J 4x35. Every line is decoded field by field and matched to a Chinese type. Any field the line leaves out stays blank and is named, rather than filled in with a guess.
Build-up finder
No type code? Describe the build instead.
A customer cable schedule rarely carries a standard type. It carries the construction — 3G95, PVC insulation, SWA armour, 0.6/1 kV. Set the six fields and the finder writes the Chinese type and shows which letters each part of the build earns.
Chinese type
VV32
VV32-0.6/1 kV 3×95 mm²
GB/T 12706.1-2020
VPVC insulation
3Round steel-wire armour - shafts and risers where the cable carries its own weight
2PVC oversheath, set by the second digit
-No separate sheath letter: the armour code already carries the oversheath
An armoured build writes the armour and the oversheath as two digits after the insulation letter. Adding a sheath letter as well is a common drafting error.
The index
Fifteen product families, every naming system in one index
Every row is a product family that more than one system names. Click any family to load its full cross-reference. Blank cells are deliberate — they mark where no genuine equivalent exists, not where a lookup is missing.
The framework
Eight standard families, and which one is the parent
Almost every cable specification traces back to one of eight bodies. Four of them adopt rather than author; three — UL and NEC, CSA, and AS/NZS — stand outside IEC altogether and generate their own type codes.
| Family | Role | What it governs | Examples you will meet |
|---|---|---|---|
| IEC | Parent for most of the world | International base documents for cables and their accessories | IEC 60227 · IEC 60502 · IEC 62930 |
| GB / GB/T / JB/T | Adopter (IDT / MOD / NEQ) | National standards; GB is mandatory, GB/T recommended, JB/T industry level | GB/T 5023 · GB/T 12706 · GB/T 9330 |
| EN (CENELEC) | Adopter, then re-exporter | EU harmonised standards, adopted nationally as BS EN, DIN EN, NF EN | EN 50525 · EN 50618 · HD 603 S1 |
| BS | Mixed | Some harmonised with CENELEC, some independent national documents | BS 5467 · BS 6724 · BS 6387 · BS 7671 |
| UL + NEC | Independent | UL writes product-safety standards; NEC (NFPA 70) writes the installation code | UL 83 · UL 44 · UL 1277 · NEC Art. 310 |
| CSA | Independent | Canada's national system; a listing in one country does not carry into the other | CSA C22.2 No. 38 · No. 51 · No. 131 |
| DIN / VDE | Mostly EN-aligned | National designations running in parallel with the EN version | VDE 0295 · HD 361 designations |
| AS/NZS | Independent, IEC-influenced | National standards with their own type codes, used across Oceania | AS/NZS 5000.1 · AS/NZS 1802 · AS/NZS 3013 |
IDT
Identical
The national standard is the IEC text, with only editorial changes such as a decimal separator or a deleted foreword. The type codes correspond one for one.
Worked exampleGB/T 5023.1-2008 is IDT to IEC 60227-1:2007. The cover carries the label itself. Substitution is a paperwork exercise, not an engineering one.
MOD
Modified
Built on the IEC text but with changed technical content — thickness rules, test parameters, added grades. The standard maps; the type code does not.
Worked exampleGB/T 12706.1-2020 is MOD from IEC 60502-1:2004. YJV has no IEC counterpart by name, and a table value read off one document may not hold in the other.
NEQ
Independent
The national system is its own construction; the IEC document is at most a reference. Nothing maps at the code level.
Worked exampleThere is no IEC equivalent of the North American building-wire codes. THHN exists under UL 83 and nowhere else — compare ratings and construction, then decide from scratch.
Decoding
Three letter systems, three different logics
A Chinese code encodes materials. A North American code encodes ratings. A European code is positional, and each field states a fact. Reading one with the rules of another is the most common decoding error on a quotation.
Chinese GB/T codes
Letters state materials
YJXLPE insulation. Always comes first — it is the insulation, never the sheath.
VPVC, and it can appear twice for two different jobs: insulation in BVR, sheath in RVV.
YPE oversheath when it is the last letter — YJY, YJLY. Lighter and lower-smoke than PVC.
LAluminium conductor. YJLV is the aluminium member of the YJV family.
KControl cable. The series code — everything after it is material and construction.
P / P2 / P3Braided / copper-tape / aluminium-plastic film screen. KVVP · KVVP2 · KVVP3.
22 / 32Two digits, two facts. In KVV22 the first 2 is the armour, the second 2 is the oversheath.
RFlexible stranding for mobile laying — KVVR, BVR, RVV.
North American UL codes
Letters state ratings
TThermoplastic insulation — in practice PVC. The default insulation family.
XCross-linked (thermoset) insulation — XLPE. Holds its rating wet or dry, unlike PVC.
RThermoset rubber insulation, used in the RHW family.
HHeat resistant, 75 °C. One H is the 75 °C claim.
HH90 °C in dry locations. The second H raises the dry rating.
WMoisture resistant, wet locations. Without W a type is dry-location only.
NNylon outer jacket — abrasion and oil resistance, lower pulling friction.
-290 °C in both wet and dry locations. A wet-location rating, not a version number.
European HAR codes
Fields state facts
HHarmonised type — the designation is common across CENELEC countries.
03 / 05 / 07Voltage field. 03 = 300/300 V · 05 = 300/500 V · 07 = 450/750 V.
V / R / ZInsulation. PVC (V2 = 90 °C grade) · rubber or EPR · cross-linked halogen-free.
V / N / ZSheath. PVC · polychloroprene · cross-linked halogen-free.
U / R / K / FConductor class. Solid Class 1 · stranded Class 2 · fine-wire Class 5 · extra-flexible Class 5·6.
H07RN-FWorked: harmonised, 450/750 V, rubber insulation, polychloroprene sheath, extra-flexible — the heavy portable rubber cable.
H07V-KWorked: single-core PVC, fine-wire, panel wire at the same voltage. The closest European analogue of a BVR.
6491XBritish numeric designation for the same product — a different naming route to the same build.
Limits
What does not translate
Four things survive a cross-reference as false friends. Each one has a specific failure mode, and each one costs money when it is missed at the quotation stage.
Certification does not travel
CCC, CE marking and UL listing are separate systems with separate scopes. A CE declaration does not make a cable acceptable where CCC is required, and certification attaches to the exact construction rather than to a family.
Flame and smoke classes do not convert
China's flame scheme is a national classification; Europe's CPR scheme is a construction-product classification with letter grades; IEC's flame tests are methods, not classes. No conversion table exists.
Metric and AWG are two scales
The nearest AWG to a metric size is not electrically identical — strand count, conductor class and current rating can differ where the physical area is close. Compare on current rating and voltage drop.
Voltage notation means different things
Chinese and IEC practice writes the rating as U0/U — phase-to-earth and phase-to-phase, with Um reserved for maximum system voltage. North American practice writes a single number, such as 600 V. The two are not a straight translation, and a system's nominal voltage is not the same as the cable's rated voltage.
Questions
What buyers ask before they trust a cross-reference
Answers below are the ones that change a purchase order. Where a document was not obtained, the answer stops at the standard name rather than filling the gap.
When can I substitute one standard's cable for another without checking?
Only when the Chinese standard is an identical adoption of the IEC one. GB/T 5023.1-2008 is IDT to IEC 60227-1:2007, so the type codes correspond one for one. GB/T 12706.1-2020 is only modified from IEC 60502-1:2004, so the standard maps but the type code does not — check the construction and the test values, not the name.
Why does the tool show a dash instead of a product code for some countries?
A dash marks a genuine gap, not a missing lookup. North American building-wire codes have no GB/T counterpart because THHN is defined by UL 83 and belongs to a letter system that encodes ratings rather than materials. Mining and trailing cable appears under AS/NZS 1802 and ICEA S-75-381 because those are the systems that publish it. Filling those cells with a "nearest" code would be the single most damaging thing a cross-reference table can do.
My enquiry says "IEC 60502-1 cable". Is that a product?
No. A standard number is not a type code. A buyer means a construction, an engineer means a test regime, and a factory means a code that may or may not be called the same thing in Chinese. YJV is the Chinese type code for the 0.6/1 kV XLPE/PVC build; IEC 60502-1 names the test regime that build answers to. Quotations fail at exactly this seam.
Does "CE" or "UL" on the drum mean the cable is accepted on my project?
Compliance with one system does not carry into another. CE marking, CCC and UL listing are separate schemes with separate scopes, and certification attaches to the exact construction rather than to a family. That determination belongs to the accepting authority on the project, so treat any claim of equivalence in a quotation as a question to be verified.
Can I convert a metric cross-section directly to AWG?
Compare them on current rating and voltage drop rather than on physical area. Metric cross-section and AWG are both nominal designations, and the nearest equivalent often differs in strand count and conductor class, which changes the rating. A cable that looks like the same size on paper can carry a different current.
How current is this index?
The index is built from the standard documents and standard records referenced on the SORIVO standard cross-reference articles, and the adoption labels — IDT, MOD, NEQ — are taken from the standards themselves rather than inferred. Where a document was not obtained, the entry stops at the standard name. Edition years matter: GB/T 33594 and NB/T 42073 are not interchangeable across editions.