Editing Wire wrap (section)

{{Short description|Electronic component wiring technique}}
{{about|electronics manufacturing and prototyping techniques|the jewelry-related topic|Wire wrapped jewelry}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2023}}
[[file:Wire Wrapping.jpg|thumb|Close-up of a wire-wrap connection]]
[[file:Crossbar-banjo1-hy.jpg|thumb|Typical wire wrap construction of [[Bell System]] telephone [[crossbar switch]]. Some types of connection were soldered.]]

'''Wire wrap''' is an electronic component assembly technique that was invented to wire [[telephone]] [[crossbar switch]]es, and later adapted to construct electronic [[circuit board]]s. [[Electronic component]]s mounted on an insulating board are interconnected by lengths of [[insulated wire]] run between their  terminals, with the connections made by wrapping several turns of uninsulated sections of the wire around a component lead or a socket pin.

Wires can be wrapped by hand or by machine, and can be hand-modified afterwards. It was popular for large-scale manufacturing in the 1960s and early 1970s, and continues today  to be used for short runs and [[prototype]]s. The method eliminates the design and fabrication of a [[printed circuit board]]. Wire wrapping is unusual among other prototyping technologies since it allows for complex assemblies to be produced by automated equipment, but then easily repaired or modified by hand.

Wire wrap construction can produce assemblies that are more reliable than printed circuits: connections are less prone to fail due to vibration or physical stresses on the base board, and the lack of [[solder]] eliminates [[Soldering#Electronics soldering|soldering]] faults such as corrosion, cold joints and dry joints. The connections themselves are firmer and have lower electrical resistance due to [[cold welding]] of the wire to the terminal post at the corners.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Wire wrap was used for assembly of high frequency prototypes and small production runs, including gigahertz microwave circuits and [[supercomputer]]s. It is unique among automated prototyping techniques in that wire lengths can be exactly controlled, and twisted pairs or magnetically shielded twisted quads can be routed together.

Wire wrap construction became popular around 1960 in circuit board manufacturing, and use has now sharply declined. [[Surface-mount technology]] has made the technique comparatively much less useful than in previous decades. Solder-less [[breadboard]]s and the decreasing cost of professionally made PCBs have nearly eliminated this technology.