Power cords for soldering irons that don't get burned

James Newton wrote 05/22/2019 at 18:30 0 points

So we teach soldering from time to time at the San Diego Makers Guild, and newbies learning to solder don't have extra cycles to spare for watching what they are doing with the tip of the iron and it's power cord. They burn the cords quite often, no matter how carefully we are watching. We are looking into replacing the cords, but I had the bright idea of replacing them with cords that use silicone insulation so it would be harder to melt them... can't find such an animal. Why? Is silicone not a good electrical insulator for AC power for some reason? For now, we are thinking about covering the cords with silicon tubing, but I'm really curious why power cords aren't made of silicone.