Diagonal pliers

A wire cutter or (more rarely) Saitenschneider is a pair of pliers for cutting, ie cutting, especially of wires or strings by cutting wedge. The etymology of the name - and thus the spelling of - this tool is obviously controversial: Many are derived from the name of the task of cutting strings, others by the arrangement of the cutting edge, which is arranged laterally as opposed to the front cutter or center cutter. The side cutter is particularly used in electrical installations to cut the individual wires of a cable. It is using the leverage possible to cut quite strong veins (greater than 2.5 mm ² ) when the wire is placed as close to the hinge of the pliers.

There are various designs of these pliers. Heavy duty side cutters particularly large side cutter and also for cutting hard wires are usually suitable, some have similar bolt cutters, a mechanical translation. For mounting on circuit boards small side cutters with one side, not V-shaped, ground cutting edges used ( without side face ), which allow to separate the ends of wired components very tightly over the board.

For security reasons, often VDE-tested tongs must be used with insulating handles.