O great source of knowledge :)

I am looking for the answer to a question which I have not been able
to find using the Googles on the Interwebs and I am hoping that you
might have the answer.

I have some devices which take 480V, three-phase power and need to be
cord connected, however, they do not come with a cord, you need to
wire that yourself. These are forklift truck battery chargers.

They do not require a neutral connection - inside, there are only four
terminals (X,Y,Z phases and Protective Earth Ground). I want to plug
this in to an L16-20R receptacle (four pin three phase grounded). I
have done this several times before using SO-type cable, 10 or 12
gauge, 4 conductor. Every US UL-listed (non Harmonized) 4 conductor SO
cable I've seen has the following colors in it: green, red, black, and
white. I have been wiring these things using this cable with green as
the PE Ground, and red, black, white as X,Y,Z phases.

Recently, someone pointed out to me that the US National Electrical
Code states that white or gray may never be used as a hot conductor in
a cable (possibly except when household Romex cable is used for
switches and then the white wire needs to be marked with a different
color at each end).

So, when you make a flexible cable for 4-wire, 3-phase, grounded plugs
in the US, what wire colors are you supposed to use? Where can I get
such cable which does not have a white or gray wire in it? It seems
very awkward and wasteful to use 5-wire cable and leave the white wire
unused. The box which the L16-20P plugs come in mentions using 10/4 or
12/4 cable, so they do not seem to anticipate using 5 conductor cable.
They list the colors as green, red, black, blue (or brown), but I've
never seen flexible cable available with this combination of colors.

Can anyone clear this up for me?

Thanks,

Sean
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