today we're going to take a look at Atkore's Flexicon conduit range.
flexible friend here gary it is flexible unbelievably flexible
now you may recognize the rig behind us it's what we installed to show how we use this flat cable
system to speed up EV charge points and in this system we've already used the flexicon conduit
to bring the power in and that was the first time we featured a flexible conduit on the channel now
today we're going to look at how we can use flexicon to speed up the installation of the
actual ev charge device yeah so stay on for that part of the video we'll purpose built it on the
bench as if you were doing it pre-going to site using the flexicon and the cables required for it
shall we take a look at the products we've gotten from there's so many to look at gorgeous
it's a big range i didn't realize there's much in the conduit range um i guess the let's go
let's do the easy one how how to cut it so we've got these uh normal plastic conduit cutters here
and again just put your conduit in something quite simple it's fine that's a nice clean
edge there if you use the hacksaw you'd probably end up trying to deburr it and things like that
little top tip if you don't want your conduit ricocheting around the room when you cut it Gordon
it's just that when you start the cutting process just to give it a little turn so i've just turned
that obviously the flexi conduit doesn't fly off then we'll be up to next and then obviously the
next bit a gland so there's different glands the glands set the ip rating what's the range of the
ip range from ip66 which is this gland here all the way up to ip69 we'll have a look at that gland
a bit but let's have a look at how easy it is to fit this gland so let's see how simple it is
to connect the flexi con so simply push it into the gland gordon that's it and that's it secured
very easy now should you need to shorten the conduit uh you know you've made a mistake or
something like that need to remove it again again it's just push the screwdriver into that slot the
side twist around to the off position okay just get a closer look at that yeah see and then once
it's in that position it just pulls out right and i'll take it to reverse position back to one again
back to one and then push in and then that's not going anywhere right okay so what are you doing
now then so this is uh same conduit different gland system so this gets us an IP68 or IP69.
we didn't need it in this install we're just seeing what the difference in the glands looks
like so you get an o-ring so again that can be important to to get those higher ip ratings
but it's the same principle it just pushes in but to get again the high p rating you need
to put the seal over the end but once that's on simple process push it in again push it in again
okay i just had a little check to make sure that was all the way through
really easy so the clips themselves got a little groove in here that sits inside the
actual flexicon yeah so it matches the grooves on the connector so it doesn't so once it's
fixed into the clip it can't move up or down so really secure right and that just flips over and
click into place how easy it made to remove just yet screwdriver in and leave it open
so i think that demonstrates how easy the flexicon system is to use gordon but where would we use it
traditionally in the electrical industry it's a lot of the time you're thinking when you're
connecting to vibrating equipment or motors things like that used a lot in industry yeah
yeah and obviously but we used it here in a fixed installation and we've used it so obviously we
can build this off-site should we have a look at how we use flexicon to build this unit
so we can use the bungs again we used them with the Tuff sheath cable on the top of the actual
enclosure itself so i'm going to trim this back in order that i can go over the top of my flexicon
so just going to trim it back using the knife i like a tight fit in here so i'm going to be pretty
slim with the cut in order that it securely fits around the flexicon yeah so this the charge
obviously has a different ip concept so we're not using the ip66 rating of the flexicon at
this stage check out that other video about the charger uh to find out about that okay so yeah
it's on it is tight so what i did was i pulled it back in reverse so now i could obviously move it
a little bit easier up and down there we go i'm in position now ready to introduce it into the
easy ev charger okay so it's gone in exactly the same as any grommet would it's held into position
there's a clamp on the inside yeah people probably think i could just use the standard gland there
you probably couldn't because those holes are angled towards the back of the unit as well so
you would struggle to get clearance there yeah we discussed that in a video so it's worth checking
it out so nip these into position again the appropriate tightness not to crush the flexicon
nice torque screws we should use more of them in the electrical industry i like them
okay so cable mate out so we're going to be introducing our class five conductors yes
Tri-rated cable here so again so i've got uh good flexible conductors in there
and so you're building this completely off-site so the idea is you take this along
uh sort of pre-wired and terminated ready to connect to our eb charging system that's already
installed yeah absolutely so we're in now just going to strip a few uh conductors back so you're
right it's class five tri-rated cable gentle twist and I'm going to introduce the ferrules
so yeah we're good to use ferrules in this instance because they're going into
a screw type terminal so there's no cage clamp in there so if we didn't have a fair one there we
could obviously damage those classified flexible conductors yeah and again so general twist and we
go a few uh strands hanging over the end and crimp it up and i'm going to make the connections in the
Easee EV charger but I'd leave the actual tightening to the required torque centre to be confirmed on
site so they're nipped in there nice and neat yeah and the beauty now is i know the lengths
the other end so we've got our measurements here for our conductor length so i can actually
cut and ferrule the other end so when you're on site it's just a simple case of inserting it into
the final connecting position so trim them back
and again i'm going to ferrule these ends i can get the required length so i'll give it a
fraction longer if you've seen the other video i reckon you could just be a little bit longer
and because they're tri-rated cables obviously even more flexible to bend around so i've gone
a little bit longer than the 150 recommended there just a little bit and obviously they could shorten
as you bend and flex that conduit as well so you probably need that little bit of tolerance
yeah so trim them all back to required length well beautiful system you can do it off-site
you know a nice warm bench build them all up so that's uh you're not using ferrules with
the plastic ends on gary why is that it just makes it a little bit easier to insert it into
our connecting final position without having the little uh shields on them all right so what
you pass it through the glands yeah absolutely yeah so just fill these up and then we'll be uh
ready to take that to site then so but bundle bunch is ready okay both ends
now introduce it yeah so you'll see how easy it is now to get them in without having the
the plastic sections on the ferrules and they go just fold them into position and then we go
so check out the other video for the connections and how we made them and obviously the the full
talking about them so just oh look at that so you just push that in there really easy how that
goes in the background and this is very satisfying using the clips we'll have a click yeah click and
then we go that's that and then obviously just got to talk these up to required talk settings
in order to finish the install but it was easier with the class five tri-rated cables in order
to get those in so step back and have a look at now what it looks like finished
you'd be made that up off-site your flexicon would be obviously cut to length easily installed
on site pushed into the connecting gland there final connections done so you know we love on
the channel products that save electrician's time and i think we demonstrated in that video clip
that the flexicon will save electrician's time by giving the modular build off-site and allowing
you a quick installation when you get on the side yeah now obviously one thing to note is
obviously when you move to flexible conduit you do lose a little bit of the inner diameter of
the conduit itself it tends to be tends to be a bit narrower and this range goes all the way from
10 to 67 millimetres right but that corresponds to an inside diameter of between 6 and 56 so you
know particularly lose quite a bit on the smaller conduits okay yeah and so you can see there as i
put those uh cables in there there's plenty room for the five six millimeters we showed
in there those tri-rated cables yeah just that's just a little top tip isn't it yeah we look at
the outside of a conduit and we probably could just make a mental slight adjustment there for
this flexicon it's a little bit smaller on the inside yeah when it comes to range now
okay you just you're normally used to seeing these on the shelf these pre-packs you get with the
glands and the clips all included but the range that flexi can do on this is absolutely immense
obviously for lots of different applications you can have ones with higher crush ratings a lot of
them you get a degree of flame retardance in there as well and we picked one the fps system for the
install we made here to match the ip rating of our um system but also the low smoke and fume
of the cabling system that we'd installed come in a vast number of uh different colors as well
gordon as we go through and this is a huge catalog we'll see some of the pages you have to look at
the clips that we've got there we've got the seals to increase the ip rating as we come through so it
is extensive what are these so then an extensive range of glands obviously you can have 90 degree
gland entry you can have angled there's even some y ones in there as well to combine multiple
conduits as well the thought of everything i would suggest so that pack we normally see on the
wholesaler shelf actually when you delve into the website there is a lot more to it
yeah so then when you think temperature rating as well i mean it's plastic but actually even
this temperature goes from minus 40 all the way up to plus 120 degrees now that's um that's not
probably something we're going to worry about in this installation but again remember the temperature
is important especially when you get to the ip69 rating can you remember that one gary yeah so
we're talking about hosing it down maybe with hot water for the ip69 rating yes i think possibly
the food industry applications things like that now then we have also made a short video showing
how you can thread wire through long lengths of flexible conduit using a vacuum cleaner so
i'll put a i'll put a link for that in the eye above my head on the description below yeah we
think our video is fantastic and a good bit of fun however this range is immense we absolutely
love it it was really easy to work with and ever so easy to click in and click out so it's almost
a go-to for us in this type of installations now perhaps over the tough sheath cable that we used
previously wasn't it Gordon as always we're interested in your comments are you currently
using this range from accord the flexicon if you are what are you using it for leave those
comments below is there somebody in the comments struggling and you know the answer could you
help us out by answering it we will also try and get back to as many of those comments as we can