today we're going to take a look at Atkore Flexicon Connecta box
it always is with Flexicon
it is yeah and we've got other videos on the channel where we've reviewed the flexible conduit
from Atkore and i recommend you check them out if you haven't already seen them but today we're
going to be looking at this connector box yeah so is it a conduit box is it an enclosure well it's a
combination of the two but the flexi in this isn't necessarily just about the flexible conduit it's
about the flexibility you get with this enclosure system so i have a little look at the key features
okay let's have a look at them so the first thing you're going to spot here wow that's a massive
hole and there's loads of them in it yeah so this is how it comes and then the case is how you plug
those holes up so the one thing you can do is put a blank module in but then the rest is all
down to these adapters for the conduit system now we've seen the flexicon glands before for
conventional boxes you have threads on this has got a special locking mechanism that mates with
that box and that all-important boring seal okay that looks quite a small conduit going
in the end there is yeah that's 16 mil so again if you remember the flexicon it's all toolless
so to attach the conduit to the uh the lock ring there it's just a case of pushing it
in and then if you look on the inside you can see it's right up against that blue boring seal
and this is ip66 ip67 68 69 okay so in order to get to that it is in the case of you tester ip69
it gives you the rest of them that's your test to all of those stages all the way through yeah a lot
of people make that mistake yeah it's ip60 oh it's tested under water so therefore it's okay in an
ip66 application that's not necessarily so because the actual test procedure is very very different
they're also uv resistant is that right as well yeah so this yeah with that high ip
ratings across that range uv resistance extreme temperature ranges this is yeah a high performance
yeah enclosure okay so we've now got a 16 mil conduit going into there with that large hole can
we use it for any of the other side yeah we can so i'll just i'll just plug that one in there we'll
look at how you do that tallest is always pushing and twisting push and twist and then if i take
this same solar adapter but obviously for a bigger contour obviously bigger so we can
see the o-ring seal in there okay yeah and then you just again push the conduit in and this is
34 mm diameter yeah yeah push that one all the the way in and then you can see it's all the way up
to the blue seal it is yeah that means that's it that's in there that's not going anywhere
and that would fit in the same size hole in the box we're just showing for the 16.
yeah and then push and twist plugs in that's it so it's a toolless assembly i like that great system
so i guess you know we've we've been messing around with this because we've got an application
for it and we've built one up that we're going to use on the channel so should we have a look
at what we've done to assemble this and some of the other features we'll start off by fixing down
our connector box there's four external fixings why is that so good gordon yeah so you're not
going to have to drill through the back of the box and risk damaging the IP rating an IP right
in here we can see we've got a little o-ring yeah so this is a blanking plug so again these
are very easy to put in so you just align these marks here push into players and turn so i'll
use this coin that you found for us gary there's a story behind that we don't need to go into that
so let's lock that into position so we sit from the other side you'll see that locking mechanism
and we push and it just catches in yeah just that latch here if you need to remove it you just push
that down and then reverse the process to come out so we're going to now assemble a din rail into the
box we'll just shut this short length of din rail and then we're going to fix it to an accessory
plate that goes in now you can have it raised off if you want to pass wires underneath or another
option is to put it a bit close to the back of the box that's clever so it's both on the same plate
you know in two different positions yes we've got the screw bosses in there and then it just aligns
with some tabs that are inside the box do you have to screw that down or is it held in place no so
that's going to be held in place when we bring in the glands in the box so importantly you put it in
before the glands obviously it's not difficult to remove them if you had to if you forgot that
but so i've put that in there now and then it's going to just locking the glands into place so
just slot the flexicon conduit into the adapter again no tool required just push them into place
exactly the same motion push it in and we'll just hit lock into place yeah yeah yeah great
that's nice and secure yeah yeah the clips we've seen in the previous video we've looked at flexion
will love those clips i do yeah that's what it's in so we'll do one on the other side
exactly the same process push it into position yeah no tool just lock it into yeah very nice
so this box is good it's almost like it's a combination between a box and a sort of regular
conduit box really as well and the diameter room we've got in there to work in is 110 mil so
there's plenty of room in there yeah so i've used that space to put into these din rail terminals
yep again just put the end blocks on a lot of people forget to put them in
just to stop them sliding apart so there you go as a five-way din rail terminal block in there
and then it's in case just putting the lid on so again the lid there's two little tabs for the lid
to lock into place okay but what's going to hold the lid on then you've got the separate ring here
so twist that on okay i can hear it ratcheting down so that that ratchets into position
it will lock that's an anti-vibration uh locking mechanism there so once that lid's locked in place
it to undo it you'd have to push the little tab down like that then spin it off okay
it's an alternative way of mounting the din rail i can put them in the lid so i'll just remove those
glass there to remove it take my din rail off that mounting plate but in the lid itself right
so you've screw bosses yeah yeah you're reversing the process now so you can drop it the other way
around yeah so depending on what you're wiring that you might you might prefer to uh to do it
that way okay so just drop that in and then we can obviously screw the the lid back on yeah lock it
into position yeah same process again yeah very easy to put that lid on so now is another option
so that's a standard lid here's an increased depth lid so that again you could have more wiring if
you have the din rail terminal in the back again you mount the dim wheel on the back of there
but i'm going to use that to mount some 22 millimeter push button so standard industrial push
buttons okay so we've got a lot more room now for the wiring loom in there by that extending the box
yeah okay that's good 22 mil plenty of room for two push buttons on there but you might
have indicators or other things you want to add on there so seriously adding other bits to your
system it's good to get that extra room as well so i'm drilling these out then we'll pop those in
and we're going to use this around the workshop aren't we we are stay tuned on the channel yeah
you will see this box we have a purpose for this so yeah we're not building up for the sake of it
we're building it for a reason yeah it's an up down motion but uh yeah regular viewers might
know what that's for but uh stay tuned so yeah put the push buttons in then click the switch uh
switch modules onto the back and then you can see that yeah plenty of room in there for for wiring
same lock ring on is there anything going to allow me to obviously hold it in place or not lose that
lid yeah so there's an additional accessory uh if you wanted a captive lid so say your upper
height you didn't want that lid to drop off uh yeah there's just this little mechanism here
so it goes around the tie base there and then screws onto the lid that's nice so yeah so when
we take that off and yeah it's only going to go as far as the strap yeah let's give it a little test
yeah and that came out okay so you're not going to lose your music components
nice feature that is a nice feature all right security one as well is this yes obviously in a
lot of instances you need have a tool uh you need a tool to access the enclosure so i'm just putting
you can put a cable tie or a security tag through there and just uh lock that lock ring in place
the temperature range of this then is anything from plus 120 degrees down to -40 yeah so this
is a nylon material it's got glass reinforcement so it's it's a tough material okay nice little
touch now we can put labels inside there yeah a little labeling feature that's built in
ah what's going on now uh so obviously we're using the flexicon entries but say you needed
to bring a different type of conduit fixed conduit or bring a flexible cable gland in the other flat
sides can be used for that so you get seven entries around the side and there's also two
positions at the back where you could also drill in to bring cables from the back if you needed
to as well again we've got that o-ring on that to keep the ip rating on for the gland that we
brought but you just said a rigid conduit as well yeah yeah that's another option bringing in the
flex yeah that's it yes again important to pick the gland that matches the box which is up to ip69
let's recap then so where we've got multiple cables it's so much easier to use the flexicon
than that traditional stuffing glenn yeah i mean we can use existing glands with this box but for
each type of cable each one would require its own cable gland more entries into the enclosure
and when you start looking at you've got lock ring on this one try to get your fingers in and tighten
them you may already have some wiring in there it just just gets a little bit fiddly doesn't
it yeah it becomes a bit of a challenge in order to get into your showing here this lock nut on
what i really like about this system is how quickly you can reconfigure it so imagine
you're on site you need to add an additional circuit gary so just unclick that blank plug
and bring in the conduit no need to drill the box and the issue there is if you were drilling into
a box you could damage cables already within the enclosure yeah so again brought that big conduit
in there but perhaps things have changed i need to quickly reconfigure it for a smaller conduit
against just that push the tab down turn the gland out it pushes out no tools required
yeah really simple no drilling and what's good is because you're using the range from flexicon
you're maintaining the ip rating on you of the enclosure ib66 67 68 and 69. yeah and the people
forget a few things about ip ratings obviously the weakest link in the system is the lowest ip
rating so we added those switches they're ip66 so now that whole system becomes an ip66 enclosure
yeah and if you introduce say a stuffing gland rather than using the flexicon you've got to
make sure that o-rings in place and obviously you've got to work out what the ip rating of
that part of the enclosure is as well yeah and you know i mean we've got a selection of glands here
obviously glands sometimes the thread itself can push into the box and you start reducing
your wiring room as well yeah yeah that's one thing people don't think about is that yeah
so as well as the ip rating we've also got other things to consider about the enclosure haven't we
yeah people think ip rating yeah that doesn't necessarily tell you it's suitability for
an environment with this with the external fixings with that all plastic construction
it's built for exterior environments you're not going to worry about corrosion where you might do
on some other other types of boxes i wonder if any of our loyal viewers have worked out what we're
going to be using this for when we rehouse it over there just another little tip it's going to go
up and it's going to go down that might be the last clue you need in order to work out what
we're going to use it for now i can pick up all these parts separately but can i get them kit full
yeah so yeah so it comes yeah you can buy dedicated kits through boxes
tee boxes yeah with different configurations of the size conduit so you don't have to remember all
the different part numbers you know i love a part number but uh yeah you just have to remember the
part number for the kit so yeah that's the brown box here well it's a this is a cnb a 110 dash kit
2. so that's a through kit okay yeah that we've that we've used here um obviously we had the full
the full demo with all the options in there but yeah i think this is a solid piece of engineering
that's for those yeah demanding applications yeah that's inside and outside okay we've got
the problems inside maybe with humidity be fine when it outside where we've got weather yeah yeah
extreme vibrations even got some rail ratings in there that not many of the fixed views are
going to be putting it on moving vehicles but if you were yeah they've got your back covered as
always at ethics we're interested in your comments have you guessed or worked out through the video
presentation what we're going to be using this well that goes up and then comes down you may find
us using it on our live streams are you currently using any of the range of flexicons from outcore
if you are leave those in the comments below are you thinking about using the connector
box in the future or you've already used it is there something in the range from Atkore
that's an absolute gem and you want to tell the community about it if there is we may review
it in the future leave all those comments below and we'll try and get back to as many as we can