Flexicon performance - tested beyond the Standard
Posted On: Tuesday 9th July 2019 Back to Blog ListingFlexicon performance - tested beyond the Standard.
High levels of Ingress Protection is a critical requirement of installations in the Rail Industry. Whether this is from the weather in the form of rain or flooding, or from brake dust in Underground applications.
Water may be present as rain, condensation, immersion including flooding, spray, jet wash cleaning, ice formation and melting. Suction can be created by rise and fall of temperature although conduit systems are normally vented to atmosphere through at least one end. A vented conduit system has advantages over a sealed enclosure with cable glands as the conduit allows the air inside the enclosure to expand and contract with temperature changes. In conjunction with some of our major rail customers we have completed more onerous testing than the standard tests required to give the customer confidence that true performance adequately represented real life installations.
• IPx8 carried out at 2 bar for 1 hour at minimum bend radius
•IPx8 carried out at 1 metre under water for 72 hours at minimum bend radius
• IPx8 carried out under water and ice at minimum bend radius for 5 cycles of; 10 hours at -15°C followed by 5 hours at +40°C
• Flexing conduit under water for 5 days (exhibition display)
Flexicon carries out extensive water ingress testing in house. For the Ultra system, over 1,000 IP tests were conducted to ensure that every conduit in every size, weight and material were checked with every type of fitting to ensure the integrity of the system. External test reports were then commissioned to confirm our in-house test results.
Buyer beware - EN IEC 60529 states that above IPx6, it cannot be assumed that a higher IP code guarantees that the product will meet a lower level, this is because each test is representing a different type of environment.