Blackburn FBE18 FLEX BRAID 153,600KCMIL 18IN 2 HOLE

The FBE18 is an extra flexible braid bonding connector, 18 inches long, with a two-hole pad on each end. Flat tin-plated copper braid is used where a rigid bonding jumper won't work: across expansion joints, on equipment that vibrates or moves, across switchgear doors and hinged panels, and on transformer or generator connections where thermal movement has to be absorbed. The braid flexes without work-hardening the way a solid bar or a stiff cable lug would.

Tin plating on the copper braid slows oxidation and gives a more stable, lower-resistance interface at the bolted pads, which is what you want on a bonding path in damp, outdoor, or industrial atmospheres. It also makes the braid compatible with aluminum bus and aluminum enclosures, where bare copper against aluminum sets up galvanic corrosion at the joint.

That's the point of a two-hole pad. A single-bolt lug can rotate under vibration or a fault event; two bolts per end fix the pad's orientation and hold the joint's contact pressure. The FBE18 is the two-hole configuration on both ends, so it lands on a drilled bus pad, a ground bar, or a tapped equipment pad rather than on a single stud.

The FBE18 is sold each, so one order quantity is one 18-inch braid with a two-hole pad on both ends. Bolts, nuts, flat and Belleville washers are not part of it, so specify your bolting hardware separately to match the pad holes and the bus or ground bar you're landing on.

Use the braid where the two ends move relative to each other. Expansion joints, vibrating machinery, hinged doors and pull-out drawers, and thermal growth on large bus all cycle the connection, and a flat flexible braid takes that movement without fatiguing a crimped barrel. A stranded cable with compression lugs is the better choice on a static run, where you want a longer length, tighter bend into a raceway, or a specific AWG/kcmil sized to a fault-current calculation. The FBE18 is a fixed 18-inch flat braid, so it is a point-to-point flexible link, not a routed cable run.

Country of origin on the FBE18 is the United States. For a federally funded or Buy American Act project, that is the data point procurement is asking for on the submittal, alongside the UL E3060 and CSA LR29625 listings.

The conductor is flat rather than round, which is why it suits narrow gaps: it lies against a panel wall or between closely spaced bus bars where a round cable of the same capacity would need more clearance, and it bends readily in the thin direction. It does not bend edgewise, so plan the run so the flex happens across the flat.

Order Blackburn part FBE18. That is the 18-inch extra flexible braid connector with two-hole pads. The length is in the suffix, so shorter or longer members of the FBE family carry a different trailing number.