Blackburn FB3XD9-1 FLEX BRAID FB3XD-1 SERIES

Nine inches. That's the figure to work to when you're spanning an expansion joint or looping across a hinged panel, you need enough slack in the braid for the full range of movement without pulling the bolted ends. If your span needs more than 9 inches of travel-plus-slack, step up to a longer braid in the FB3XD-1 series rather than stretching this one.

It is both UL and CSA Listed, so it's acceptable on jobs on either side of the border and for inspectors who want a listed bonding jumper rather than a field-fabricated one. That listing is usually what an institutional or MRO spec is asking for when it calls out a listed flexible bonding connector.

The FB3XD9-1 is a 1-hole style, meaning a single bolt at each pad. That's fine for enclosure doors, equipment bonding and most joint-crossing work. Where the spec calls for a two-bolt NEMA pad pattern, common on larger switchgear and utility-grade ground bus, a single-hole terminal won't line up or meet that spec, and you want a 2-hole braid instead. Check the pad pattern on the gear before you order.

The FB3XD9-1 is a flat, flexible tin-plated copper braid bonding jumper with a single bolt hole at each termination. It's used where two points have to stay bonded but one of them moves or vibrates, a rigid conductor would fatigue and crack. Typical jobs are bonding across expansion joints, equipment doors and hinged enclosure panels, transformer and motor bases, and busway or switchgear connections. The braid construction flexes without breaking the bonding path.

The braid on the FB3XD9-1 is tin-plated copper. The tin plating slows oxidation on the strands and on the bolted pads, which matters because a bonding jumper's resistance lives at the terminations. It also makes it a safer bet against galvanic corrosion when you're landing on aluminum or galvanized equipment, and it holds up better in damp or outdoor enclosures than bare copper.

It ships as the braid jumper alone, sold each. The mounting hardware is not part of it, so pick up the bolt, lockwasher and nut sized to the pad hole and to whatever you're bonding to, and use an anti-oxidant compound if you're landing on aluminum. One piece covers one connection point, so count your expansion joints or hinged panels and order accordingly.

Not where the connection moves. A round stranded conductor work-hardens and eventually fractures at the lug under repeated flexing, which is exactly the failure a hinged door or an expansion joint produces. The FB3XD9-1 uses a flat flexible braid so the movement distributes across many fine strands. It's also UL and CSA Listed as an assembly, which a shop-made jumper is not.

Country of origin is the United States. That's the detail to have in hand on federal, military or Buy American funded work where domestic origin has to be documented for the submittal.

Order it as Blackburn FB3XD9-1, from the FB3XD-1 series. The 9 in the middle is the 9 inch length, so sister part numbers in the same series differ mainly in braid length while keeping the 1-hole termination.