Blackburn FBE4H245A1-12 XFLEX BRAID 4 9/16H 1/2X3.75X 12 IN

It is an extra flexible braid connector with four bolt holes, used to make a flexible current-carrying connection between rigid bus bars, disconnect switches, or other switchgear terminations where thermal expansion, vibration, or slight misalignment would stress a solid bar link. The conductor is flat tin-plated copper braid, so it flexes in service instead of transmitting load into the terminal pads.

The braid is specified at 12 inches overall, which is the figure the -12 in the model number refers to. That is the dimension to check against the gap between your two terminal pads plus whatever slack you want left in the braid so it can actually flex. If your span needs a different length, you need a different length code in the FBE4H series rather than stretching this one.

Four holes at 9/16 inch. That pattern accepts 1/2 inch hardware with normal clearance, which is the common switchgear and bus bolt size, and the four-hole terminal spreads the clamping force across the pad so the braid seats flat. Bolts, washers, and Belleville hardware are ordered separately.

Yes. The braid is built to CEI 60694 and IEEE/ANSI C37.34-1994, the high-voltage switchgear and enclosed air switch standards, so it can be cited directly against a substation or switchgear drawing calling for a flexible bus connector to those documents.

Use the braid where the two ends move relative to each other: thermal growth along a long bus run, equipment vibration, a switch blade or breaker that shifts when it operates, or pads that are not perfectly in plane. A solid bar is fine only when both terminations are fixed and aligned, because any movement it cannot absorb ends up as stress on the bolted joints. The FBE4H245A1-12 is the flat flexible type with a bolted four-hole pad on each end.

Country of origin is the United States, which is the line item a government, transit, or utility procurement package normally asks for on domestic-content grounds. The part number to reference is FBE4H245A1-12.

Tin plating on the copper braid slows oxidation at the contact faces and in the strands, which matters on a flexible connector because a braid has far more surface exposed than a solid bar. It also pairs more predictably with aluminum or plated bus pads than bare copper does. The conductor itself is copper, so current capacity comes from the copper, not the plating.

Each. One braid connector per unit, so a run needing a braid at both ends of a switch or on all three phases has to be ordered in the matching quantity.