Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation

It’s been a while. Two months to be precise. I was starting to get Blog withdrawal symptoms but here I am, back behind my keyboard. So I thought I’d crash land with a big one for you, something exciting! Something more exciting than that little bit of chocolate at the bottom of a Cornetto that you work your way down to (other ice creams are available). I’m here to talk to you about Ferrules! You heard me right, ferrules. Those little things you pop on the end of your cable to terminate into a…well, terminal.

So what can I tell you about Ferrules? Well Phoenix Contact sell them for a start, and a lot of them, in all colours and sizes. I can also tell you that they are very fiddly and that the bottom of my washing machine is most likely lined with them. But on a serious note, Phoenix Contact have taken a big step recently with ferrules, a step that will help customers globally and help catapult Phoenix Contact’s Toolfox range to a new level.

As of now, Phoenix Contact’s Ferrules and tools have UL certification! UL 486F to be precise. US and CA with more than 200 items listed. The certification UL 486F is for bare and covered ferrules, which is a brand new ferrule standard and Phoenix Contact have it! But, you can’t just buy a bag of our ferrules and crimp away with a £6 pair of crimpers you bought in 1989.  The ferrule alone isn’t UL listed, neither are our crimp tools, its ‘the system’ that has UL 486F.

So as you can see from the graphic neither one component on it’s own achieves UL certification, you have to use:

• Phoenix Contact UL listed ferrules.
• Strip your copper stranded cable to 11mm.
• And then use one of either; CRIMPFOX 6, CRIMPFOX CENTRUS 6-10H, CRIMPFOX CENTRUS 6-10S, CF 500 OR CF1000 (which isn’t a bad thing as these tools are awesome).

If you are doing all three of this things with your cable prep then guess what.. You’ve got UL.

So there you have it, that’s my blog for this month. Short and sweet…like a ferrule I suppose (sorry, bad pun). But in all seriousness, UL listing is yet another step for Phoenix Contact in our journey to make our Marking and Tool range the very best available for the customer…and if nothing else it’s a good excuse to ask your boss for a new set of Crimpfox crimping pliers 😉

Thanks for reading, now excuse me while I finish my Cornetto 🙂

For more information, contact Andy on 07786 252414  or email: aneat@phoenixcontact.com