International electrical fittings

I believe that other countries use metric size knock outs. I have worked on equipment from european countries and they use these type of knock outs. However, the sizes are fairly similar, so, unless you have to actually thread into the boxes vice using a knock out it should be a fair fit. I am personally in the US, so I'm not positive about this.

Hello Guest!

I think you would have to maybe exit the box in a metric size! Sizes are 16mm, 20mm, 25mm, 32mm, 40mm and so on up to the bigger stuff!

The only breach of etiquette that I can see is that you seem to be too shy to register! Why not register and put a name to your posts! There is no pain involved, no cash exchanged, and apart from the rare bouts of over unity madness, this site is full of very friendly, helpful people who will be glad to share there knowledge with a new face!

It's time to take the bag off my friend!

All of these sizes are available but the 20mm knock-out is the most common domestic one.

Register and have my stupid little questions linked forever to an identity and thus be mercilessly mocked by my fellow CR4-ers forever after? NEVER!

Besides...there's a little concern that as I ask questions that relate to ongoing projects a clever reader might deduce our company and perhaps even what we are working on. Our customers get absolutely crazy over such leaks.

Just out of curiosity; what is this product that you make?

As an electrical engineer, I am particularly interested in certain products that have been advertised (mostly on the internet) in the last couple of years.

Hello Guest,

The US is almost the only country where Imperial measure conduits are used.

Almost all other countries have metricated their conduits, along with everything else.

If you did not want to make special boxes, then perhaps you could offer conduit adaptors, which would be far cheaper.

Metric Sizings as advised by Mr. Truman Brain above are correct.

Flexible conduit usage varies widely, with several different types being used, dependeing on particular countries, but all non-US have the Metric sizings at the conduit fitting ends.

Perhaps as Mark684 suggests, you could advise what you are intending to sell internationally, as that may have a bearing on your potential sales.

International Voltages and Frequencies vary, because of historical reasons, but I'm sure you are already aware of that problem.

Kind Regards....

In fact it might even make sense to build the enclosure in 2 versions, one for Rest of World, one for the Imperial US (uh, did that come out wrong, somehow?).

Might also perhaps see if you can find a close equivalent...my experience is that the US fittings tend to be quite sloppy, so perhaps you can build the box for e.g. 16 mm conduit but a 5/8" US fitting 'will fit ok'.

It wouldn't be hard to find out the standard diameters...consult the IEC or electrical code for someplace big like Germany. Perhaps an easier route might be to contact one of the US branches of TuV (Technischer Ueberwachungsverein):
http://www.tuv.com/de/en/about_us.html

http://www.us.tuv.com/

They will be able to tell you if my suggestions make sense (i.e. build it to a standard US or metric standard and 'let the other one more or less fit'). As long as it doesn't have to be waterproof, it could probably work like this.

Good luck. What does the box do, anyway?

Regards,

RF_G

hello sparkstation, ususally i have no useful comment to make directly to you when you post the ever accurate responses you do an just about anything but this time i think there may be a problem.

a few years back a article in a locksmithing magazie about mounting a door lock raised a hornets nest in the trade and as far as i know it has never been resolved. i ask you to please follow me through on this one.

the writer is a very well respected locksmith safesmith in england ( i forgave him for that) who had one of his employees come to him with a problem he was having fitting a yale brand lock together after having disassembled it for servicing trouble was the lock labelled made in england was not made in england it was he much later found out made by / in a yale factory in china from parts specified by yale lock germany.

what made the problem worse was finding by his own measurements that the components which cam from a yale lock made by yale in england where different to the yale lock made in germany by a few tenths, not enough o sop pllug rotation , the measurements from the chinese made yale lock had over 2.5 thou. plus and minus dimensional differences. that does of seem like much but it certainly will make a awful difference to the user of the lock when the plugs of the rekeyed unit or masterkeyed units in a system don't allow rotation.

this is not the first time this has occured, having seen more than once the afffect of trying to fit the chinese equal of a 1/4-20 x2 bolt into t a handicapped chair lift mountingcan be a real challenge the supposedly according to the owner installer manuals is .250+/- .002 where by experience the four bolts that came out of the tapped hole were anywhere from .240 down to .2025 thread crest dia. , i didn't bother checking thier length, i was ticked enough already trying to find a e-z out to use on the sheared pan bolts, eventually though i got them out by using a rat tail file ground square.

i present this to you because until the real unifying system of measurement that metric was supposed to be is actually brought into existence and meets bean counters obsessions to maximaze(legal term) profits the likelyhood of a true interchange with no problems in loose tight fits to mechanical devices is not going to happen very soon.

'da ber

Besides conduit size, you will find differences in electrical input pin sizes.

Recently I visited UK, France, Netherland and Norway. The first job I had to do on arrival was to purchase adapter to fit my gadgets (like mobile charger, laptop charger, GPS battery charger)in supply point of the country. Every country has different supply point sizes.

Various International Standard forming bodies are talking of Harmonization of product sandards. But no body is talking of standardization of these fittings.

Thanks, at least the supply valtages every where same.

Thanks for good information. I give GA, though the subject I raised and answer you gave are not directly (pin pointedly) related to original thread.

I will preserve it for my future foreign tours. I can be prepared for using my gadgets in the countries I will be going.

When I refered same voltages, I meant the vaoltages were same in 4 countries I recently visited.

So much work! GA.

milo

hello sparkstation sorry but the original u.s. specs were at 25 cycle on 110 volts. the plugs toou show are not unique i used them back inthe 70's didn't know they broke n.e.c.

''da ber

He's not talking about wall-plugs (which, however, as you point out, ARE a pain in the ...).

Adaptor fittings are available. These fit between various imperial and metric conduit sizes .

Thanks all for your informative replies!

As for those who asked what our unit does, I'm not at liberty to say. However, I'm instructed to state that it was not developed in a CIA lab using technology from a crashed UFO and it in no way emits waves of enslaving mind-control radiation. Any skin tingling or unexplained scent of banana that users may experience is purely coincidental. Trust us.

It certainly sounds as if we'll have to look into installing a metric-sized flex conduit fitting on our unit. We had already planned to make a dedicated non-US version of our unit to accommodate the voltage and frequency differences. We're very familiar with global AC line differences and the plugs for outlets - we deal with that on a regular basis. But connection straight to the breaker box is new for us.

Now the only hurtle that remains is finding a good (and quick! and cheap!) source for metric conduit fittings here in the US.

And I'm a little intrigued by PWSlack's comment about there being US/Metric conduit adapters. There are a few applications where this would come in handy. Anybody know a good source for those?

http://www.sealconusa.com/adapter_selection.htm

Helow i am from india.

can i help you out in this.

email digvijay_engineers@yahoo.co.in

Mobile+919979200001

It looks as if you are hard wiring to the mains rather than using sockets. Something you might want to consider is that other countries have different color codes for their Mains wires. Not red and black (hot), white (neutral) and green (ground) used in North America. If you provide them with a pigtail for connecting to their mains, it would be a good idea to conform to their color code.

Bill

Or they can just grin and bear it like we in the US do with stuff from other countries.