MCB - Multi Connection Box
There is a question that many installers, rental companies or any frequent aluminum truss users come across quite often - “Shall we use corners or MCBs in our project?“ or “Is it better to have in stock various corners or just invest into the MCBs and have just one item in our product list?” The answers vary based on the actual needs of individual projects and also size of your warehouse. We are going to take a closer look at the so called MCBs – Multi Connection Boxes in our portfolio.
There are several other names under which you can find the same product such as Corner Block, Universal Corner Block or Universal Connection Box, however, for our purposes we call these item simply MCB. Traditional truss corners are very neat in design and make truss structures look smooth and unified, on the other hand, the more complicated a truss structure gets, the more different types of corners you need to build it up. At this moment the MCB units come very handy. MCB is simply quadratic cube from alu pipes to which you can attach either male half connectors or female receivers on all six sides in order to create corner junction in your truss structure. This aspect is the most significant characteristics of the corner block. It means that at any time you can build 1-6 way corner from it based on your actual needs and re-build it to different type of corner at any site later on. The universality feature is the most important and since the MCBs are in most cases smaller than standard corners, they save a lot of storage space in the warehouse or truck as well.
We have many different truss lines in our portfolio and in most of them we offer the universal multi connection block solution as possible replacement of the standard corners. You can find various versions of MCBs in all the FT and PT truss lines except the triangle truss series as there is no way to create a time and space saving block unit in three pipe truss lines.
The tiniest corner block is called MJC (Multi Junction Cube) and you can find it in the single pipe truss lines FT21 and FT31. It is a solid aluminum cube ready for half connector attachment with pre-drilled pin holes for easy connector orientation. Even though it may sound strange, there is also a sort of junction unit available in our FT32-HT42 ladder truss lines that we call simply adapter. It is a gadget that can create up to 4-way corner in ladder truss systems and at the same time the adapter can accommodate single pipes for creation of simple trussing network.
All of our quick-lock box as well as rectangular truss lines have proper size MCB units in the product list. The size of the MCBs varies from truss type to truss type starting with the FT14 cube 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4”) size and going over the standard deco truss and 29 x 29 cm (12 x 12”) FT34-TT34 box trusses up to the largest truss and MCB in our portfolio – the rectangular four pipe TT104 – 101 x 58 cm (40 x 23”).
There are also Multi Connection Boxes available in our Bolted truss series where the cubes are attached to other truss parts through bolts and nuts – FTB-L-CB-6, FTB-M-CB-6 and FTB-H-CB-6. We also offer multi connection units in our Fork truss series, however, here are available many options as the fork endings, either male or female, are welded to the truss box and each item needs to specified by customer with respect to the necessary number of male vs. female connectors as you can find out in the GS350-MCB item.
The final choice between corner and Multi Connection Box is entirely up to each individual but the MCBs give you more options in proper corner creation and application.
