This is what happens with many commodity-type electrical products. We purchase our imported steel fittings from the same manufacturers (India and China) as C-H, Topaz, Madison, T&B, etc. The issue with the shortening of the steel EMT fittings is completely driven by cost pressure - by the customer. The margins on this stuff are unbelievably low, and in some trade sizes (1/2" to 1") they are practically given away.
Every distributor in the country is always looking for LOWER prices, even though material, shipping, and energy costs keep increasing everywhere. As a result, these offshore manufacturers have now realized they can shave some material off these formed fittings without any appreciable difference in performance or UL Listing requirements - and remain competitive.
However, once they have done this, there will be no more that can be done to meet the demands of the customer with regards to lower pricing, and what will eventually happen is that quality consistency will become a real issue (if it hasn't already). We already see the quality issues, as we are one of a very few who actually inspect most of our imported products before they are sent on to a distributor. Most of the big guys just take the container and ship it to stock - without checking. The first guy to open the box is typically the electrician.
The US made Steel Fittings are a completely machined product our of bar stock. The wall thickness is greater than the formed tube product, which is why it can work with one set screw. This manufacturer also designs the product to save on material, while meeting the UL performance requirements. The only issue is that sometimes the material is reduced in the wrong areas and the customer has an installation issue.
Then there are the Die Cast Zinc Alloy fittings....The universal imported product quality is not consistent (i.e. Mexico, India, China mfrs), which has certainly given this material a bad name. Imported Steel fittings are next....:blink: This is why we are still producing our die cast product in-house, with much higher and consistent quality and performance. Our lower volume, offshore produced product is made with our tooling at our partner's facility. It also goes through the same quality surveillance as our internal product.
We believe we pay more attention to our fittings product line than the other guys because its all we do (vs. competitors larger line with Devices, Strut, Lighting, Conduit, PVC, etc...).
The saying of "you get what you pay for" is usually true in this case as well.
