What is Corrugated Split Tubing and Where is it Commonly Used?

If you’ve ever seen a bundle of cables tucked neatly into a ribbed plastic sleeve, there’s a good chance this was corrugated split tubing. It’s one of those products that quietly does a lot of heavy lifting across a wide range of industries, responsible for protecting wiring, routing electrical cables in a tidy fashion and making life easier for the people installing and maintaining them. In this blog post, Mojak Plastics will walk you through what corrugated split tubing actually is, why it’s so widely used and where it tends to show up most often in the real world.

What is Corrugated Split Tubing?

Corrugated split tubing is a flexible plastic conduit with a longitudinal split running along its length. This split is what makes it particularly practical. Rather than having to thread cables through a closed tube, you can simply open the tubing along the split and snap it around existing wiring. This makes it much faster to install and equally useful when cables need to be added or rerouted later on.

The corrugated design gives the tubing flexibility while also providing a level of structural strength that smooth tubing can’t match. It can bend and flex without kinking, which makes it well-suited to installations where cables need to follow awkward paths or change direction. It’s available in a range of sizes and materials depending on the application, from standard PVC to more specialised compounds designed for harsher environments.

Common Applications Across Australian Industries

Corrugated split tubing turns up in a surprisingly wide range of settings. Its combination of flexibility, ease of installation and protective capability makes it a practical choice wherever cable management is needed. Some of the most common applications include:

• Automotive wiring harnesses, where the tubing protects cables from heat and abrasion
• Industrial machinery, where wiring needs to be bundled and protected from mechanical stress
• Construction and building installations, particularly where cables run through tight or irregular spaces
• Agricultural equipment, which often operates in dusty and physically demanding conditions
• Domestic electrical installations, where neat cable management is expected

The split design is particularly useful in maintenance-heavy environments, where technicians may need to access or modify wiring without pulling entire cable runs apart. Being able to open the conduit, make changes and close it again saves a significant amount of time and effort.

Corrugated Split Tubing for Solar Farm Installations

One of the fastest-growing applications for corrugated split tubing in Australia is solar farm infrastructure, and it’s easy to see why. Large-scale solar farms involve enormous volumes of cabling that need to be protected and maintained over many years, and often in harsh outdoor conditions where UV exposure and physical impact are constant concerns.

Mojak Plastics has developed UV-resistant corrugated split conduits specifically for solar farm applications, and we’ve even opened a dedicated manufacturing facility in Queensland to better support the growing demand from the solar industry in this state. The split design is particularly well-suited to solar installations because cable routing often needs to be adjusted as a site expands or changes. Rather than re-running entire conduit runs, technicians can open the split tubing, modify the cables and close it back up.

UV resistance is also important in this context. Solar farms are by definition exposed to intense sunlight for decades, and conduit that degrades under UV exposure creates real safety and performance risks. UV-stabilised conduit is formulated to resist the brittleness and cracking that prolonged sun exposure causes in standard plastics, which means it can maintain its protective integrity across the full operational life of the installation. Flame-retardant options are also available for projects where fire safety requirements need to be met.