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How Different Types of Electronics Enclosure Can Protect Your Equipment Against Harmful Environmental Hazards?

In meeting certain NEMA requirements, the design engineer should contemplate about an enclosures’ capability to withstand harmful environmental hazards. In this article, we will discuss how can each NEMA rating can effectively protect your equipment from environmental hazards.

Sheet metal enclosures

The metal sheet electrical boxes is equipped to effectively protect your equipment from solid and water ingress that can come from floating dust, debris or hose-directed/splashing water. Primarily, metal sheet electrical enclosures are designed to be able to meet NEMA requirements for its several ratings. However, if you need the electrical enclosure to be partially or totally submersed in water (like in marine offshore applications) then this material is not the best choice for you. Below are some guidelines that you can follow:

NEMA Type 1 Electrical Boxes: It is recommended to only use two simple piece enclosure style that is covered on top of the case. In this scenario, a L, U, or extruded electrical enclosure would suffice.

NEMA Type 2 Electrical Box: We best recommend to have overlapping flanges on the open seams of the case. To fasten the seams of the enclosure, you should use tack, sport, or plug welds. This can totally depend on the severity of the environment that you are in. For any engineering application, you might require a fully welded seams. The U-shape enclosure will work at its best when it has fewer welded seams.

NEMA Type 4, 4X: At best, it is recommended to have fully welded seams when you are using gaskets for your enclosure. Gaskets is a perfect use for anything that has to do with water being near or even for water being hose directed to the case. In some of the applications of enclosure gasket, the utilization of style foam strips or full gasket piece will be enough. You should do fastener sealing as soon as you notice that there will be water in the enclosure application. Therefore, you should seal the edges with fasteners.

One of the most strategic placement of fasteners to seal the edges is that they should not be too obvious inside the case. In addition to this, you can also do the following: assembling the edges with sealing screws and utilization of latch or lack to fasten enclosure.

If you want to achieve the type 4X for electronics enclosure, you should opt for a corrosion resistant sheet metal such as stainless steel, almuminum or galvanneal in order to fully achieve this rating.

NEMA Type 5 Electronics Enclosure: The use of overlapping flanges should be utilized on open seams of the electrical box or even fully welded seams. Totally depends on the type of environment you will use the enclosure in. For this type, U-shape enclosure would work the best.

If you are looking for any enclosure that can be partially or totally submerged in water, you can do the above recommendations. The recommendations on sealing can effectively meet NEMA Types 1, 2, 4(X) and 5 respectively. In line with this, these enclosures can be completely sealed as long as the right 0-rings or gaskets are made waterproof. This should be sufficient enough to protect your equipment form prolonged submersion in water by meeting the NEMA Type 6(P) standard.

Keep the following in mind when designing this type of enclosure for water immersion:

The enclosure should be designed in a way to minimize the number of seams to seal, with fewer parts and seams; there is less chance of water entering the enclosure.

There is one tip any design engineer should keep in mind when you are designing an enclosure for submersion application: the electrical box should be designed in a structure that the seams to seal will be minimized – requiring fewer parts and seams. With this in mind, there is a lesser chance of water entering the enclosure.

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How Can You Determine Differences Between Stainless Steel and Carbon Steel?

Stainless steel is one of the world’s most popular steel because it is commonly used in several industries such as construction, industrial, and engineering companies. Stainless steel has a very good durability and versatility of a steel material that makes it very useful in just almost everything. It can be used in private homes to commercial businesses to manufacturing processes. In almost everywhere, you can see stainless steel being utilized in their processes.

Because of these very amazing properties, aside from being it a very popular material around the world, it is also one of the most commonly used materials for making an electronics enclosure. Stainless steel can bring many great benefit to an electrical box, such as follows:

Stainless steel electronics enclosure has the capability to effectively resist sever and harmful, extreme weather conditions.

Stainless steel can be a very good material for security and limiting unauthorized access.

Stainless steel has high resistance to corrosion and makes a wonderful enclosure that can be used for marine offshore applications and food manufacturing plants.

It can give protection against solid ingress that can occur from airborne dust and debri.s

As a user, you might also be wondering what gives these types of materials these amazing characteristics. Also, what makes it different from other common types of steel such as carbon steel? In this article we will also dive into what creates a steel into a usable form and what is the most important make-up or composition for a steel.

What is a Steel Made Off?

Let us start with a very basic question: what steel is made from that gives it all its amazing properties?

First, we begin with the iron composition. Iron is now a very useful and most common element in steel composition. However, just using it alone, it is too soft to be very suitable for construction, tools, and other types of applications where you can use steel for. However, by mixing iron into any steel alloy that contains carbon, it becomes much stronger and very durable.

With this in mind, the purified and enhanced steel version is called steel. In creating stainless steel there are other elements being added such as chromium, manganese and nickel. In creating stainless steel, it is also necessary to remove the impure ones such as nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus.

In addition to this, you get stele that can be used for these several types of application through the step of steel-making. A very complex method where steels are being processed and manufactured into its desirable, usable form. By also combining different elements, steels are being created in durable and flexible form.

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Purpose of Electronics Enclosure on Small Devices

In each and every key fob, there exists a remote reader system that requires a security measure that can either give access to a door lock or deny it. The manufacturers of key fobs put an additional layer of security by using a good locking mechanism. Once the user pushes the button on the fob, the locking mechanism gage the signal if it matches with the data inside the key fobs. Once the data transmitted via the frequency, the receiver matches the data. When these matches, the locking mechanism will work.

Key fobs and the remote readers can be programmed by engineers to make an open access platform for these accessories. The manufacturers of key fobs can have a design for one key fob that can transmit frequency to multiple devices. This mechanism allows the person to share the access with other people to one same door within a place. For example, in a commercial place there are going to have function places or meeting rooms, people or personnel should have duplicate key fobs to a specific area. All the people that has same key fobs would be granted access to any function area within commercial areas.

What are multi-level remote entry access?

The setup for remote entry access are quite feasible and doable, there are still plenty and numerous options in setting everything up. So that the remote entry would have wide range of settings. For some commercial places, they can have a server that handles and manages various and different levels of access that will act as a locking mechanism for all locks within the building or they can micro-manage some specific areas within the building.

The said server can multi-task and can communicate with many key fobs and readers all at the same time. This happens when access is granted on various levels of the building. Some key person might be granted access to the entire establishment, and there are others who are granted access with only specific areas. The administrator of the building can program the lock & security permissions in the building without requiring new fobs or readers every single time when it updates.

With this in mind, this type of remote access is more convenient and can assure the users that it is secured. It also gives them the opportunity to have this accessory in their pockets without needing to worry about carrying a lot of keys. They can already unlock their house or car from a distance and they will not be worried about finding the right key to unlock a certain establishment or even a house. There is a high level of security and there’s no need to constantly change keys and locks for this application.

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Let’s Have a Detailed Look at the Different Fiber Active Optical Cables

Active Optical Cables has this unique capability to ultise the same electrical inputs that were used as traditional cables. The only difference is it has optical fibers in between the connectors. The AOC were able to deliver faster connection and it has a very good distance performance in comparison with the copper cables while it maintains a very good compatibility with some of the great standard electrical interfaces. We have dived into their useful use for the realm of USB and several benefits they bring the users. Let’s take a very close look at what these AOC’s can do better and offer.

AOCs are what we call the opto-electronics devices that are being used in replace of some of the standard fiber optic transceivers because of its ease of usage. It also has lower deployment and lower cost of manufacturing when you compare it to other transceivers being used in the market. It is used with separated fiber optic cale assembles.

One of the most basic concept of an AOC fiber optic is to be able to embed the most active optical transceivers inside the assembly – in contrast to utilizing the pluggable fiber optical transceivers and other standard fiber cables.

Mainly invented to replace copper cabling in data centers and high performance computing applications, AOCs and their list of benefits can make older technologies seem obsolete. They have longer reach, higher bandwidth handling capabilities and provide secure, reliable transmissions. AOCs also limit EMI/RFI and provide low bit-error rates. Plus, AOC assemblies are smaller and lighter than copper cables, making the datacenter physically easier to manage.

In addition to this, the assemblies made of AOC appears to be smaller and lighter than most of the copper cables available in the market. This feature makes the datacenter much easier to be navigated physically.

These AOC’s are very ideal for some of the short-range, multi-lane data caommunication in between engineering interconnecting application. Most of these assembles were able to support a large range of protocols that includes the Ethernet, infiniBand and some of the Fibre Channel. They were able to utilize the rack-to-rack, optical backplanes for some of the storages and many more.

With these combined best benefits, some of the AOC assemblies might appear so good to be true. But they are very real and there are companies out there that are producing these quality products.

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Effective Ways in Choosing Weatherproof vs. Waterproof

Whether its for engineering project or industrial use, choosing the right enclosure is very critical to the overall success of one project. However, it is important to know the conditions the enclosure will be exposed to have a better shot of success.

However, all installations that will require enclosures to be installed outdoors or be exposed to water, or be exposed to different foreign objects/materials like dust should be in line with the standards set by the industry. How does this affect your decision?

Luckily, the IEC or International Electrotechnical Commission has established certain guidelines for setting ratings for different types of enclosure. This rating will have its purpose of determining which enclosure is applicable to any type of application. Especially when the enclosure is to be used outdoors. The IP code or International Protection Rating gives design engineers or architects a good basis for enclosure design. This rating will also help engineers decide which enclosure. should they use

Basic Understanding of IP Codes

To have a better understanding of the different levels of protection enclosure gives, we need to first understand what these IP codes are defined.

The IP ratings or International Protection Rating are composed of two digit designation. These two digits has their own standard of protection provided from solid or water ingress. From human fingers to dust particles, IP rated enclosure offers six level of protection against solid ingress (first digit.)

For the second digit, it gives the consumers the idea of the level of protection an IP rated enclosure provides from non-reactive liquids such as water. However, it is important to note that IP rated enclosures can only give protection from clear liquid ingress. This code is based on eight-level rating system – from basic water ingress protection against water dripping to protection from fully submerged product.

Weatherproof IP Enclosures

According to the International Electrotechnical Commission, an enclosure will only considered to be weatherproof if it is rated for protection that ranges from dripping water to hose directed low pressure sprayed water.

This type of enclosure is usually the best option for an enclosure that will be installed in places wherein there is an additional means of protection. Meaning an enclosure should be protected by a roof or fascia. However, it is important to note that the weatherproof enclosure can be jeopardized if dust or water is directed to the enclosure at a high pressure. For added level of protection, use enclosures that has high rating for both weatherproof and waterproof protection.

Waterproof IP Enclosures

An electrical enclosure is considered to be “waterproof” if it is able to protect the equipment or inside contents of the enclosure from water ingress or liquid intrusion when it is completely immersed underwater (at a limited depth.)

Waterproof enclosures gives a comprehensive and holistic form of protection and they are the best choice in locations where there is presence of high moisture or harsh environments where there is harmful elements.

In addition to this, waterproof enclosures always exceed the minimum standards of a weatherproof electrical enclosure. Thus it gives and assures greater safeguards to prevent electronics failure because of a possible water ingress.

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Pure and Pressurization for Electrical Enclosures Defined

Purge and pressurisation in electrical enclosures enables the companies to house an electrical equipment in hazardous or extreme environments. In line with this, before control units will powered up the electrical equipment, there are flushes of hazardous gas and dust. These are usually coming from the motor housing, cabinet, or enclosures and they are flushed with clean air. It is important to note that the electrical equipments housed inside the enclosures does not need for any certifications or approvals. 

Most of the time, companies use compressed air for purging. The rate of flow and the longevity of the process depends on the volume of the enclosures as well as national & international standards should be applied. There are handful of companies that purge with nitrogen air, though one can use any inert gases but nitrogen is the most widely used.

The enclosures for purging and pressurisation usually have doors for efficient equipment maintenance. There are also windows for easy instrument readings. Most of the operations can control the equipment through operating push-buttons and switches located outside the enclosure. It is important to note that all of the components installed on the external of the enclosure are possibly surrounded by hazardous dust and other gases. The said components should be classified, certified, and approved to be safe.

The techniques used in pressurizing and purging electrical enclosures used to house electrical apparatus are designed to keep ingress of flammable atmosphere from happening. By definition, purging is a widely-accepted concept process for protection from explosion. Purging is accepted world-wide in terms of European standards, NFPA, or IEC. It is straightforward and easy to adopt and comprehend. Protection from explosion is achieved by keeping any possible source of ignition – such as thermal or electrical – from atmosphere that may contain any explosive gases. The apparatus that has a possible ignition is installed inside the enclosure. Then, the enclosure is now pressurised to a positive pressure equivalent to atmospheric pressure. Usually, a measure of 0.5mbar is all that is required.

If the positive atmospheric pressure is maintained inside the enclosure, no gas nor any dust will be able to enter or ingress the enclosure. It is safe to say that through this process, the equipment inside the enclosure will not have any exposure to potentially explosive gas that may be present in the environment. However, it is important to note that there is a possible gas mixture that have entered the electrical enclosure before the positive pressure is applied. To make sure that this is prevented from happening, a flushing out of the existing content in the enclosure is required (such as air, or nitrogen). This process is also meant to make sure that all the area inside the enclosure only contains the purging gas. This process usually takes 5 and 10 volume changes before the purging is finally considered done. However in Europe, the minimum purge standard is set to five air changes while in North America it is set as 10 air changes. The purging of internal dusts still has not been considered to be possible.

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Different Types of Custom Metal Enclosures for Electrical Equipments

Any company who needs custom electrical enclosures for their equipments can be provided by any enclosure manufacturing company. They just have to be specific with the design that they want to achieve. This also includes the type of steel material they would like to have, such as – aluminum, stainless and carbon steel. Lead times may also vary so a good communication about what is needed to be achieved is important.

Also, there is an option for an enclosure to be customised – via silkscreen or engraving. In addition to this, a clear understanding of the NEMA or IP rating needed for the specific enclosure will be helpful in communicating to a certain manufacturing company of the enclosures needed to be designed.

There are several type of customisation a company can choose from: wall mount, free-standing, floor mount, JIC and through. It is important to note that the size for these enclosures are not limited, they can be built according to the needed size for the electrical equipment. One of the most common one is the free-standing portable enclosures.

In regards to the parts of the electrical enclosure, a company can request for an adjustable swing door assembly. This provides an extra space for the inside and the outside for the enclosure for the specific electrical equipment. This will allow the company to easily assemble the electrical equipment inside the enclosure. Doors can made of solid metal, a feature window, and cutouts or mounting holes. Different applications call for different customisation needs. There are also clamps, latches, turn handles, and lock options if you would like an added security for your electrical enclosure. For other seal options, there are strips, die-cut, and bulb extrusion. This enables the enclosure to protect your electrical equipment inside. Communication is the key, let your manufacturer know of what other types of features that you would need.

The other feature that you can add is pem studs and nuts. It can be placed on the back panel of the enclosure of wherever you need them for an efficient installation. There will be no need to drill or tap mounting holes and this will also save your company resources and time. Additionally, there can also be gland plates that can be placed through custom cuts and holes. This can be placed on either side or top/bottom part part of the electrical enclosure.

Different customisation for different applications are needed. Some of the companies manufacture electrical enclosure for different industries, such as: fire protection, food and beverage, water treatment, power generation, communication/telecom companies, transportation, chemical, wastewater management, petrochemical, and oil and gas. One should note however that there are companies that only specialises for specific types of industries. Message the manufacturing companies to know more.

Lastly, do not forget to be specific about the different protection you need for your electrical enclosures. Most of the common protection enclosures can have are: corrosion-resistant, water and dust ingress, hose-water resistance. There are also submersible enclosures for marine offshore companies.

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What is the Latest News About the Green Movement?

I am fully aware as an individual of the responsibility I have in taking care of the environment. This means that I should shift and maintain my lifestyle that supports the environment. This entails choosing the right products to use and supporting organic farming. However, this is easier said than done. There are a lot of things that are needed to be done end because of it, this process should be taken in a step by step matter.

Also I try to incorporate this in my everyday lifestyle. This means that I am doing my best to recycle all the plastics from the packaging of the products, etc. I should always turn off the water when I am brushing my teeth. I remembered the thought of “every little piece” counts when it comes to doing the 3R’s of cleaning the garbage.

In light with today’s industrial companies – also including the individuals – we should be all vigilant in doing the country’s effort in the conservation and the protection of our environmental resources. They are not there forever and we should be taking care of them for the next generation. In terms of upgrading to a very good efficient lighting installed in our offices and warehouses, is the best way to reduce the energy consumption of the company while contributing to the efficient energy plan of the country. This is while we do the improvement for the work environment.

There are companies now that has started the retrofitting of their lighting installed in their offices and warehouses. This retrofit process carefully replaces the majority of the components within a lighting system that has equipment counterparts to be able to utilize energy more efficiently.

With this in mind, according to statistical data from the Energy Information Administration, the majority of the electricity being used in the Untied States comes from the consumption of businesses to operate the buildings. Because of this huge consumption of electricity in United States, it is estimated that this process has caused the increase in CO2 emissions up by 38%.

The companies now should start thinking and developing ways how they can promote the efficient usage of electricity because this will have a great impact on the environment. Companies should start devising ways how they can reduce their carbon footprint. Ligting Retrofits will effectively calculate how much of the electricity will be saved and the amount of emission reduction that will happen from the lighting upgrade.

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Do you Need Large Enclosures for Huge Engineering Electronics Projects?

Whoever said that big things are always the better things, this saying is obviously will not work when it comes to electronic enclosures industry. Companies believe that good things can come in really big packages – especially on electronics enclosure. The largest size of electronics enclosures shows that there is enough interior space that comes with a very strong and durable exterior that is just perfect for catering your heavy-duty project requirements.

With this in mind, let us start with a company’s electronics enclosure product that is readily available with or without the surface mounting flanges. The electronics enclosure box comes with the 10 x 6 x 3 inches and is readily available in colors black or gray. The optional smooth area that comes with it is very ideal when displaying some of the graphic overlays. The enclosure can come with its standard 8 PCB mounting bosses that is found on the base. The covers of its screws also has the brass inserts for a smoother and more efficient use.

There are also some sizes that is just perfect requirement for some for of weather proofing of enclosures. Some of this also belongs to the companies’ NEMA-rated enclosures family. For guidelines, here are the dimensions you and a company can use.

  • 10.43 x 7.28 x 3.74 inches
  • 10.43 x 7.28 x 3.74 inches
  • 9.45 x 6.30 x 3.60 inches
  • 11.81 x 9.05” x 3.40 inches
  • 14.12 x 7.84 x 5.96 inches

These specifications come with specific sizes that comes in IP ratings IP65 of IEC 529. They also come with some electronics enclosure standard that has both brass-threaded PCB mounting bosses and some shorter plastic bosses. They can also come with stainless steel crews that is being threaded inside the brass inserts to efficiently cover on/cover off some of the applications.

This electronics enclosure assembly also includes some of base, silicone gasket, cover, and 6 enclosures’ screws. There are electronics enclosure that is being molded using a dark gray ABS plastic whilst there are electronics enclosure series that are currently being molded just by using a UV stabilized light gray polycarbonate. This makes them a very good choice for some of the outdoor applications of the customers.

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What are Different Accessories Being Used for Server Racks?

Cage Nuts

Cage nuts are primarily being utilized for the server racks that comes with square mounting holes. This very useful hardware will give you the provision to quickly change the threads interchangeably while never having some of the stripped tapped holes being seen on the server rack. The cage nuts can come in variety of multiple sizes, but there are three most common types being used today. These are the 10-32 Cage nuts, 12-24 Cage nuts, and as an M6 Cage nut.

The type of cage nut will greatly depend on the type of equipment you are mounting; one would easily choose the specific type of cage nut in order for them to match the equipment they are using. The only disadvantage to some of the cage nuts is that it can be really difficult when they install or remove them. However, the cage nut removal tool removes this problem.

Filler Panel and Blanking Panel

These two have different names but they almost have the same meaning. Let me explain the major differences between the two, the filler panels or the flat sheets of metal has that “fill” empty “U” spaces located on the server rack. The important thing about these panels are they are effective in assisting the airflow very efficiently and they are managing the prevention of exhaust air being released from warming the cooler air. This entire process contributes in helping of cooling the server rack more efficiently. The filler and also the blanking panels became one of the best yet cost effective methods of decreasing the energy costs.

“U” Space/Rack Unit

The single rack unit or “U” space is almost equivalent to 1.750 inches or 44.45 millimeters worth of space. This one “U” worth of space has the inclusion of three holes that comes with the mounting of the hardware unto the server rack or wall mount. When you are deciding on which server size that you would greatly need, most of the engineers will probably consider the number of “U” spaces initially before doing a research on which type of server rack they should purchase.