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ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT & DESIGN
Enclosures, Cabinets and Fans
Selecting the optimum
enclosure
Steve Gallon, Managing Director of Fibox,
looks into the electronic and instrumentation
enclosures and answers common questions
on such aspects as the precise production
methods and materials to meet specific
technical, aesthetic and budgetary needs
Before choosing an enclosure for whatever its
final application, specifiers must ask a series of
basic questions. Firstly, one must determine
what sort of electronic components or other,
often critical equipment is to be housed within the
enclosure. Is the enclosure to house a ‘stand alone’ device
or is it to fit in with other equipment; as part of a larger
system? Does it have to aesthetically fit in with other
products and/or the surrounding environment?
There are other key questions too. Where is the
enclosed device to be located? Does the system operate
within a hostile area where it must guarantee a high IP
rating and have to stand up to shocks, vibrations, be
resilient to the ingress
of water or moisture, dust
and heat or the need for EMC shielding
capabilities? Is the enclosure to be sealed or is
easy and quick access required? And does the
final housing need to be customised?
Only when you have answered these
questions can you begin to narrow down the choice of
enclosure, the material it is to be produced from and
identify the most appropriate manufacturer.
Based on a broad range of over 2000 standard
enclosures and enclosure systems, Fibox already supplies
hundreds of thousands of innovative products and
services to customers
globally,
helping them to
house everything from
micro electronics to much larger control and
instrumentation solutions in the most arduous and hostile
Rittal – The System.
ENCLOSURES
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16
INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY • February 2011

of environments. As well as standard products, highly
customised enclosures are also available direct from our
manufacturing plants with very short lead times. OEMs
can save time and money with access to Fibox’s fast
prototype service and the facility to order ready modified
enclosures in place of standard products.
With the development of new software and internet
based services, Fibox customers can now download CAD
drawings and design in house a fully customised
enclosure solution. Fibox can then, in a matter of
minutes, provide a quotation for this work
and arrange a prototype. Enclosures
designed to house the
multitude of applications
required of them come in
various forms, with materials
including steel, stainless, die
cast aluminium, polycarbonate,
GRP and ABS – each of which
must be assessed in the light of
offering the best possible
protection for the
environment it is to
operate in. In
serving both
traditional
and emerging
markets,
Fibox
recognises today’s
changing
industrial dynamics.
The ability to
deliver quality engineered
products in ever
shorter lead times is critical.
Time-to-market for new products is decreasing; meaning
more specialist products are created based on a madeto-order
basis and even occasionally manufactured as
one-offs, while at the same time the complexity and
variety of those products are increasing. If you are
manufacturing families of control systems and
instruments, then the ability to source and customise
different sized enclosures from the same manufacturer to
maintain your product identity could well be of
paramount importance.
Hostile environments
Undoubtedly a sizeable majority of industrial controls
and instrumentation (for example, remote telemetry
equipment) needs to be installed in hostile
environments, and very frequently in inaccessible
locations and therefore a different set of criteria become
important: IP rating, UV stability, temperature
classification, durability and robustness of material, anticorrosion
qualities and the need to be RoHS compliant.
Industrial enclosures are increasingly used to house and
protect equipment not normally associated with the
traditional electronic and electrical industry. A recent
example is fire extinguishers on the decks of cruise ships.
So when you’re looking for an enclosure supplier, do you
need assurances that this trend is in the mind of its
designers when innovating new product ranges – that they
have very much a blinkers off approach to product
development. It’s a fact that the ultimate reliability of the
system or device you build and supply is as much
influenced by the initial choice and design of the enclosure,
as it is by the components used, to build the system itself.
So, if you have an unusual application and need help in
defining and choosing an enclosure solution for your
problem, start by asking a few questions.
www.fibox.co.uk
Junction box
solves solar
cable problem
Spelsberg’s new PV48 junction box provides
a specific and inexpensive solution to the
annoying problem on photovoltaic panels, of
standard cables being too short. Designed to seal
cable diameters of between 4-7mm, the PV48
allows simple cable extension, providing a quick,
secure cage clamp connection within a discrete
IP65-rated junction box.
Chris Lloyd, Sales and Marketing Manager for
Spelsberg, comments: “As standard, photovoltaic
panels rarely have more than a maximum of 2m
of cable attached. This means that installers
regularly need to use a junction box or install
expensive extension cables to extend the cabling
length. The PV48 is the first junction box on the
market designed for this specific job, as such it
fulfils all the requirements for the application.”
The PV48 junction box has two in-line cable
entry points that use M16 cable glands to ensure
quick and secure cable entry. The connection is
made using a cage clamp terminal: a 5.5mm flat
blade screwdriver is used to open the connection
point, which the exposed wire is pushed through.
When the screwdriver is removed, a secure
connection is made automatically. The box cover
clips into place, forming an IP65 seal.
www.spelsberg.co.uk
Faster – better – worldwide.
CONTROL
IT INFRASTRUCTURE
SOFTWARE & SERVICES
www.rittal.co.uk
February 2011 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY
17