NEMA Electronics Boxes are Stable: Don’t Worry
I believe for my entire life I have been a little bit grace-challenged. Ironically, most of the time I do better when I wear heels compared to flats, rubber shoes, or tennis shoes. Which is for me, this comes at a good advantage because I am only 5’1” and I need the additional inch lift from heels. I feel like I am like Sandra Bullock where she portrayed the character of tom-boy cop who goes undercover as a beauty queen.
As she walks into the movie, she just woosh her way in wearing her elegant, sassy dress paired with stilettos heels – and she accidentally just falls flat on her face. You read that right. And when I think about it, I came up with the realization that it is all about being stabilized. Protecting myself from the crushing pain from a fall. It is either I need an equipment or a tool to help me stand tall and upright (even if that means planting my feet in a dancer’s position) or I have to keep my momentum moving so that I will not fall.
The plastic enclosures also come with good stabilization process. The material which it was made has an added UV stabilizer to be able to protect the enclosure from the degrading effects of UV light. This is somewhat similar to applying the right amount of sunscreen for you to be able to protect your skin from the harsh sunlight. With this in mind the plastic manufacturers also add UV stabilizers for their plastic material – called benzophenones – in the raw plastic material before it was injected in molding the product.
The additional additives in the plastic material works by absorbing the radiation coming from the light and it slowly disperses the absorbed energy as low-level heat. This helps the plastic material to keep from the free-radicals to be formed in the material.
Therefore, when it comes to stabilizing the electronics enclosure, the UV stabilization is crucial because it helps your NEMA enclosure from having material degradation while it is being used in engineering projects. Especially if it is installed in harsh environments. There are enclosure companies that offers plastic materials that comes with UV protection, and these enclosures are stabilized for outdoor use.
The company only needs to contact the enclosure manufacturing company to inquire of their plastic enclosures if it comes with UV protection. It is always recommended to make sure that this is the case. It is hard just to speculate things when the products are seen on the internet. With today’s weather status, it is recommended for plastic enclosure to have UV protection to avoid early material degradation. It will cost a lot more for the company if they have to quickly replace the enclosures they bought because the plastic material is starting to degrade.
The Reason Why NEMA Electronic Cases Don’t Degrade
During summer in Cleveland, it is a smack dab in the middle of the unimaginable humidity including the sweltering high temperatures and balm nights. If you decided to go and step outside, you will start dripping in unimaginable sweat. Because of the increase in humid and one can not really tell if they are just sweating or it is just because there is too much liquid collected from the air. One can say that they really hate bitter cold winters, but I will still choose it over any day rather than suffer in heat and humidity.
This is why when it come to electronics enclosure, the NEMA 4 and NEMA 4X rated ones seems to be so cool when it comes to this kind of weather. They are made to endure and withstand the heat because they are designed and engineered using a flame-retardant polycarbonate material. Together with a UL94-HB flame-rating, this enclosure becomes UV stabilized. The impact this material can resist and withstand in terms of temperature ranges from -40 Celsiums to +120 Celsius.
Even of the enclosure cases are not situated or installed in an area that gets water, the present moisture in air can still damage the electronics. The gasket which is provided with the NEMA rated electronics enclosure can help in protecting the internal electronics from that type of moisture. In addition to this, the housings also come with standard and stainless steel enclosure screws.
For the WP NEMA enclosures, WC NEMA and WA series NEMA enclosures – they are all made, designed, and engineered in line with IP65 of IEC 529 and NEMA 1, 2, 4, 4x, 12 and 13 specifications. The electronics enclosure is also listed to have the specifications of UL.508-4x
Some enclosure manufacturing companies can also give NEMA specific mounting boss screws. The 6mm screws can be utilized to effectively secure the PCB unto any of the internal mounting bosses that are carefully molded into the enclosure.
Different Types of Enclosure Seals and Gaskets
Gaskets are necessary enclosure accessory to help seal the electrical enclosures according to the set of standards published by National Electrical Manufacturer’s Association (NEMA). The gaskets can be used from ratings 1 to 12. Some of the most popular ratings for indoor enclosures are 12 and 13. The common enclosures for outdoor application are 3, 4, 4x, 6, and 6P.
The electrical enclosure standards are very crucial because they have direct effect on safety and protection. It can also help the customer choose and obtain the right product for their company or business needs.
With this in mind, the good gasket design in an enclosure is very crucial for the engineer to make a very good seal and it is as important as the gasketing material itself. The design will bring a good impact on the functionality, aesthetics, and the overall performance.
Some of the common gasket types are:
Stripping – these gaskets are being supplied in rolls with a material slit to be able to determine the width that can be cut or separated in length by using the assembler. The low scrap-rate makes the stripping of the gasket cost-efficient. Despite of this, the corner seams of the material roll may make the system more susceptible to wear and leakage. This will only happen if the gasket is not properly designed or even assembled.
Die-cut – Once the material is cut using a steel-rule die, water-jet, or laser, the die cutting process helps in eliminating the corner seams of the material roll. Die-cut gaskets are very popular and common once the complexity of the design does not allow for the stripping or if the overall size of the gasket will not bring in larger center scrap. This can be lessened by designing a “fold-out” gasket.
Form-In Place – when it comes to dispensing the component, an elastomer is applied in liquid form and it is directly applied on the enclosure. The elastomer liquid then forms into a foam and it cures at room temperature. The form in place is usually is cheap to apply and it yields the most benefits once the gasket design becomes very complexed. Or else it will result to an important yield loss without the die-cut shape.Bulb Extrusions – this process can be tailor-fitted or designed specifically for abrasion and/or possible environmental resistance by utilizing very durable and high quality elastomers. The hollow center gives provision and allowance for compressibility as the material can be naturally firm or steady. The skinned surface of the gasket on all sides combined with high density minimizes and decreases any possible water ingress on the enclosure.
Designing Enclosures that can Give Protection Against Water and Object Ingress
In this article, I want to share with you the knowledge that I have in designing and creating enclosures that should be able to withstand some of the extreme, harsh, and worse environmental hazards. This discussion would eventually bring us to the issue between NEMA and IP rating standards. Because these two standards most of the time brings confusion about how they work. With this in mind, this article is meant to somehow clear the air of confusion surrounding this subject. In order to make this more simpler, I will only use NEMA ratings for the majority of specifications but there are IP counterparts for the NEMA ratings I will mention. To make this article relatable.
As the writer of this article, I would like to make it to a point that I emphasized the importance of the designers’ consideration of what they are trying to get in designing enclosure. Design engineers should make sure that their agendas in designing the enclosure should be clear. Are they trying to achieve environmental protection the enclosure can give? Or are they trying to comply with the formal standards and requirement of NEMA for electrical enclosures? The latter might have been greatly influenced by the owner of the company or the manager of operations.
With this in mind, the enclosures should be made sure that these will really deliver what they are designed for. There are several variables a design engineer should consider in choosing the right type of enclosure they should have for their company. There are basic enclosures that give basic protection from any type of solid object ingress. A higher NEMA rating might mean that this enclosure will give higher protection. Unlike the IP ratings, NEMA rating will give the protection it can give aside from the water or solid object ingress.
The main difference between IP and NEMA, the latter gives the level of protection it gives for corrosion protection. For the enclosures that will be installed in very harsh environments, it is important that one of the basic needs for enclosure property is its capability to withstand corrosion. There will be also times that the enclosure will be partly or totally submerged in water so any NEMA rating of 6 will be helpful, so type 6 and 6p are considered as waterproof box, and the weatherproof cabinet is NEMA 4X enclosure.
With this in mind, NEMA enclosures types are primarily set to promote certain standardized product specifications for electrical devices. NEMA is designed to have specifications on how the enclosure should perform given the certain type of environment it will be exposed to. For the harsh environment, it is recommended that type 6 will be used. Aside from these features, NEMA ratings are designed to:
1. Protecting personnel from hazardous internal parts Give protection for personnel that might be exposed to hazardous internal parts and;
2. to protect the enclosure against damage from harsh environmental hazards.
How System Integrator Delivers Value in Today’s Technology
The one great function of system integrators is they are in the industry to help companies solve automation problems. This happens by integrators giving the time, talent, and technology that is crucial to convert a plan into a completed company project. Once a manufacturing plant is prepared to make its operations bigger, the production systems should also upgrade its processes. However, the main question that should be answered is where in the part of the expansion a system integrator can help?
To help companies answer this question, the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) a body formed for independent, professional service providers that utilize hardware, software, and communications products are ready to give the clients within a specific industry the best options for systems integration. This includes control and information systems. With this in mind, this body dictates that the system integrators create design and implements complicated systems for the end users of the process in different industries. Such as manufacturing, process plants, and other industrial facilities.
The Siemens Digital Factory is popular with their engineering capabilities and information technologies that helps businesses automate their manufacturing processes. This covers all types of businesses from the plant floor to the corporation and enterprise level. The automation processes enable the company owners and manufacturers have cost-efficient ways and practical energy use. In return, this helps in the increase in production while decreasing the harmful effects on the environment.
There are articles that discusses about different system integrators. There is one case study that involves water and wastewater treatment plants. In this study, there is PLC involved. The project involves the replacement of the PLCs or programmable logic controllers. There is also converting protocols, upgrading supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system both hardware and software. The second case involves PLC consolidation and the upgrade of SCADA software. With this in mind, both projects are really successful.
The another case study shows how the users of the systems such as: insurance companies, system manufacturers, different government offices. These companies and offices can identify their need for a process safety system. This system should be designed, operated, and well maintained over its life cycle. In the article, they list the set of key codes and different standards that are very well applicable to the different process of other industries and they give different perspectives about the fulfillment of legacy systems.