Maintaining NEMA 4 Rating When Making Enclosure Penetrations

Maintaining_NEMA_4_Rating_When_Making_Enclosure_Penetrations.pdf

Transcript:

[0m:4s] Hi I'm Josh Bloom, welcome to another video in the RSP Supply education series. If you find that these videos are helpful to you, it certainly helps us out if you could give us a big thumbs up and subscribe to our channel. In today's video, we are going to be talking a bit about NEMA ratings. If you remember from some of our other videos, Nema stands for National Electrical Manufacturers Association. And it defines standards used in North America for various grades of electrical enclosures typically used in industrial applications. For more information about different types of NEMA ratings, I will link our other videos in the description below.
[0m:45s] For the purpose of this video, we are going to be talking about enclosures with a NEMA 4 rating, which is typically used in environments where the enclosure is going to be exposed to moisture such as rain, snow, driving rain, and other harsh weather conditions. These NEMA 4 enclosures are a great option when trying to protect sensitive hardware within the enclosure from moisture, dust and other debris.
[1m:13s] But what happens when you need to make a penetration or cut out in the enclosure? These cutouts are very common in order to modify enclosures for things such as display panels push buttons indication lights conduit entries or simply just to mount hardware to the enclosure body. But by cutting into the enclosure, you run the risk of eliminating the protective nature of the NEMA rated attributes, and if the proper steps are not taken, you can no longer classify an enclosure that has been modified as a NEMA 4 enclosure. In this video, we want to talk about a few things that you can do to maintain the NEMA 4 rating your enclosure might have when making cutouts penetrations or any modifications to the box.
[2m:3s] The first thing you can do is to make sure that any devices that are being mounted the enclosure that require cutouts or modifications are NEMA 4 rated themselves.

[2m:14s] Devices such as push buttons, light indicators, and touch panels can all be purchased with NEMA 4 ratings. Which means if they are installed to the manufacturer's specifications, they will be able to maintain the NEMA rating of the enclosure. They are being mounted to.

[2m:33s] Using devices that are NEMA rated will allow you to continue to provide the protection you need for the sensitive hardware located within the enclosure.

[2m:43s] Another type of hardware that should be considered when trying to maintain a NEMA for rating is water tight conduit hubs.

[2m:51s] It is not uncommon to penetrate the enclosure when the time comes to run wires into the enclosure. Field wires are almost always brought into electrical enclosures via some type of Conduit. There are many different types of conduit hubs that are used to secure the conduit to the enclosure. However, only certain conduit hubs are rated for a watertight seal. By using the special hubs, you can maintain the NEMA 4 rating of the cabinet and keep all of the components inside safe.

[3m:24s] The last type of hardware we are going to discuss today is referred to as a bonded washer, or sometimes a sealed washer.

[3m:31s] It is not uncommon to mount hardware to the walls of the enclosure.
[3m:36s] When mounting hardware to the enclosure itself,
[3m:39s] and not the back plane, it is often necessary to drill holes in order to use the proper mounting hardware needed to secure the device.
[3m:48s] If standard mounting hardware is used the NEM for rating of the enclosure will no longer be intact.
[3m:55s] In order to maintain this rating, it is critical that you use bonded style washers that have rubber gaskets that will make a watertight seal around the hole that was created.
[4m:8s] It is also important to make sure the material used for the bonded washer matches the material of the enclosure. So, if you are using a stainless steel enclosure, you need to make sure you are using a stainless steel bonded washer.
[4m:23s] By using these types of washers, you will eliminate any water that might leak into your enclosure, and therefore keep the NEMA 4 rating intact.
[4m:33s] These three tips are just a few methods we have found that help in keeping the NEMA rating needed for our enclosures. There are many other tricks as a trade that can be used to achieve similar results.
[4m:46s] It is important to remember that when working with electrical components and enclosures that you follow all of the local electrical codes to ensure that your installation is done safely
[4m:56s] and to the letter of the law.
[4m:58s] For a full line of electrical enclosures and thousands of other products, please go to our website. For more information or other educational videos, go to RSPSupply.com, the Internet's top source for industrial hardware. Also, don't forget: like and subscribe.