Top Five Things you MUST know for Industrial Control Panel Fabrication

Top_Five_Things_you_MUST_know_for_Industrial_Control_Panel_Fabrication.pdf

Transcript:

[0m:4s] Hi I'm Josh Bloom, welcome to another video in the RSP Supply education series. Today we're going to talk about the five things you must know when building an industrial control panel.
[0m:15s] Keep in mind,
[0m:17s] design, industrial control panel fabrication methods, and hardware use differs across the industry. However, these five methods are cross cutting and will help you design, build, and fabricate a safer, more efficient, and cleaner industrial control panel. In talking about power distribution, we also need to consider the type of protection that we're using, whether that's fuses or circuit breakers. We need to make sure that we have adequate protection, both branch and supplementary protection for all the different devices within our panel. We also need to make sure that those breakers or fuses are sized properly for each type of device. An example, we would not want to use is a two AMP or a five AMP breaker to protect.
[1m:2s] an outlet that might have 15 amps running to that. That breaker is going to continually trip and we're not going to be able to use that outlet. Also, we would not want to use a 15 AMP breaker or fuse to protect a device like a network switch or a PLC because we're going to allow far too much current to pass to these devices which could ultimately lead to premature failure. Lastly, when talking about power distribution, it is critical that we have proper grounding throughout our panel. We need to make sure that all the devices within the panel are properly grounded. We need to make sure that we have a main grounding bus. We also need to make sure that DC negative, if in our panel, is tied to that
main bus. Also, that main grounding bus is tied to our main ground coming into our panel. We also want to make sure that our enclosure is grounded as well as the door, if any devices are mounted to that, are tied to our grounding system as well. Number two, clear labeling within your panel is very important. The reason is if we have any operators that are working with inside this panel, we need to make sure that they can identify the devices within the panel. So, this means not just labeling the wire, but also labeling the devices themselves. We also want to make sure that those labels make sense and are logical so that they identify what the wire is, what its purpose is, where it's going to, and where it's coming from. This can eliminate any dangerous situations that operators might encounter when they're servicing or working within the panel itself. Labeling is very important. Number three is temperature. We're going to both talk about the ambient temperature that the panels located within and the temperature that's actually generated from the panel. First, ambient temperature. We need to take into consideration where our panel is going to be located. If the panel is located in areas where it constantly sees freezing temperatures, we may want to put a panel heater within the panel itself. This allows the devices to operate in their optimal operating temperature range. We also want to make sure that if we're in an area where we have high heat that we have ventilation, or even possibly an air conditioner unit to make sure that the devices do not overheat. Also, when thinking about temperature, we want to make sure that we consider the temperature that's actually being generated by the devices in the panel itself.
[3m:23s] This can be even more relevant when we're talking about VFDs, or starters, or soft starts because those tend to generate more heat. However, all devices within the panels are going to generate some amount of heat. So, we need to make sure that he is dissipated properly. This is done by proper ventilation, panel fans, and again possibly air conditioning units. Both the internal temperature of the panel and the ambient temperature that the panel is located in are critical for proper operation of the devices within that panel. Number four, layout can make all the difference between an OK panel and a fantastic panel and the way that it operates. When we think about layout in the panel, we want to make sure that we have enough space for all the devices that we're going to be putting within this panel. As you can see here in this panel, I've got several different electrical devices. I have proper space
[4m:16s] to allow for proper ventilation in this panel to dissipate the heat. I also need to think about allowing enough space so that I can have wire ducting in my panel. The more wire ducting we have in the panel allows for a much more neat and clean panel, and allows for operators to easily identify the devices within the panel, and more safely work on the panel. Also, when thinking about panel layout, we need to make sure that we place the devices very strategically and not arbitrarily. We want to think about the IO or the inputs and outputs that are coming into our panel. If those are coming in the bottom, we want to make sure that the terminal blocks that those are going to be terminated into are located near that point or the bottom of the panel. If they're coming in the top, we may want to consider a different layout. Also, power, again, typically power is on the top of the panel. So,
you want to take these things into consideration, it is also a good practice to keep the PLC central to the panel as we have a lot of wires that are running to that panel and it makes it easier for installers and fabricators and operators to work on those panels.
[5m:20s] Lastly, number five, wire color. Wire color is very important in that one we're fabricating a control panel, we want to make sure that we are meeting NEC standards, and in many cases, if we're building a UL listed panel, we want to make sure that we meet those standards as well. NEC and UL both state that specific wire colors need to be used for specific situations. For example, AC power typically comes in as black, white and green.
[5m:49s] DC power is typically blue. DC negative is typically white with blue Stripe. There are slight variations to these color combinations depending on the standards and codes you're trying to meet, but these are just examples of things we need to consider when wiring our panel. Also, wire color allows us to easily identify the different types of power and voltage and signals that are running throughout our panel. It is also important to consider if we have multiple types of voltage within our panel, say a transformer is being used, that we change the wire color with different voltages so that we can easily identify the different voltages within that panel.
[6m:28s] By using wire color in specific applications, the way it is intended, it allows us to more easily troubleshoot when we are working inside a panel to easily identify the different wires, signals, and voltages within that panel.
[6m:42s] Now, again let's review the top five things you must know when fabricating an industrial control panel. Number one, power distribution is critical. Number two, clear labeling can make all the difference. Number three, temperature, that is, both ambient temperature and the temperature generated within the industrial control panel. Number four, layout. Make sure you take the time to lay out the devices in your panel, properly and allow for proper space. Lastly, number five wire color sure that you follow all the standards of NEC and or UL when wiring your industrial control panel. For a full line of industrial control panel hardware 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.