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Enclosures
More than little boxes, these smaller enclosures allow engineers to fight UV light, package controls, and versatility in design.
By Laurie Toupin -- Design News, June 15, 2003
A perfect Fit
Hoffman INLINE® Instrumentation Enclosure Series. "These were designed specifically to accommodate the newest generation of distributed controls," says Betty Jackson, product manager. "This means that the enclosures were sized to allow sufficient clear space to dissipate the heat generated by the controls," she adds. Full-length mounting brackets welded to the top and bottom of the enclosure provide flexible mounting capabilities. The brackets have two pre-drilled mounting holes, or additional holes can be drilled for alternate mounting requirements. INLINE Instrumentation Enclosures range in widths from 310 to 925 mm, each with a standard 230-mm height and 155-mm depth. The enclosures feature either solid or window doors. The solid doors provide optimal UL Type 4 component protection, while the flush polycarbonate window door models offer clear, convenient monitoring. Each has a foam-in-place gasket. The flexibility to mount controls either on the subpanel or on DIN mounting rails accomodates a choice of controls architecture. (www.hoffmanonline.com) Enter 582
Flexible, yet safe
Rittal Legacy Enclosures. Engineers designed these enclosures for high protection and versatility. The Legacy line includes carbon and stainless steel wallmount enclosures and fiberglass versions of junction and instrumentation boxes, wallmount enclosures, pushbutton boxes, as well as freestanding and disconnect cabinets. "Our enclosures are engineered with flexibility in mind," says Charles McFarland, industrial product line manager. "Accessories are engineered into the design so that they do not become an afterthought." Legacy provides protection from rain and water to fire with the foamed-in-place polyurethane gasketing and an integral channel around the door. (www.rittal-corp.com) Enter 583
UV—no problem
Stahlin Non-Metallic Enclosures SolarGuard™. For UV-resistant enclosure surfaces, the company has introduced SolarGuard, a proprietary, patent-pending sheet-molding compound (SMC). According to Stahlin general manager Jeff Seagle, SolarGuard provides double protection against UV surface degradation such as roughening and blooming. First, the SMC technology enhances the molecular bond strength and crosslinking that occur during the curing process—making it more difficult for UV energy to attack molecular bonds of both primary chains and crosslinks. Second, SolarGuard incorporates a unique sacrificial additive that acts as a UV absorber—actually absorbing UV energy, and then releasing it without damaging the polymer chain. Seagle says that during extensive comparison testing, SolarGuard outperformed other available SMC formulations by up to 60% in its ability to retain gloss and color. Because SolarGuard contains no bromine and no antimony, there is less risk of smoke-borne toxicity in a fire. (www.stahlin.com) Enter 584
