On February 15th, 2020, the Roberson Car Wash in Salem, Oregon went up in flames. The cause: a control cabinet with components that gathered excess corrosion from intrusive moisture. The panel components overheated, began arcing, and eventually melted pails of hydraulic oil, igniting dry uniforms hanging nearby.
Discrimination studies are an essential factor in the design of any electrical installations. Professionals carry out an exhaustive analysis of the electrical protections needed to guarantee the continuity of supply in case of failure. A good discrimination study allows the coordination of different protections at different levels of electrical installations.
Electronics enclosures are used in countless test/analytics/measurement devices for many applications. This includes various instrument systems in Oil & Gas, Industrial & Power Control, Medical, Lab/Test, and Military designs. Serving all of these types of devices requires a wealth of cooling options for instrument cases.
The DC module “Direct current” is an additional module of elec calc. It allows the design and sizing of low voltage electrical installations in direct current, up to a voltage of 1500 VDC. Completely integrated into the elec calc software, it maintains all of its functionality and ergonomics and allows the creation of installations mixing DC and AC parts.
Definition of panel mount
Panel mount is a mechanical feature or features built into the design of a connector half. It allows the connector to be secured to an equipment panel, external case or enclosure. Often (but not always), connectors fitted with panel mount features will be cable connectors.
EPLAN has been at the forefront of engineering design technology for many years and much of our sustained success is a result of listening to our customers, to gain an understanding of their needs and pain points. As part of this process, the EPLAN Customer Advisory Board has identified a number of specific issues that panel builders face in their day-to-day work.
The main objective of electrical facilities is to supply reliable power. To guarantee the power supply and the efficient and continuous management of the operations, a highly resistant and secure electrical installation is required. Electrical equipment is potentially hazardous and, in the unfortunate case of failure or anomaly, the consequences can be fatal for both people and properties. This is why it is important to adopt a holistic approach in which personnel, devices, and monitoring systems are integrated.
I think many of us right now are caught at a point where we are either looking back at where we were, or forward in hopes of better to quench the worry and uncertainty of the times. And although we have heard it often, we will come through this, and it is those who are focused forward that we all need to follow.
To put things in perspective and consider how the current situation has affected those working in automation and control markets, Panel Builder US conducted a nation-wide survey to gain insight into how this is affecting your industry.
When selecting a motor, it is important to consider the required duty cycle to ensure the motor can meet the needs of the application. This blog post and the accompanying light board video will provide a basic introduction to motor duty cycles and a few of the most common types of duty cycles.
If your plant is unexpectedly shut down due to the current crisis, you can use this pause in production as an opportunity to review and improve safety procedures. Why should you make maintaining your electrical infrastructure a priority?
It’s that moment you dread: You’re doing controls testing on a new machine as a customer’s start-up date approaches, when you discover a problem. The issue could be almost anything. It could be a functionality problem, like an unexpected stoppage or a missing sensor. Or it could be a last-minute customer concern, like the HMI’s sequence or layout.
If the main power is lost to a VFD while the motor is under load, the DC bus of the VFD drops at an accelerated rate compared to no load conditions. When the DC bus reaches a low level, the VFD would shut down, disabling the output modulation and releasing the motor to coast to a stop. The motor coasting to a stop under the loss of main input power may not be of concern for many VFD applications.
When a machine component fails or operating conditions start to change, the first sign for workers that something is wrong is often an alarm in the HMI. Factors such as how accurate, detectable and informative the alarm is can directly affect how quickly workers see and react to it.
Outdoor kiosks have grown in popularity in a wide variety of applications and sectors, including banking, entertainment, retail, showrooms, industrial and education. You see kiosks everywhere, from banks and airports, to theme parks and train stations. Often located outdoors, kiosks and the sensitive electronics they contain are subjected to extreme temperatures, from the cold of winter to the heat of summer. Ambient temperatures can exceed 40°C or below 10°C. Heat loads for the electronics themselves can range from 20 to more than 200 Watts. These extreme temperatures and heat loads can often exceed the operating temperature limits of the sensitive electronics inside, which in turn can affect their functionality and lifespan.
During these weeks, with the COVID-19 outbreaks, it has been possible to observe how certain facilities (not only hospitals but also hotels, sports centers, libraries …) had to adapt to the emergency state by changing their original design, operation and action protocols, and structural, mechanical, pneumatic and electrical systems. In this following article, we will focus on these three last topics.
Automation is a target that many in the industrial sector are chasing. However, converting existing facilities into smart facilities can be a costly and time-consuming undertaking. For a company to implement smart manufacturing, its machinery and equipment must be able to communicate with each other and across a network.