Here’s Why Companies Are Making the Move to Integrated Enclosure Cooling
February 24, 2025
By Edward Rodriguez, Climate Control Product Manager, Rittal
As the industrial landscape diversifies and becomes more complex, companies are looking for industrial enclosure and cooling solutions that can make processes simpler, more automated, and more efficient.
Smart automation solutions remove inefficient manual processes that lack visibility and transparency — particularly in the enclosure climate control space — now that integrated enclosure cooling has emerged as a flexible and versatile configuration of enclosure cooling.
Integrated cooling reduces the amount of external equipment necessary to dissipate heat and maintain optimal operating temperatures while providing more targeted, energy-efficient cooling.
Let’s look at a couple of key benefits of integrated enclosure cooling to better understand why companies are embracing this method of enclosure climate control.
Integrated enclosure cooling reduces your BOM and overall automation footprint
Integrated enclosure cooling helps mitigate the complexity of climate control by simplifying your bill of materials (BOM). This helps reduce the number of enclosure cooling units and accessories designers need to specify in order to ensure enclosures operate at peak performance.
Eliminating the number of externally mounted cooling units or accessories helps conserve valuable production room space and makes it easier to leverage cooling in more unique or challenging floorplans. A simplified BOM with a significantly reduced list of part numbers also streamlines and accelerates the process of installing and assembling equipment on the factory floor.
This is an important benefit given market forces like labor shortages and cost — time is money, and integrated enclosure cooling can help save on both.
Integrated enclosure cooling simplifies maintenance and upkeep processes
Most integrated enclosure cooling units use a fan-filter operating model to cool the enclosure and ensure peak performance. Compared to other enclosure cooling solutions, these fans and filters have fewer components and are quicker and easier to service or clean. The simplified design increases application and deployment flexibility while making maintenance and troubleshooting both faster and easier.
The Rittal NEMA 3R Vented Drive Box leverages an easy-to-access, top-mounted design to help accelerate routine maintenance and filter washing. These maintenance tasks can be conducted without the need for specialized tooling to minimize downtime, and filters can be quickly and easily replaced in the event that washing doesn’t quite do the trick.
Integrated enclosure cooling creates more targeted, efficient climate control
Integrated enclosure cooling units use high-performance fans to transfer additional thermal loads away from the enclosure. Not only does this help increase cooling efficiency, but it also helps reduce energy consumption and cooling costs via more direct, consistent cooling.
Fan-filter units help ensure optimal thermal management to prevent overheating and maintain efficient operation. What’s more, top-mounted fan-and-filter units allow for easy access, which makes it faster and easier to modify cooling outputs in real time based on production demands.
The Rittal NEMA 3R Vented Drive Box provides integrated cooling with an adjustable thermostat that comes standard with the enclosure for more precise cooling outputs and energy usage. In addition, the variable configurations of the NEMA 3R Drive Box mean companies can harness the power and cost-saving measures of integrated enclosure cooling in a wide range of applications, from uncontrolled indoor deployments to extreme outdoor sites.
But all this flexibility doesn’t come at the expense of protection and durability. The NEMA 3R enclosure offers superior corrosion resistance, complete with a three-phase surface finish and a silicone gasket to prevent contamination and extend the lifespan of your equipment.
