Category Archives: Engineering Materials

Effective Tips of Properly Selecting a Plastic Enclosure

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Aside from purchasing a steel electronics enclosure for your needs, there are plastic enclosures available in the market today. However, in purchasing one there are several considerations the user has to take in consideration before actually buying one. Asking the right questions is as crucial as choosing the right enclosure.

In this article, we will help you to make the right decision.

With this in mind, there are three basic questions in choosing the right plastic enclosure for your engineering project. These questions should be first addressed by the project or design engineer before making a decision if they should buy a plastic enclosure instead of the steel one.

Aside from the different price points, weight, transportability, and durability there are other important factors you should keep in mind.

The size of the enclosure. Plastic enclosures are easier to customize thus it can accommodate smaller design of electronics enclosure. It can range from a hand-held enclosure to a large one akin to the typical steel enclosures.

The user should keep in mind that the size specifics should be identified first and what types of customizations needed.

Level of protection. Also take into consideration that if you need a specific or certain level of environmental protection for your electronics enclosure, carefully note that the plastic enclosures can have the rating of at least IP40. It can also go up to IP65 or even higher.

It can also be a flame-retardant material so carefully consider the types of protection you might need.

Type of plastic material used. There are polycarbonate and ABS plastic enclosures available. You can search online for its different uses and characteristics. It is important to note that the polycarbonate material is also UV-stabilized and ideal for outdoor use.

NEMA Rating. Usually, plastic enclosures have the NEMA rating of 4X and 6P alongside other NEMA ratings.

In addition to this, if there’s a need for you to stock on an enclosure or there should be customization and modifications, the user should be upfront with the manufacturer to be clear about what is needed to be made on the plastic enclosure.

Is it Possible that Electronics Enclosure Can Get Too Cold – Plastic Hypothermia

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Electrical Enclosure, Electronics Enclosure, Electrical Boxes, Plastic Hypothermia,

I am going to share one of my well kept secrets with you – one of my favorite TV show of all time is the Dual Survival on the Discovery Channel. To back up the story a little bit, I will give you a very short overview. There is this tag-team duo that is composed of an ex-military sniper. His name is David. And there is this one guy that is barefoot wasteland hippie and he was named Cody. For the story, this man wears no shoes ever. These two young gentlemen travel to the most remote parts of the world. The show aims to tell the viewers regarding the various survival techniques that can be used under extreme environmental conditions.

What I really liked about this show is that it educates the viewers what to do if in case these type of crazy scenario happens. At least we have an idea right?

In one of their new episodes, the duo team has a new adventure. They take on two ranchers that are being stranded on the Northern Great Plains in Montana during the worst winter ever. The tag team thought of something. They decided to ramp up the defense from the very cold winter by wearing a pair of socks in this episode I am talking about. But Cody still remains shoe less of course. The irony! I found myself gawking in disbelief while I was watching. I was thinking to myself that this guy is crazy!

With this type of weather, I guess my feet would literally snap off my legs! That is totally crazy right! This extreme weather often reminds me of the question I usually encounter when a company purchases an electronics enclosure. Can a plastic enclosure endure extreme cold weather? Or how cold is too cold for your electronics enclosure? On one hand, this question is reasonable right? If an electronics enclosure can withstand high temperature, how is it performing when it comes to withstanding cold temperatures?

Let us explain.

If an electronics enclosure, is made from steel I guess there would be no much of a problem. However, if the electronics enclosure is made from plastic, there are some things you need to keep in mind. The minimum temperature plastic used for manufacturing the enclosure can withstand does not have a specific cutoff temperature point. According to some of the plastic material supplier, the ABS plastic seems that it can handle temperatures around -20 to -30 degrees Celsius.

Knowing that the temperature can drop off that drastically is crazy right? In order for this to maintain a somewhat safety factor, companies manufacturing plastic enclosures does not recommend using the ABS plastic below 0 degrees F (-17 degrees C). 

In reality, this totally depends on what type of enclosure is now being physically exposed at some certain temperatures. The cold temperatures can bring about significant impact or damage on some parts that are being exposed to some vibration or bad impact. Some of the parts that are exposed to some of these conditions might incur cracking at low temperatures.

Ways on Properly Selecting a Good-Sized Server Racks

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The Three-Phase power technology for server racks is not very exclusive to operating remote power management products. Actually, there are several solutions that can be accommodated by this technology. When you compare it to a single-phase power, it utilizes a fewer circuit making electricity in power loading more balanced. It also decreases the number of needed PDUs in order to power equipment. It can also significantly reduce the amperage being used inside the server rack cabinets.

To further explain this topic, there is a traditional rack environment that has 20-amp circuits that are going to be required to provide 64 amps of available power. Assuming the maximum power load of about 80%. In a contrasting scenario, the 3-phase circuit can give power up to 51.6 amps per circuit. That is equivalent to 82 amps of available power. It will only require 2 circuits in order to accommodate the 80% load.

The cost-efficiency required in order to run a 3-Phase power is very important. The electricity experts have an estimation that in the near future, the cost to acquire electricity (compared to recent costs) has the possibility to rise by 10%. When it comes to IT budgets it can get to 20-30%.

The other electricity or power-related required aspects should include the number of outlets that the server rack will be needing. Including the plug/receptacle requirements as well as the redundancy requirements.

When it comes to selecting a server rack with the appropriate, sufficient internal space to be able to accommodate your equipment is needed. Also, it ensures that the server rack has ample space to house the equipment that will be needed for future expansions. Especially when there are unplanned purchases of additional equipment.

The server rack mount equipment is being measured using the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) standards. The standard measurement is one “Rack Unit” that has the equivalence of 1.75” in height. Always be aware that the available space for accessories – the environmental monitoring devices, remote power management devices, LCD monitors and battery back-up – might be important.

With this example, if an engineer needs to accommodate at least 20 2U rack servers, they are more likely to buy a server rack with a height of 44U in able for them to accommodate all the needed accessories. These can be the 1U patch panel, as well as the 2U UPS battery back-up. The internal height of the server rack is being measured by getting the measurements from the tallest point of any side of the rack server up to the bottom of the chassis. The internal depth that is being measured internally is being done on front and rear doors. In addition to this, the internal width is being measured from the other side of the panel to the other.

Improved Graphics Department Output Contributes to the Decision Making of Enclosure Manufacturing Companies

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Now that the winter is over, the seasons are starting to transition from being very dreary gray to bright colorful spring and summer. Who would not be excited right? With this in mind, I guess every woman like to brighten up their wardrobe. We should start putting away the bulky, drab winter sweaters –including the overstuffed coat- and we should start pulling out the floral dresses, including the crisp white shoes.

Most of the common colors for spring and summer are the: yellows, oranges, and whites. It can shine and glow against the beautiful backdrops of spike green grass and the turquoise blue skies. With this in mind, the natural colors from spring are the best and great improvement over the winter blues.

With these changes in color schemes of things, enclosure manufacturing companies also knows how to give color and various styles to any class of any given standard enclosure. One of the customization services of an electronics enclosure is giving permanent printing graphics that can be put on any type of enclosure surfaces.

And in order for these companies to give you the only best color schemes available for enclosure printing, they should implement certain developments in their graphics department.

The first of these processes would require a double-hit process. This is very much alike in applying a secondary coating for painting your walls. Companies does not only apply one strike of color but they apply a secondary coating when printing one enclosure. Now this makes the color of the printing appear the brightest especially on the finished product.

As many of the electronics enclosure that are available in black material, we recently just found out that printing may appear in lackluster. Like a dark background that was shown through the ink. In able to fortify the text or graphics with the use of the second hit of ink, the color is then now accentuated. Gradually, the ink pops against the darkness.

Even on white or gray surfaces of electronics enclosure, companies should double hit the process. The printed colors will start to stand out and it makes it a bit easier to read the graphics to be able to be recognized.

What are the Measurement Specifications for Electronics Server Rack Specifications?

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For industrial terms, the 19-inch rack is a server or network frame within an enclosure that is being utilized to be mounted on multiple equipment units. Each of the server rack modules contains a front panel that is 19 inches or 482.6 mm wide in specifications. The horizontal measurement then includes some of the edges in the internal space of the rack.

The different IT equipment that was being manufactured with sizes to be able to fit inside a rack will usually be called the rack-mountable or rackmount. The terms: rack-mounted system, rack-mount chassis, server rack and subrack are the most common ones.

Specifications for the 19″ Racks in the Data Centre

Both server rooms, as well as data centers both, have the computing equipment installed inside the standard 19″ racks. These server racks can be in the form of two or four post formats. The height for the server racks is also being standardized in the multiples of 44.50mm or the 1.752 inches. The height measurement being given is also determined as the one rack unit or “U.” The IT industry greatly considers the sever rack structure of 42U tall.

By utilizing the standard server racks, the networking hardware or even the AV equipment can be safely configured or efficiently set up without the need for the floor space or even shelf installations. The server racks serve a wide variety of placement demands, from securing everything – from basic equipment to very light computing applications.

Specifications for Rack Unit Servers

The right measurement for each server rack is 1.75 inches wide, the standardized rank units are primarily designed to be able to assist administrators in mounting, buying, or uninstalling the servers. Computers and also other devices are already included.

The data servers or cabinets can be chosen based on their functionality. It also includes cooling and cabling management options. These cabinets or server racks can greatly vary by U height, front door style, width, security, as well as the other features.

Specifications for Patching cabinets

The size range from 4u to 8u when it comes to server rack height has a very shallow depth. It has an approximate size of 275mm. These server rack cabinets are being utilized inside a small office or classroom applications. It can also house the 1 or 2 patch panels. There can be also a small switch if it is required. These small and compact server rack cabinets will only require limited space.

Specifications for the Wall Mount Server Cabinets

These wall mount server cabinets have measurements that can range from the 6u tp 21u in height dimensions. It is widely available in measurements of 390mm, 450mm and 600mm. These server rack cabinets are also being used inside the small office/classroom/Retail applications. But because of the larger size needed for this size range, this has also been utilized to house small communications equipment for small office use. This is also where the floor space is unavailable because of the security and location issues.

Sampling Policy when It Comes to Electronic Enclosures or Electronic Project Boxes

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While having my weekly break from work during the past weekend, I had the chance to watch TV commercials while waiting for my favorite series to be aired. Usually, I will just fast forward through them because I just want them to be over and just continue on watching my favorite show. Although this was not my first idea to do on the weekend.

Because of this, I just channel surfed. The commercials that has the biggest impact on me were the certain fiber bar and canned pasta. Both of the commercials featured giving away free samples of these products. On top of that, they highlighted that these products are really healthy and very beneficial for the customers – and they taste really good! Even a kid will be able to eat the full serving of vegetables served in every bowl.

And once you get to know that a food taste really good, you are going to buy more of them and eat it again and again.

This also holds true when it comes to free samples of all kinds: free food tasting on a grocery store, 24-hour test drives, and even in electronics enclosure manufacturing companies. There are companies that are more than happy to provide free sample to their customers to make sure that their potential customers will have the perfect fit enclosure and it can accommodate their engineering project specifications. Through this way, the users will be ready to produce more because they now know that they have a case that will perfectly work out their needs.

The free enclosure samples are given so that they can test the size of the equipment that will be placed inside the enclosure and to make sure that the structure of the enclosures is also just right. Is the enclosure fits well with the appropriate sizing of your battery packs, board, and connectors? Will your board will perfectly fit the mounting bosses? With the specific measurements and radii, the board slide in the case will be needing no more adjustments.

Also, does the potential enclosure of your choice will be able to withstand any temperature changes when there is a physical exertion place don it? These are all important questions to identify before an end user can purchase large quantities of cases or boards. That’s why there are companies that offer free sample to the businesses that might probably need it. You just need to inquire if this service is available in their company.

However, these companies only offer limited samples per businesses or design engineers. Although there are some of them that offers purchase for sample pieces of one of the enclosure designs and with this they offer no minimum purchases.

Feel free to contact them directly to proper address your business needs.

What is the Value Present in the Supply of Transmission Equipment that is being Used?

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The main purpose of a Grid Assurance is it serves as a solution that helps in dividing the cost across several utilities. The shared inventory approach in achieving cost-efficiency can give people savings in terms of protection, warehousing, purchasing, and it also includes the maintenance cost that comes with possible parts replacements of the equipment. It makes the cost more affordable compared before to enable companies to acquire immediate access for much larger scale equipment that is on hand and on shore.

Once a major disastrous event happens, a company’s tendency is to mainly focus on stabilizing the operations quicker to avoid loss of profit. This should be done as fast as possible. With this in mind, the Grid Assurance effectively works if each of the subscriber do logistics plans for their equipment before a disaster occurs. The planning should make sure that the equipment that are being used and delivered should be delivered before the predicted event. In determining when the critical replacement will happen for the equipment should come up gives the companies an extra confidence in making sure that the grid assurance is present to deliver the customers energy supply even after a disaster happens.

In addition to this, another pressing challenge comes with the regulatory approval. It is widely recognized that grid utility companies are now being a bit hesitant in coming up with decisions about major investments because these decisions should be backed up by a regulatory assurance that the costs that are incurred should be recouped in form of rates.

With this in mind, Gird Assurance is not taking initiative and being proactive because it has recently received two affirmative orders coming from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that gives the regulatory clarification on the issues that can be related to prudency, compliance, ratemaking and other affiliated pricing transmissions. This is related to the owing entities that participates in the Grid Assurance project.

While the Grid Assurance is not currently FERC regulated, the different charges that comes with this such as: cost-based subscription fees akin to the FERC regulated transmission formula rates. The different costs that comes with subscription fees together with the FERC orders should be able to facilitate the members’ different abilities in recovering the expenses that comes with Grid Assurance subscription.

While not FERC regulated, Grid Assurance charges cost-based subscription fees, like FERC-regulated transmission formula rates. These cost-based subscription fees along with the FERC orders will facilitate members’ ability to recover their Grid Assurance subscription expenses.

With this in mind, Grid Assurance was originally formed to give answers because of the needs that arises in the electrical industry: this need comes in the restoration of the electrical grid that should quickly follow other HILF events. This will happen by increasing the critical transmission equipment that comes with on-shore and on-hand inventory. Different companies contribute to the utilities’ ability to restore the energy delivery back properly, giving help to protect the nations’ consumers and the communities from the possible devastating effects potential calamities might bring. This will help in maintaining the way of life of the people and the economical balance in the country.

The Benefits of Having Improved Reliability of Speed Distribution and Automated Networks

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In a private network setting, there are no unauthorized traffic that can travel around the network. With this in mind, this can totally eliminate the risk of having unsolicited traffic that can come from external sources. All of the data that is sent to and from several devices is now configured to a set private network that is segregated and separated from other sources of traffic. However, in such a private network like this, the customer can get a pool of set machine to machine (MSM) data plans that is designed for the DA application.

In conjunction with these type of applications, different cellular modems and routers are now designed through the solution given by the supplier and now being used for the IPsec tunnels, firewalls, and special filtering to have different sets of data to be securely transmitted between data and field devices. The MSM data plans for different DA solutions are designed to have a well defined and tested ways to support various types of applications.

For example, a manufacturer’s system may opt to use the small Ethernet IEC 61850 Generic Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) type of messages to be able to communicate and transfer the information from peer to peer between the pole-mounted field controller devise or servers. This happens on the cost-efficient machine to machine data plans that are build to support different applications such as DTT, FLISR, and ATS that happens in different private cellular networks.

Several DA systems heavily depend on the available communication lines to be able to perform as it was originally designed for. As a failsafe, once the system successfully detects that a certain model was unusually disconnected from its cellular network, the system will successfully automatically give notification to the operator when the link is down. This service notification will give support to the customers to be able to have a better maintenance in their communication system lines that will variably support OT applications.

For the progressive electrical utility, a good combination of the cellular communications and the recent approaches to the new distribution systems feeder protection and automation stars gathering improved system reliability. On the other hand, the traditional approach for this system comprises of two distinctly different system functions: protection first and then automation.

The recent protection system should disconnect from the faulty networks that coordinates the overcurrent tripping that has auto-reclosing actions. Once the automated system successfully locates the faulty segment from the feeder, it isolates the faulted segments and it now executes the automatic closure of the field then it transfers switch to be able to provide the alternate energy from a different power source to functioning feeder segments. This is usually described as self-healing.

The recent approach disregards the complexity of adaptation of different coordinated overcurrent settings on several devices once the topology undergoes change. It then will be executed by the automated system. For this to happen, the automated and protection sytems should be closely monitored and coordinated in different actions – both in protection and automation. This helps to have an effective operation and protection for these types of automation actions to be executed successfully.

The Progress NEMA is Undertaking Because of the Coalition of Varying Sections

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The Progress NEMA is Undertaking Because the Coalition of Varying Sections

Like the electrical power grid is the same with the development of umbrella systems of systems together with millions of integrated and interconnected parts, the NEMA utility products & systems division is geared towards the mobility of integrated coalition of different product sections.

Nowadays, this division is geared in the creation of a leadership committee that is responsible for the mobility within NEMA organization. This will help NEMA to have a specific focus on having a product-centered technical organization to one system that may look like a system-wide approach in terms of its strategic planning and problem solving. When NEMA utilizes its power to have all the work being coordinated coming from individual product sectors – its members benefit the most. This example includes the initiatives of the workforce development, the existence of internet of things and several government relations.

This concept of having a divison-level group leadership is fundamentally based on two different NEMA divisions involved in the operation under the guidance of its executive leadership group. To name, the groups are: NEMA lighting divison and the medical imaging & technology alliance or what we call the MITA.

Under strict guidance of the leadership committee, the NEMA division is geared to develop and oversee the three-year strategy that includes the delineated goals and different methodologies that is directly related to the digitization of power grid. Its preparation is because of the fact that it brings electrification of several new industries. Once the electrical power grid started to develop into self-healing, self-driving system, the committee will now determine what exact role the NEMA has together with its members. The different components of this strategy would be business, policy, and other technical objectives.

The activities of the committee might include some engagement from outside of the groups that effectively represent the utility community, also the formal studies and some data collections. This also includes some of the briefings done in form of different business strategy groups that comes with some expertise from the field. The different areas or place of focus/priorities should be carefully determined by the committee responsible for this and they should include a strategy-based work. This should include the inclusion of the digital twinning, different development of several practices needed for the several equipment production modeling. This also includes some deep-dive analysis of some mentioned utility rate structures. The NEMA committee should now consider the different policy activities involving the former grid modernization leadership council. Some of the specific activities involved in the engagement of utility commissions should be on the same level with the other state-level policymakers. There will also be some written and verbal comments about different federal agencies and responsible federal policymakers. The other briefings with other entities that helps in the governance of bulk power market like the regional transmission operators and coordination should also contribute.

How to Have Control System with Style? Part 1

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When a design engineer would like to implement and design a control system with integration project, he/she should start with a set of goals or specifications. These goals should determine the preferences of the end-user and this should be communicated efficiently to ensure that final output satisfies the expectations of all stakeholders in a company. This gives of a good start for any design engineer when specifications are carefully developed and implemented. It ensures the highest success probability of the project and it makes sure that in the long haul, the control system can be maintained and operates efficiently.

When designing a new control system, the easiest one to develop are the hard-side specifications. Why? Because there are many resources available for this one. Pre-built sections for controllers and software packages in a control system are in the resources of Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). Once an engineer cannot find the detail that he/she desires, other control system hardware and software sellers can also provide detailed sections about hard-side specifications. Once the end user are looking for bids from several seller or vendors of this system, the specifications the company would like to have must be carefully developed and consider so that these can be met by several bidders.

The real challenge comes when a company or an end user would like to set the specifications on the soft-side of controls. To guide them in the decision-making process, they should start with a few basic questions:

What design should be considered for the screen?

How is the controller is going to be used by the maintenance or engineering personnel?

The structure of tags and operating pump colors are hardly addressed in the specifications. These are the elements which determines the UI (user interface) of the control system.

Once these guidelines are answered, the next step of action is to start the layout with a style guide. Style guides has been existing for a very long time on other fields. There are The Associated Press Stylebook, MLA Handbook for research papers, and in marketing field where fonts, colors, and logos for branding are also guided & monitored across all social media platforms. In this scenario, style guide is also appropriate and applicable.

With this in mind, there is not limitation what elements and considerations should be added in a control system style guide. However, the following are six areas where there should be standardization of style and these elements has proven to have the most return on investment:

  1. Color

Like the usual traffic lights, red signifies stop and green means go. With this in mind, mechanical systems and electrical systems also applies the same principles. The main goal of color coding is to keep the operators and personnel safe in company operations. The color does not only signify coding but it should be well implemented in the company processes.

To start the process of deciding which colors to use for guidelines, determine the list of colors used in a facility where the control system will be used. Look for painted process pipes, pilot lights, control panels, stack lights, etc. The colors used should be familiar with the personnel for a more efficient use of the control guide and better operations.