That also means that your control panel can talk to your enterprise and production systems to communicate what is happening at the machine and equipment level. That means making sure any safety devices you have on your plant floor properly talk to your control panel which in turn will talk to a motor to shut it down as required. Your control panels are typically trying to do two things, (1) provide and control the flow of electrical power to equipment, typically electric motors and (2) control how your equipment operates within the framework of your DCS, distributed control system. They are not entirely reliant on a third-party contractor, which helps them manage in house maintenance and upgrades.īasic Considerations for Your Control Panel It keeps the critical work under their supervision and control. It allows them to move the pre-fab and pre-install work that isn’t in their wheelhouse off their plate. Many end-users in the world of automated manufacturing take advantage of the PLUG AND PLAY Option. You receive a partially finished panel – an enclosure with some amount of DIN rail, duct, pre-drilled & pre-tapped holes, and components pre-installed. You provide a rough idea of what components will be involved. It is not as hands-off as an outsourced option, but some of the involved work from a DIY option is taken off your plate.

They will create the openings to your drawings and specifications. After some amount of work, your team will begin to do the actual electrical wiring – both wiring the control components and wiring to power. Your team drills and taps holes and starts installing components.

Your team uses hand power tools to make cutouts, openings, and access points in the enclosure.

You purchase all of the different components: drives, a PLC, power supplies, fuses, DIN rail, panel duct, ethernet cable, glands, mounting plates, etc. You purchase an off-the-shelf standard-sized stock enclosure. We’d like to talk today about what those options are and some best practices you can use to come up with a cost-effective way to get the electrical control panel solution you need. You can hire a third-party contractor to build your control panel, deliver, come onsite, and wire it up. You can purchase a standard empty enclosure and do all the work yourself. How are you handling your electrical control panels? There are quite a few options on the spectrum.

Industrial control panel wiring