Control Panel Fabrication: Best Practices

1. Make sure you have plenty of space in your panel design. A common mistake that is made in many control panels is when all of the hardware is crammed very closely together in order to use a smaller enclosure that will take up less room. While there are some cases when a small enclosure is required for a particular application, it is best practice use the a larger enclosure whenever ever possible.

2. Tap your holes instead of using self-tapping screws. It is common for many panel builders to use self-tapping screws to save time during the fabrication process. While it can save time, this type of fastener does not always provide the consistent, strong connection that may be needed for the hardware you intend to mount. This is especially true when hardware may need to be removed at some point and then later reattached. Holes that have been tapped prior to hardware installation will offer a stronger more consistent connection point that will last longer over time.

3. Ensure that your wire ducting is large enough to accommodate all of the potential wire that may run through it. This is one of the most common mistakes that we see, and even fall victim to ourselves. It is very easy to undersize your wire ducting when designing a panel. This is because we commonly underestimate the amount of wire that will be run through the ducting, especially once that panel is installed in the field. It is important to always plan for your wire ducting to have extra room available once ALL wires have been run through it, including field wires. So make sure to really take time and think about the amount of conductors that will be used, and then ensure that you have enough room to accommodate those conductors with room to spare.

4. When in doubt… label it. It is a very good practice to label wires in your panel, and in most cases is required by code. But, it is not always required to label the other types of hardware in your panel to meet code. UL standards dictate that you label that most relevant hardware, but again, not everything needs to be labeled. It is important to understand that any operators that may access this panel at a later date may not understand what the hardware in the panel is intended for. To make the panel as safe as possible, and to allow operators to function in the panel more efficiently, it is good idea to label everything that you feel may come into question. At times the labels may seem obvious, but it is still best practice to label everything clearly… so others can understand them.

5. If possible, isolate all components with supplementary protection, such as a circuit breaker or fuse block. When wiring power to the various devices within a panel, there are many methods that can be taken, that can both be safe and meet code. This can include using a few branch circuit protectors for multiple devices throughout the panel. While this method works, and meets code, it is not best practice. When possible, it is a good idea to have the ability to isolate every device within the panel with some form of supplementary protection device. A supplementary protector is intended to provide protection for only one device at a time.

So instead us using one breaker to protect the PLC, power supply, and network switch. A better method would be to have a protector for each device, that is sized specifically for the power requirements of that device. This does a few things… First, it allows you to isolate the device if needed… for repair or in order to replace the device, without the need to kill power to other devices in the panel. It also provides better protection for that specific device, because the protection being used is sized for only that device. Using supplementary protection in this way does require more time, money and space is the panel, but is by far the best way to distribute power to the various devices throughout the enclosure.

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