Protect Your Electrical Enclosure with Proper Hole Drilling
Electrical enclosures often require drilled holes for items such as electrical conduits, knockout openings, and pushbutton holes, and for installing temperature control equipment. Properly sealing these holes is essential for ensuring that the enclosure can do its job of keeping cool air in and contaminants out.
Manufacturers go to a lot of trouble to create enclosures that are properly sealed. They pay special attention to the gaskets, welded joints, hinge pins, and even the surface coating of the enclosure itself. Drilling conduit holes and not finishing them with a proper seal negates some of this effort and compromises the integrity of the enclosure. Fortunately, there is a correct way to drill holes in electrical enclosures.
Why Proper Hole Drilling is Important
Incorrectly drilling holes in electrical enclosures can lead to the following problems:
- Water leaking into the enclosure
- Cooled air leaking out of the enclosure and reducing efficiency
- Contaminated air leaking into the enclosure
Water and air leaks can lead to larger problems such as damage to sensitive electrical components, shortened equipment life, and downtime for repairs. You can avoid these problems by ensuring that any holes that you drill into an electrical enclosure are correctly placed and properly sealed.
How to Ensure Proper Hole Drilling
Manufacturers provide hole seals in a range of standard sizes and materials . These seals come with gaskets to ensure that air, dust, oil and water are not able to pass through the opening.
Proper location is also an important part of making drilled holes in electrical enclosures for installation of temperature control equipment. Using approved templates and drawings supplied by temperature control equipment manufacturers is the best way to ensure that your drilled holes will not impact the integrity of the enclosure.
Thermal Edge Can Help
In addition to selecting the right electrical enclosure for your application, proper temperature control equipment installation is essential for optimal operation. Thermal Edge helps ensure that your electrical enclosures are properly installed by providing cutout templates and drawings, and gaskets, with our air conditioners, heat exchangers, and fans.
When you make holes in your enclosures, using these cutout templates and drawings will help prevent the air leaks that can reduce the efficiency of your cooling system and allow airborne contaminants to enter the unit.
The experts at Thermal Edge are here to help you with all aspects of your electrical enclosures. Whether you need to determine what type of cooling solution is right for your application or how to install it on a new enclosure, we have the expertise you need. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
