Air-conditioners for control cabinets, meaning effective cooling

AIR-CONDITIONERS FOR CONTROL CABINETS, MEANING EFFECTIVE COOLING

The control cabinets effectively protect sensitive electronic, electrotechnical and electrical components against negative impact of water, moisture, contamination, dust or aggressive vapours as well as against mechanical damage. At the same time they require adequate cooling. Let’s find out why heat removal from the enclosures is important and what role the air-conditioners for control cabinets play.

Temperature as one of the key environmental conditions

Electronic or electric control components installed inside the control cabinets, may operate correctly only under certain conditions. Temperature is of crucial importance. Even relatively small operating temperature increase reduces operation accuracy, increases failure frequency and reduces components life. As proven by tests, raise of the temperature by 10 degrees above the specified maximum level reduces the components life by half. It is also important to point out that the standard temperature is 25°C.
Thus, it is evident how important is the heat removal from the components inside the control cabinet. This is the only way to ensure safe and faultless operation of production lines and devices equipped with sensitive subassemblies and supply modules.

Ventilation or air-conditioning?

Selection of an efficient method of temperature control depends on a few parameters. It is necessary to consider:
• Ambient temperature
• Minimum and maximum temperature inside the control cabinet
• Level of power loss in the cabinet
• Positioning and method of enclosure installation
• Cabinet dimensions
• Materials the control enclosure is made of
• Operating conditions.
In case of an open control cabinet, the heat can be removed using an air flow from inside out, therefore using heat conduction. In turn, in case of closed cabinets, a convection is used, i.e. removal of heat through walls. In order to enhance convection, ventilation circuits are used. Natural or mechanical ventilation can be selected. In both cases, at least two air inlets are necessary on opposite walls. In case of natural ventilation, ventilation grates are used and in case of mechanical ventilation, besides the grates, it is necessary to provide fans that suck or force heat from the cabinet. This is an economical and maintenance free solution, however burdened with significant limitations.
Air-conditioner for control cabinets is a solution that is much more efficient, more flexible and ensuring optimum heat removal. This is a modern solution at the same time. You need to be aware that even the most effective ventilation system is not able to cope with proper cabinets cooling if the power generated by the power supplies, drives or contactors is a few hundred Watts. This situation is more and more common therefore the air-conditioners are necessary.
Ventilation is also futile in case of high ambient temperature. This is the case when the control cabinet is installed outdoors in an insolated place, but also indoors, e.g. production halls. Regular supply of air does not guarantee correct temperature inside the control cabinet, therefore a professional air-conditions for the control cabinet is simply necessary to provide faultless operation of the devices.

Reliable air-conditioners for control cabinets

The key factor in selecting air-conditioner is the conditions it is to operate under. If the control cabinet is placed outdoors, you should select SoliTherm Outdoor air-conditioner that not only reliably protects the components against penetration of hazardous solid or liquid substances, but also ensures faultless operation within a wide range of temperatures between -20°C and 55°C.
In turn, the SlimLine series air-conditioners are the thinnest filter-less devices. They ensure adequate power despite small depth amounting only 110 mm. In case of small cabinets and limited space for installation, you may decide to use uniquely light and compact air-conditioners of CoolMatch series.
The Compact series air-conditioners are the most versatile, exceptionally economic, easy to operate and reliable air-conditioners for control cabinets. Models of power 320 W and 4 kW are available, so the selection covers the whole range of models.