When it comes to solutions for the thermal management in electrical panels, Fandis focuses on a unique product, capable of communicating with the other devices: Sensis.
What are the thermal management problems in the electrical panel?
As we have already seen in other articles, there can be many problems relating to cabinets intended for on-board machine control or energy distribution. In particular, with regard to thermal management, we have:
- Overheating, caused by various factors, which is often a sign of malfunctioning electrical components or ventilation issues.
- Humidity and condensation, at lower temperatures, which can cause corrosion and oxidation of the contacts.
However, the electrical panel market is constantly evolving: technologies and regulations change rapidly, making it necessary to use increasingly advanced, reliable and flexible solutions. Industrial automation, energy and data distribution are all sectors affected by a deep transformation involving digital technologies and connectivity. The system components, combined with the processes and data managed, are increasingly sophisticated and precious and it is therefore necessary to minimize the risks of downtime.
Among the devices capable of regulating the temperature of the enclosure, limiting the problems of overheating, humidity and condensation, Fandis offers a range made up of filter fans and roof exhaust units, heaters, thermoelectric units, limit switches, regulators and lamps, able to cover any thermal management need. But not only! An “orchestra conductor” is also needed: with these assumptions, Fandis has developed Sensis, a device compatible with the main industrial field buses, capable of acting on the temperature inside electrical cabinets by controlling ventilation, heating, thermoelectric units or coolers.
Products that communicate with each other, thanks to Sensis
Greater attention must be paid to the good efficiency of the temperature regulation system, from the design phases to the end-of-life, and in these cases, having a single technical interlocutor on such an important issue for the reliability of the systems represents various advantages in terms of efficiency, communication, specialization, and compatibility.
We therefore start with the thermotechnical analysis of the electrical panel, a mandatory preventive process through which the behavior and thermal performance of the cabinet system as a whole are evaluated, to prevent overheating and condensation. During the life cycle of the plant, interconnection and supervision must allow continuous monitoring of the climatic conditions and intercept any drifts.
Sensis takes the space of a thermo-hygrostat but, in addition to controlling temperatures and humidity, it monitors the climatic conditions of the components in the enclosure, keeps track of the limit conditions, the exceeding of alarm thresholds and useful data for predictive maintenance analyses.
Thanks to a set of sensors, all included in the installation kit, Sensis detects the temperature from three different points, the relative humidity and, for systems equipped with ventilation, detects in real time any obstructions in the cooling channel, usually caused by by the presence of obstacles or clogging of the filters.
Sensis in detail: thermal management
Sensis has two SPDT-type relay outputs with contact capacity up to 8A, intended respectively for activating cooling (ventilation or other) or heating (to prevent humidity). The setpoints can be programmed both from the keyboard and remotely.
The regulation algorithm can be thermostatic, with ON/OFF control and remotely programmable hysteresis, or proportional, via PWM output, using a pre-set PID algorithm. The proportional regulation, combined with the filters with DC fan with speed control, makes it possible to scale the instantaneous power absorbed for ventilation and the noise level at medium or low speeds, i.e. in most working conditions.
Sensis requires a single 24Vdc power supply and can be kept powered in complete safety even during maintenance operations. It has a digital input for detecting the opening of the cabinet door, to be connected to a limit switch of the FC series.
Interconnectivity is obtained through ModBus RTU or with standard industrial protocols such as Modbus TCP, Ethernet IP, Ethercat, etc.
The Fandis integrated thermal management system therefore appears both as the set of active components of the cabinet, which can be used individually (filter fans and roof exhaust units, heaters, thermoelectric units, limit switches, regulators or lamps), both as an integrated and interconnected system.
Thanks to this approach, there is no need for each actuator to become a node, nor for the system integrator to write thermal management code. In fact, thanks to Sensis, the traditional approach or Industry 4.0 are both satisfied and it is easy to recondition existing plants that you want to interconnect.
To find out more about all our enclosure products, keep browsing our blog, visit our website fandis.com or send an email to support@fandis.com. Our staff will answer you as soon as possible.
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