Pre-assembled, populated enclosures save costs

One aspect that is often overlooked by electrical contractors and can add hours to any job is the preparation, assembly and population of electrical junction boxes and enclosures.

Increasing cost pressure on electrical contractors has undoubtedly led to time saving products and services being of more interest to both private contractors and contract service companies.

One aspect that is often overlooked and can add hours to any job is the preparation, assembly and population of electrical junction boxes and enclosures.

Most junction boxes or enclosures carrying basic termination and electrical protection equipment will require cable entries to be made, (cable glands fitted if the unit is exposed to weather, moisture or otherwise adverse environmental conditions) DIN rail or bus bar and internal equipment to be mounted.

This alone can take between 20 min and 2hs depending on the size and complexity of the unit.

Applications with slightly out of the ordinary requirements such as non-standard cable entries, warning lights, e-stops, internal components that have to be wired and tested, or any number of other possibilities all require some form of on-site drilling, milling, assembly or commissioning - this can take hours and require specialist equipment and knowledge and is potentially therefore extremely costly.

A vast improvement on this situation in terms of time and convenience is possible however: UK enclosure suppliers such as Telford based Spelsberg are offering a complete assembly service that includes the supply of enclosures ready with a wide range of drilling, milling, fitted cable entries, glands and populated with any number of component items - allowing contractors and fitters to simply mount and connect an enclosure straight from the box, regardless of what the cable entry or internal requirements are.

The additional cost of having an enclosure supplied complete and ready to fit can often equate to no more than a few minutes of fitting time, especially in projects that require multiple boxes requiring the same layout and components.

As soon as additional machining operations or fitting and testing of basic components are required on-site, then the savings become exponential.

Larger projects can benefit from significantly reduced overall fitting and commissioning times using pre-assembled enclosures, providing not only cost savings, but an opportunity for a more competitive tender in a highly competitive market.

This extension of the service provided by enclosure suppliers can also make significant savings in hidden cost areas such as on-site stock, transport, administration and sales order/receipt management.

Consolidating suppliers can also reduce costs further using an enclosure supplier's bulk purchasing power to avoid the mark-up incurred by using several different component sources.

In a real world example of these savings in action Spelsberg UK supplied a national mobile phone company with junction boxes ready fitted with busbar, circuit breakers, terminals and cable glands.

The units were fitted to out-door power supplies used on network masts.

The savings made in reduced supplier base, administration, logistics, production and fitting time reduced the overall cost of the circuit protection element in the project by around GBP 1/2 million.

Even if a final product consists of components that are not readily available, enclosure specialists can take these stocks direct from the customer or their own suppliers and integrate them into a finished unit.

All these aspects of customisation are integral to the customer support service and many more companies are taking advantage of the trend in module supply and rationalisation that began in the automotive industry and continues to filter through to component suppliers.

Back to top