Small floor standing control cabinets? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: V_King
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2021, 07:37:08 am
content: Hello,I am after a floor standing control cabinet, no higher than 700mm and at least 350mm depth (H600xW500x350D would be ideal). All floor standing enclosures I find are 1200mm and above and are very heavy. There are some wall mount enclosures which look like they might fit the bill. If I was to drill the corners and add some feet, would the wall mount ones work? They do have a gland plate at the bottom, but they have seals, so should not be an issue. Or are those wall mount enclosures not that structurally robust to support all the control gear inside? I have no experience with the control cabinets and don't want to spend £250 on one and find that it is too flimsy.Or maybe there are other options to store all the control gear on the floor, which does not take much volume? Server cabinets come into mind? It must be steel/stainless/aluminium, GPR/plastic ones are a no go.Thanks

author: Erin
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 01, 2021, 03:34:56 am
content: Did you find the solution yet?i am in custom metal cabinet industry, maybe i can help you.

author: elekorsi
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 02, 2021, 07:27:57 am
content: I think it's going to be quite a challenge to get a dedicated free standing cabinet that small. As you said, i would go with the wall mounting one. Usually they are all sturdy enough, but i would go with the rittal, as they have a bit thicker material and superb build quality vs others.Those server cabinets (IT cabinets) usually don't have a mounting plate as an option, so you would have to custom make one and also figure out how to even mount it into the cabinet...I would recommend Rittal AX 1360.000, which is 600x600x350. You mentioned "at least 350mm depth". Keep in mind that the useful depth according to datasheet is 328.7, measured from mounting plate to the door.As it will be placed on the floor, it will be quite difficult to get the cables in there through the cable glands. I would order gland plate SZ 2567.400, which has foam rubber strip for the cables and clamp strip to secure them down.For the plinth you will need to make some sort of custom solution, as there is no accessory option for this cabinet. If you could live without the side panels, you could try with AX 2820.061, which is plinth for 600mm wide cabinets. Of course you would need to drill the holes in the bottom of the cabinet to mount it. Check the CADs of the parts how it would fit together.I don't know where the cabinets will be mounted and how much weight will it be on the mounting plate, but consider about securing it down to floor, as it is relatively shallow and it can quite easily tip over, especially if there is not a lot of weight on the mounting plate. I even think that the cabinet of such dimension will tip over when empty, if you open the door...

author: V_King
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2021, 12:22:48 pm
content: Thanks elekorsi, for the recommendations.I had Rittal cabinets recommended to me by somebody else too. They seem to be well build, the only issue they support is based not in this world. You ask one thing, you get answers completely different. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and cash out £300 just to try it out!

author: elekorsi
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2021, 02:43:28 pm
content: Be careful not pay too much. The catalogue price for the cabinet should be somewhere around 150€, plinth 40-50€, cable gland plate 50€, so for everything around 250€ or 215GBP...Any decent supplier should give you at least -20% to -30% on that price...All prices without VAT.

author: V_King
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2021, 10:36:04 am
content: Thanks, elekorsi, sourcing and pricing is a funny business, which never makes sense