Bayable Outdoor Industrial Enclosures Can Be a Cost-Effective Automation Solution
November 11, 2024
Today’s manufacturing landscape is incorporating more industrial automation in outdoor environments than ever before. Energy & power, agriculture, and oil & gas processing are just a handful of the industries that require a unique kind of industrial enclosure that is adaptable and reliable, particularly in the face of harsh environmental conditions.
While the idea of a bayable outdoor industrial enclosure is appealing, the cost of these solutions has in the past proven to be a challenge for manufacturers. Highly customized configurations, long lead times, and reliability concerns have made bayable outdoor industrial enclosures a non-starter in terms of saving time and money.
But a new generation of bayable, modular outdoor industrial enclosures has arrived to help manufacturers build a cost-effective outdoor automation infrastructure that is both versatile and durable. This article will look at the ideal features of a bayable outdoor enclosure, and what makes Rittal’s new CS Toptec bayable outdoor enclosure a suitable solution for the job.
Enhanced enclosure scalability and flexibility
The ability to scale your outdoor automation infrastructure quickly and in a cost-effective manner is key, particularly for energy & power and processing companies as consumer demand continues to increase. This kind of rapid scalability usually means specifying a custom outdoor solution with a non-standard bill-of-materials (BOM) that requires specialized tooling to configure or modify in the field of use. The custom nature of these outdoor enclosures also means prolonged lead times and deployment schedules, elements that can increase downtime and significantly hamper productivity.
Bayable outdoor industrial enclosures that use standardized parts and tools can simplify scalability and accelerate speed-to-market. What’s more, a modular bayable outdoor enclosure enhances the capability to scale based on specific footprints or space constraints.
Rittal’s new CS Toptec bayable outdoor enclosure offers a range of dimensions to accommodate almost any density of components inside the enclosure. A simplified BOM helps streamline the configuration process, and the modular design includes features like interchangeable door hinges for superior configuration flexibility.
Durability and reliability in extreme conditions
Heat, extreme cold, wind, and moisture are environmental conditions that complicate virtually any outdoor manufacturing site. While each element poses its own unique challenge, heat is perhaps one of the most pressing concerns, especially for outdoor deployments in the energy & power and processing industries.
Heat buildup can overload the components inside the enclosure, and exposure to prolonged sunlight can compromise the enclosure’s ability to maintain optimal internal temperatures. Bayable industrial enclosures can be particularly susceptible to these hazards, which makes durable outdoor enclosures that can combat heat extremely important for outdoor manufacturing.
Rittal’s new CS Toptec bayable leverages a double-walled design to create high passive heat dissipation and help maintain peak performance temperatures within the enclosure, even in the face of high external temperatures and direct sun exposure. What’s more, the CS Toptec bayable can be seamlessly integrated with Rittal’s outdoor enclosure cooling solutions to minimize the likelihood of thermal overload and reduce maintenance intervals and costs.
Digitalized planning and maintenance
The remote nature of many outdoor manufacturing sites means increased time and costs associated with industrial enclosure maintenance, troubleshooting, or configuration. Even in today’s digital world, too many manufacturers still incur the costs of dispatching personnel to sites to verify things like enclosure schematics or performance and maintenance information.
This costly and time-consuming process is exacerbated with custom outdoor enclosures that lack a standard parts list or series of maintenance protocols. Choosing a bayable outdoor industrial enclosure that leverages a digitalized planning, design, and maintenance platform creates a more connected ecosystem where schematic data is easily accessible to ensure routine maintenance and troubleshooting actually remain routine tasks.
Rittal’s new CS Toptec bayable enclosure provides remote, digital access to a wealth of relevant enclosure information and data, including design files, maintenance logs, and the digital twin to reduce the time and money necessary to customize, configure, or troubleshoot the controls inside the enclosure.
In addition, integrating the CS Toptec bayable enclosure with the new Rittal ePOCKET wiring platform provides a quick and easy-to-access glance at enclosure configuration and panel wiring. This helps manufacturers reduce the amount of time and money spent on these tasks, and it also provides complete digital documentation to track things like deployment history, site conditions, and performance insights.
With Rittal’s new CS Toptec bayable outdoor industrial enclosure, manufacturers can create a modular outdoor automation infrastructure that can be scaled, serviced, and maintained quickly and easily, all in service of a more cost-effective manufacturing site. The CS Toptec bayable combines this flexibility and adaptability with a double-walled outdoor housing and weatherproof roof for unparalleled durability.
