In a previous arc in my career path, I worked on, and then built, and then sold industrial pumps, so I’ve been in my fair share of chemical plants. Did you ever wonder what all these places make? A decent number of them make what are called “intermediates”. These are compounds, solutions, & substances that aren’t found in stores, but go into almost all of the goods that ARE found in stores. One such company used to make commercials that explained it nicely:
I recently had the pleasure of assisting a caller from a company like this, who wanted to install three of our Hazardous Location Cabinet Cooler Systems in their facility. This particular company doesn’t make anything shown in the commercial above; they make intermediates for agricultural use (to paraphrase the commercial, “they don’t make fertilizer; they make fertilizer better”). As is the case in MANY chemical plants, a good portion of their real estate is classified as hazardous area (as defined by regulatory oversight agencies) AND subject to exposure to some fairly corrosive chemicals. Now, these places all go to great lengths to ensure safety for personnel AND equipment, through compliance AND design. So, when they needed to add durable & reliable heat protection to their electrical panels, they called EXAIR.
This was a pretty easy application, as the engineer I spoke to had gotten the internal heat loads from the equipment supplier, and already knew that 316SS construction was needed for the corrosive elements the equipment could be exposed to. The panel was in a Class I Div 2 area (flammable gasses or vapors may be present in the event of an accident or during unusual operating conditions). After calculating the external heat load, we specified a Model HZ4725SS-316 NEMA 4X (316SS Construction) Hazardous Location Cabinet Cooler System, rated for 1,700 Btu/hr, and Model 902021 24VDC HazLoc Solenoid Valve. These panels came equipped with temperature monitors that they could wire our valves into, otherwise we’d have supplied Thermostat Controlled systems.
EXAIR Cabinet Cooler Systems are available, from stock, to suit most any electric/electronic panel heat protection need:
- Cooling capacities from 275 to 5,600 Btu/hr. Call me if your heat load is outside this range…we can look at customized solutions too.
- NEMA 12 (IP54), 4, or 4X (IP66) ratings.
- Thermostat Control – Standard, or Electronic Temperature Control.
- Non-Hazardous Purge for contaminant exclusion on less-than-ideally sealed enclosures.
- High Temperature models for ambient temperatures from 125°F (52°C) to 200°F (93°C).
- Side Mount Kits when space is limited above the panel.
- 316SS construction for particularly aggressive environments.
- UL Classified for hazardous locations, just like the one I wrote about above.
If you’d like to find out how easy it is to provide durable and reliable heat protection for your electrical panels, give me a call.
Russ Bowman, CCASS
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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