How to protect your electronics within a cabinet while reducing your maintenance budget.
Electronic components such as variable speed drives, servos and programmable logic controllers are often found within electronics cabinets, and these components produce a significant amount of heat. To avoid premature component failures, and increase the reliability and longevity of the cabinet, designers need to find an effective cooling solution that stays within budget.
These electronic devices are rugged but can fail when stressed, not just by heat, but also dust, humidity, water and chemicals. Cabinet cooling solutions with fans are often the first choice to reduce internal cabinet air temperatures. However, these fan coolers often require increased maintenance to replace filters that keep the debris out of the electronics. Delayed replacement, or removal of filters to increase airflow, can both be causes of premature component failure. Fan coolers are also not sealed against water damage, which can be problematic in outdoor environments or in spray down situations.
So designers may opt to protect electronic components by placing them into a clean sealed cabinet. However, now they find the electronics are getting too hot.
ACT’s 100% completely sealed Heat Pipe Coolers, Heat Sink Coolers and Thermoelectric Air Conditioners are able to regulate the internal air temperature of a sealed cabinet using a common base plate design, with no compressors or refrigerants needed. The models vary in cooling capacities and environments in order to meet your cabinet cooling needs. ACT’s experienced engineers can also design and build custom units for unique cabinet cooling requirements.
ACT Heat Pipe Coolers are designed using reliable heat pipe heat exchanger technology. The Heat Pipes are bonded with fins through a plate that maintains a sealed environment. The heat inside the enclosure causes the working fluid inside the heat pipe to boil and the vapor moves along the heat pipe end to outside of cabinet. The vapor then condenses and travels back inside the cabinet. This heat exchange technology has 1000 times better conduction than a solid copper rod.
ACT Heat Sink Coolers are passive sealed enclosure cooler design consisting of 2 advanced high-performance aluminum finned heat sinks bonded to opposite sides of a common heat transfer mounting plate.
The ACT-TEC Thermoelectric Air Conditioners were developed for sub-ambient conditions (when the outside temperature is slightly higher than desired inside temperature of cabinet). Thermoelectric Air Conditioners (TEC) use highly reliable Peltier cooling as the basis of design. ACT’s TEC coolers have no compressors or regenerants, and are great for applications where low vibration is required, such as medical or military applications. A heating device may be easily added to this model.
All coolers come in NEMA Rating options of 12, 3R, 4, and 4X, providing options for corrosive and wet environments. They are used in diverse industries such as Industrial Automation, Food Processing, Chemical, Petrochemical, Wastewater Treatment, and Telecommunications.
So, when cabinet designers are tasked with cooling their next electronics cabinet, consider an ACT sealed enclosure cooler to keep your electronics cool and clean without breaking the budget. Check out ACT’s easy to use selection tool to find the enclosure that best fits your cabinet cooling needs: Enclosure Cooling Selection Tools. You can easily order online or contact our staff for assistance.