Here on the east coast we are not only roasting from the heat, but simmering like a pot roast in the humidity. And there’s no end in sight. Which, in my sweaty misery, reminds me of the nasty effects of heat on your industrial electronics.
Do you know what they call it when your electronic equipment craps out from overheating? Premature failure! Sounds bad….very bad!
Do you want to avoid faulty instrument readings, tripped circuit breakers and smoked circuit boards?
Here are a few tips to protect your valuable electronic investments from the going to h*ll in the heat…just in case you haven’t yet done everything you can possibly do short of moving your operation into the nearest mega-sized walk-in freezer:
- Use cabinet fans for forced air cooling; these can be installed on existing equipment
- Use heat pipes, a heat transfer mechanism made from a sealed hollow tube of thermoconductive metal such as copper or alumininum which contains a coolant such as water, ethanol, or anti-freeze.
- Even better than heat pipes, invest in a vortex tube exhaust system that can be installed on your equipment cabinets. Compressed air comes in a vortex tube and is converted into two different streams, one hot and one cold. The hot air is muffled and exhausted through a vortex tube exhaust and the cold air is distributed into the control cabinet. Outside air does not need to enter the cabinet protecting it from metallic dirt, dust and moisture. This setup is not too costly and there are several manufacturers of these sytems.
- Do NOT just open equipment cabinet enclosure doors which, while tempting, is an OSHA violation for shock hazard as well as allowing dirt and moisture to get into your equipment
If, after all your best efforts, you experience premature failure…errr…I mean, if your equipment overheats and fails, we are here to repair it for you. Circuit board repairs, control repairs, power supply repairs, drive repairs, motor repairs, encoder repairs, you name it. Heat is the unseen enemy of industrial electronics!