Ratings for enclosures, such as NEMA ratings, UL certifications, or the National Electric Code/NFPA 70, provide comprehensive information on how electrical enclosures and the equipment they protect can be used in specific situations. These guidelines also make it clear to engineers and operators how to work with this equipment.
However, these codes do not address some of the more extreme, potentially real-world scenarios that equipment might face or how it would perform under such conditions. Who doesn’t love watching equipment being tested to truly understand what it’s capable of? It’s informative and also a bit of fun!
That’s exactly what the team at Enercon Labs gets to do. Our unofficial, unconventional equipment testers put our products through a series of rigorous experiments to see what they can handle. This article will explore some of their best experiments, how our equipment performed, and what you can learn from it all.
1. Challenge: The Ewok Deathtrap
In honor of Star Wars Day (May 4th), the team reconstructed a weapon so fearsome it had literally crushed some of the finest engineering the Empire had to offer — the Ewok Deathtrap. This ingenious invention featured two swinging logs that struck their target simultaneously to smash them with enormous kinetic energy.
Outcome: The first test dummies were a stretchy Darth Vader, a watermelon stormtrooper, the Death Star (not the original), and a NEMA 4-rated enclosure. The stretchy Darth Vader toy performed surprisingly well against the twin logs, surviving a bit twisted but otherwise intact. The water-filled balloon Death Star, on the other hand, was not as lucky and exploded upon impact. The watermelon stormtrooper met a similar fate—disintegrated (once our scientists got their timing right).
But how about the NEMA 4-rated stainless steel enclosure, the ostensible reason for the entire escapade? These enclosures are designed to protect all the important electrical equipment inside, which, in this case, was replaced with two bobble-head stormtroopers. After several smashes of the Deathtrap, the team opened the relatively unscathed control panel to reveal two perfectly intact stormtroopers. Clearly, the Empire's engineering doesn't quite measure up to Enercon's standards when it comes to building durable war machines!
2. Challenge: Kevin McAllister’s Home Alone High Jinks
One of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time, Home Alone, features Kevin McAllister defending his home against two bumbling bandits with increasingly inventive traps. In this experiment, we recreated a few of those traps—the swinging paint can, the falling iron, and the blowtorch-into-ice-bath combo—to see how they would affect an electrical enclosure faced with similar threats in a real-world setting.
Outcome: The first challenge involved swinging a 13-pound paint can from our rafters at a height of 16 feet, which would come crashing down at 20 mph with a force of 12 kilonewtons (roughly the equivalent of getting punched in the face twice by a prime Mike Tyson). While this trick knocks out both bandits in the movie, it didn’t leave a scratch on our enclosure. The impact force was spread across its surface, protecting the integrity of the enclosure.
The second test was similar, but this time, an iron was dropped onto the enclosure. Unlike the paint can, the pointed shape of the iron could potentially dent the surface. However, the result wasn’t much better for Kevin McAllister (if his home had been invaded by sentient electrical enclosures rather than hapless bandits)—the falling iron only left a slight scratch on the surface.
For the final test, we recreated the scene where Kevin uses a blowtorch followed by an ice bath to simulate thermal shock—where sudden temperature changes cause materials to expand or contract at different rates, leading to potential warping. We heated the enclosure to 750°F and then dunked it into the ice. The outcome showed that while some paint was burned off (a cosmetic issue), the enclosure didn’t warp as expected from the thermal shock. However, the internal rubber gaskets, which protect against moisture, dirt, or dust, did catch fire. So, while the enclosure held up well, we’ll give Kevin a win on that one!
3. Challenge: Hailstorm Havoc
Hailstorms are one of nature’s weirdest phenomena, with tightly packed ice balls ranging from the size of a pebble to a large rock flying down from the sky. Anyone who has experienced a large hailstorm can attest to the damage it can cause, from wrecking deck furniture to shattering car windows and damaging roofs. While we couldn’t get a hailstorm on camera for this challenge, we decided to simulate one using golf balls fired from a high-powered launcher.
Outcome: As is our style here at Enercon Labs, the watermelon was first up to meet the hail, which was easily torn apart by the golf ball launcher. Next, we tested a car windscreen, consisting of two layers of glass bonded with a PVB layer. Although it put up slightly more resistance than the watermelon, the golf ball shot through it from 50 yards with ease. The penultimate test involved a metal roofing panel, simulating the real-world impact of hail on residential housing. Once again, the golf ball tore through the panel with little opposition.
Having seen the golf ball launcher prove quite devastating, our final test saw it take on a NEMA 3-rated fiberglass enclosure. The enclosure wasn’t completely penetrated, as the metal backing stopped the golf ball, but the door was punctured. This means that if hailstones fly at your electrical equipment with the speed of a launched golf ball, you'll need something stronger than a NEMA 3 enclosure to withstand the impact.
4. Challenge: Axe Throwing
Though someone throwing axes at your electrical equipment is a relatively rare real-world occurrence, we don’t mind pushing the boundaries. Getting the sharp point or blade end to hit the target rather than the handle was also a considerable skill test for our testers.
Outcome: We started targeting balloons, and one of our team members, Anthony, proved considerably more successful at bursting a balloon with a flying axe. In round two, the target was a full soda can, where skill played a big role in delivering the right force and contact. Once again, Anthony emerged victorious.
Finally, our now pro-level axe-throwers assessed the damage a thrown axe would inflict on a plastic junction box. Designed to protect against dust, dirt, and moisture, the junction boxes surprisingly performed well in mitigating the damage. While the axes left some light cracks, the boxes absorbed and redistributed the impact, preventing complete disintegration.
Conclusion
We take the engineering of high-quality electrical and control panel enclosures very seriously. However, we also recognize the importance of having a bit of fun, especially when testing how these enclosures would perform in real-world situations—even extremely rare ones.
The tests we designed were based on challenges we’ve encountered or imagined for our equipment. While our enclosures withstood the brute force of the Ewok deathtrap and most of Kevin McAllister’s booby traps, the rubber gasket did catch fire under the heat of the blowtorch, even though the enclosure held up to the intended thermal shock test. As for high-speed, penetrating objects, our hardened plastic polymer junction boxes performed admirably against thrown axes, but our fiberglass NEMA 3 enclosure didn’t fare as well against the fired golf ball/hailstone.
Overall, we’re pleased with the test results and what they demonstrate. Stay tuned to the Enercon Labs channel, where you can see the rest of the series. And remember, for the best in custom control panel manufacturing, choose Enercon!
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