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FEATURE


ENCLOSURES


55thanniveRsaRy industrial enclosures:


Emma Westwood, Rittal’s UK product management lead, discusses how and why


industrial enclosures housing critical electrical infrastructure for manufacturing facilities have evolved over the years from simple metal boxes into advanced engineering ecosystems


W


alk round almost any manufacturing facility, water treatment plant, or food processing site, and you may spot


rows of steel cabinets. These seemingly innocuous metal boxes


safeguard some of the most critical equipment on the site. Industrial enclosures, as they’re more correctly known, are sophisticated control cabinets that house advanced automation systems to keep production lines moving and data flowing, while maintaining the highest quality and safety standards. They are specifically engineered to provide optimum operating conditions for delicate electrical circuitry and to protect users from the electrical equipment within. Over the last sixty years these humble cabinets


have undergone a considerable transformation, driven by evolving market demands and technological advances, as well as a growing recognition that what happens inside has a direct bearing on the productivity, efficiency and, increasingly, sustainability rating of a facility.


in the beginning... In the 1950s and early 1960s, sourcing an industrial enclosure was pretty straightforward, albeit quite slow. When a panel builder needed a casing


for their electrical equipment, they went to a local manufacturer and had one made to order. There was little about them which was bespoke apart from the sizing, and they could take weeks to manufacture. The breakthrough came in 1961, when a


German entrepreneur called Rudolf Loh purchased an old weaving mill to launch an ‘Enclosures off-the-shelf, immediately’ concept, and introduced the concept of standardisation to the enclosure market. His fledgling company, Rittal, conceived and developed a simple idea which, over the years, would have huge ramifications. Rather than waiting for their custom build


cabinet, panel builders could now select from a range of pre-engineered sizes. Even if the enclosure was slightly larger than strictly


Industrial enclosures have come a long way from the fabricated metal boxes of sixty years ago


required, it was more than up to the job, and it saved a lot of time. Speed and cost combined to make standardisation extremely popular, and the introduction of a systematic, scalable range, changed the market dynamics forever.


Modularisation The next large step change in control cabinet design came in the early 1970s with the introduction of the modular enclosure. Up until then, when a cabinet had reached capacity in terms of the equipment it housed, the only option was to install another one alongside it; a fairly inelegant solution and one which added unnecessary complications in terms of system integration. The new modular approach replaced solid


metal exteriors with engineered frames. Sections could be bolted together to create an enclosure of virtually any size, clad with side panels once the configuration was finalised. To expand the system, engineers simply


removed a side panel, added another frame section for the new equipment, and then replaced the panel at the end. This was a scalable solution that reflected the growing understanding of how industrial systems were starting to develop and evolve. Rittal’s TS range became an industry


benchmark for around two decades, valued for its strength, flexibility, and the breadth of accessories it could accommodate. It wasn’t until 2018 that a further fundamental rethink produced its new VX enclosure. The VX was developed with the input of consultants from outside the industry who spent years closely observing panel builders and manufacturers to understand how they used the TS system in order to provide a wholly fresh perspective on their needs. The result was a universal frame system


in which the punching pattern was identical on every part of its structure. Where


4 DesiGn sOLUtiOns 1971-2026 JULY/AUGUST 2026 8 www.designsolutionsmag.co.uk


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