Switches
The humble DIN rail is a winner!
Switchtec’s technical director Jeremy Lester talks about DIN rail components and how they have speeded up design and manufacture
B
asically, time is money. When you are in the business of panel building it takes time to design, purchase and build a panel. If you can save time in those areas, you can reduce costs and become more competitive. But clearly, quality should not be compromised. Thankfully, the introduction of and the constant upgrading of international specifications enables specifiers and purchasers to buy with confidence, and for decades now the humble DIN rail has played a major part in the design and assembly of panels. Indeed, to say that the use of DIN rail mounted components has speeded up these areas greatly would be an understatement.
The term DIN rail is actually derived
from the original specifications published by Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) in
Germany, which have since been adopted as European (EN) and international (ISO) standards. In fact, there are three types of DIN rail, ‘Top hat’, C type and G types. In recent years more and more components have acquired the ability to be DIN mounted, speeding up assembly even more. In its early days, DIN rail was mainly used for mounting terminal blocks and switchgear. Over the years, DIN rail mounting as a method of affixing panel components has expanded to include instrumentation, circuit boards, relays, power supplies, sub assemblies (using DIN ‘carriers’), thermostats, timers and so on. Quite simply, a lot more products are now DIN rail mountable, and that means less time spent ‘fitting’, i.e. drilling holes, mounting modules and equipments using stand-offs and nuts and bolts on panels. As a supplier to panel builders, DIN rail mounted components are very much a part of Switchtec’s business. An important ‘enabling’ component in the DIN rail equation is the DIN rail mounted terminal. The Dinkle range of DIN rail mounted terminals are available as ‘DK.N’ screw terminals and ‘AK’ spring clamp (screwless) terminals, the latter offering more rapid assembly and servicing, whilst maintaining high levels of reliability and security. Designed with space and cost saving in mind, Dinkle DIN mount terminals are compact to save space within the enclosure and to simultaneously keep the cost of the product to a minimum – a true ‘win-win’ product. For use around the world, the Dinkle DIN rail terminals carry VDE, UL, FI, TUV, CSA and CE approvals as well as being fully RoHS compliant. Panel builders, equipment manufacturers, the H&V industry and OEMs in many fields will find useful components amongst the series, and compared to competitors’ products, Dinkle DIN rail terminals are smaller, smarter and more competitive. If the DIN mounted terminal is used to connect components, then the DIN rail enclosure is used to house them. In the world of panel building, there is often the requirement for a low cost, compact enclosure that can be easily fitted –
38 March 2018 Components in Electronics
sometimes during the latter stages of manufacturing to accommodate design modifications – to house a small circuit board or similar electronic assembly. Euroclamp’s CEM series modular DIN rail enclosures are able to provide a solution to the problem.
Aimed at OEMs, equipment and component manufacturers, sub- contractors, and distributors, the important application areas for the enclosures include lighting controllers, circuit protection, energy management systems, power supplies, and HVAC controls. Driving the demand for this type of product is the need for an off the shelf, DIN mounted PCB enclosure that is robust and ‘customisable’ to meet the increasing use and deployment of electronic assemblies and small ‘add-on’ electronic networks in control panels. Available in three sizes, 17.5, 22, and 35mm, the enclosures are supplied as three sub components; the main body, the top cover and the bottom mount that is furnished with two DIN rail clips, enabling quick and easy installation and removal from DIN rails. As such the enclosures are designed and manufactured to be a ‘snap-fit’, tool-less product. The two larger sized units (CEM- 22 & CEM-35) are available in vertical and horizontal versions. This denomination relates to the orientation of the PCB mounted inside the enclosure. As appropriate, the two versions allow two PCBs to be mounted inside either vertically or horizontally, providing the user with maximum flexibility from a standard DIN enclosure.
Bringing versatility to the range, accessories for the CEM series include a clear top cover, and a TP35 blanking or vented insert that enables easy modification of the enclosure to accommodate different components. But
the ace card in the CEM series’ armoury is the ML25 series terminal block. This range has been designed specifically for use in the CEM enclosures, and as such provides the perfect finish to the assembled product. The ML25 terminals are available in two and three way vertical and horizontal types and with left and right ‘dog leg’ pins to optimise positioning and accessibility. Also available is the specially modified PVXX- 5-LS/LD plug in PCB header with dog leg pins, again designed specifically to serve the CEM series. This product allows the use of plug in terminals on certain models in the CEM series. Manufactured from flame retardant UL94V0 material, the enclosures come in a standard light grey (RAL7035), but can also be supplied in black, green, red or blue to order to match customers’ needs and colour schemes. Further, enclosures can also be manufactured to customers’ specifications. Holes can be provided for component access, terminals can be blanked and the body can be screen printed to the customer’s design. The CEM Series from Euroclamp is manufactured to a genuinely high specification, including internal PCB supports and guides, ensuring that PCBs are held firmly in place, which is of great importance when mounting PCBs that are populated with heavier components such as relays or transformers. Compared to the competition, the
Euroclamp CEM series is more flexible with its three sizes – with matching profiles – its accessories manufactured from the same plastic as the enclosure, and its customised options, the result being a highly desirable product for panel builders.
www.switchtec.co.uk www.cieonline.co.uk
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