nema-enclosures

In the US, the two main organizations who set electrical safety standards for electrical enclosures are NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) and UL (Underwriters Laboratories). Although the standards for each enclosure type are independent from each other, the protection expectations are mostly the same. UL ratings are often described in more technical language, but after reviewing the summarized protections in the "NEMA and UL Ratings Equivalency Chart" below, you’ll quickly see that the enclosure protection expectations are almost identical.

If you typically buy standard electrical enclosures and boxes, you know that there are thousands of options available. However, when you need a few modifications to enclosures at high production volumes, it’s best to get help from a manufacturer who provides custom fabrication. HUI’s Industrial Business Development team specializes in these custom enclosures, so we thought we’d share some common modifications you can expect from custom metal fabrication manufacturers.

The industrial design engineering team at HUI has been with the company for many years now. In fact, the longest-standing team member, Chris Freund, has been engineering with HUI for 29 years. Wayne Schad has been engineering for 13 out of the 25 years he’s worked for the company. Lastly, Scot Hoerth has also been engineering at HUI for 13 years. Over this time they’ve gained a wealth of valuable knowledge and experience with each new industrial design project. That’s why we thought we’d share some of the secrets they’ve learned from 55 combined years of engineering for manufacturing at HUI.

The New Year is finally here! It's nice to take this time to think about everything we’ve accomplished in 2018, as we get excited to begin 2019. That’s why we’d like to take a moment and reflect on the top five manufacturing posts published on the HUI Manufacturing Blog in 2018.

There are two types of enclosure rating systems. One is the National Electronic Manufacturers Association (NEMA) rating system, which is primarily used in the U.S. and Canada. The other is Ingress Protection or International Protection (IP) rating system. Both of the standards establish specifications about the performance criteria for different enclosures. To help you determine which type of enclosure is right for you, we’ve put together a list of NEMA enclosure types, IP Equivalency Ratings and definitions to help you compare your options.