If you've been in the Building Automation industry for a while, chances are you've had to build a panel at some point or another. The end results are usually nice, it's super convenient to have all your controls in one place, and it looks neat and tidy. But building a control panel can also be tedious. Luckily, we here at RIB have a variety of products that make building panels easy, including enclosures, power supplies, relays, current sensors, and mounting accessories.
Some of the main things to look for when building a control panel are the panel itself, the enclosure to mount it in, and the power supply to power everything. Getting all three of these to coordinate together can sometimes be a challenge, so why not just get all three in one package? That's exactly what the MHP series is. Each MHP unit comes with an enclosure, either a polymetal or perforated steel subpanel, and a power supply. For example, the MHP3903100AB10 is a 12.5" x 24.5" enclosure with a polymetal subpanel and the popular PSH100AB10 power supply all in one kit. Get one of these, and the foundation of your control panel is already complete.
Next up, are the controls themselves, namely relays and current sensors. If you know anything about RIB, you know we have a large variety of both. The relays that work best for panels come in three flavors: DIN rail mount such as the RIBRL1C-NS, 2.75" track mount like the RIBMNU1C, and 4" track mount like the RIBMU1C. Current sensors can already be mounted almost anywhere due to their small size, but if you want to simplify your panel building further, there are DIN rail mount and track mount relay and current sensor combos. A few of the more notable ones are the RIBRXLSA and RIBMX24SBA. Both include a relay along with an adjustable current sensor and override switch.
With your controls now picked out, you need to mount them to the panel. Functional Devices has both DIN rail in the form of ADIN35, as well as our mounting track in various lengths. The MT212 is a 2.75" wide plastic track and the MT4 is a 4" wide plastic track. If you're not sure yet where you plan on putting DIN rail and where you plan on putting our track in your panel, you can always put DIN rail everywhere and then get our AT4 adapt track that snaps onto DIN rail. With that taken care of, all that's left is to wire it.
So there you have it, the best RIB devices for building panels. If you're building a panel and aren't sure what parts to get, be sure to contact us!
Functional Devices, Inc., located in the United States of America, has been designing and manufacturing quality electronic devices since 1969. Our mission is to enhance lives in buildings and beyond. We do so by designing and manufacturing reliable, high-quality products for the building automation industry. Our suite of product offerings include RIB relays, current sensors, power controls, power supplies, transformers, lighting controls, and more.
We test 100% of our products, which leads to less than 1 out of every 16,000 products experiencing a failure in the field.
Simply put, we provide users of our various products confidence and peace of mind in every box.