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If you build control panels, assembling terminal bars may well be your least favourite job. Even in a modestly sized panel, it’s not unusual to have dozens or even hundreds of terminals for the field connections. You have to mount those terminals on the terminal rail, then label them. It sounds easy but it’s time consuming, mind numbingly boring and there’s plenty of scope for making mistakes!
Very often, for example, you’ll be using more than one type of terminal, so it’s not as simple as clipping a whole row of terminals onto the rail – you’ve got to make sure that you put the right kind of terminal in the right place. If you make a mistake, it can take a lot of work to put it right – most terminals won’t slide easily along the rail to make space for one you’ve missed out.
Terminal assembly can take a long time and is made more difficult by mistakes.
Then there are the accessories to think about. You don’t need to be a panel builder for very long to discover just how easy it is to forget to order those insignificant little terminal accessories like end stops, insulating barriers and interconnecting links. At least they’re insignificant until you find you don’t have enough of them to complete the assembly of your terminal rail. Then they suddenly become very significant indeed!
And we haven’t even mentioned labelling the terminals. There is a wide choice of excellent terminal marking systems available these days, but adding one or more markers to each and every terminal is tiresomely tedious and, once again, there’s plenty of scope for error. Not to mention that if you drop a custom pre-printed marker and you can’t find it, you’ve got something of a problem on your hands!
All good stuff, but what panel builders really need are solutions, not problems. Fortunately, in this case, there is a solution that’s both convenient and cost effective: don’t build the terminal bars yourself, get your terminal supplier to do it for you! If you use EPLAN CAE software, this is quick and easy because the software will automatically generate terminal line-up diagrams for you, showing the exact terminal layout you need, the length of the mounting rail, and all of the labelling information for the terminals.
Use a 3D design software like EPLAN Pro Panel to make terminal layout easier.
Send this diagram to a leading terminal supplier, such as Weidmüller or Phoenix Contact, and in return you’ll receive your fully assembled terminal rail, with all the terminals properly labelled, ready for you to install without further ado. You don’t even need to print the diagram out – the terminal supplier will be happy to accept it in electronic format.
How much will you save? Studies have shown that it takes around a minute to mount on a terminal rail and add the label. So a terminal rail with 120 terminals, will take about two hours to assemble. On the other hand, with a pre-assembled rail supplied by manufacturers, this time is reduced to zero! How much does two hours of your shop floor time cost? You’re the best person to ask, but it’s a fair bet that it’s more than the extra cost of ordering your terminal bars ready assembled. And don’t forget that your pre-assembled terminal bars will be right first time.
Assuming that you’re ready to put an end to terminal tedium – and which panel builder isn’t? – you’ll want to know more. So why not download our Panel building Automation Matrix (PAM) white paper, highlighting the current state of panel building and discussing the panel building processes that can readily be optimised.
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