Utilizing Cable Glands to Properly Maintain NEMA Rating in Enclosures

When it comes to designing enclosures, cable glands are a must accessory. These small accessories can make its way through into a cutout or hole on the enclosure and it can make watertight seal of the NEMA or IP rated electronic enclosure. In addition to this, the cable glands accessory will allow the companies to customize their plastic enclosure in order for the enclosure to fit the board and the application in exact way as it is designed. But this will still make sure that the electronics are cool and dry inside the electronic housing.

The cable gland contains major three parts: a body with two threaded ends, cable nut, and a nut. An enclosure manufacturing company can machine the right sized hole into any flat surface of the electronics enclosure. With this, the cable gland will then be fitted inside the hole.

Before making sure that the gland is secured inside with the nut, a rubber gasket should be readily inserted that helps in protecting the enclosure from water ingress to take place. While on the opposite side of the threaded end, there should be an O-ring that is connected through the series of teeth. The cable nut should go over the O-ring and teeth, and then eventually the screws onto the threaded end.

Once the cable nut is already tightened, it can make the O-ring seal to be sealed around the wire, that will eventually create a watertight seal. Even if each cable gland can be securely sealed around only one wire, the multiple cable glands can be utilized on each electronic enclosure once more than one wire is utilized.

There are a lot of myriad sizes of different cable glands that are readily available. How to determine if the company is selecting the proper size for cable glands? First step is to determine and know the appropriate size of the wiring that will be used on the enclosure. This makes the company to be able to select the right cable gland that will hug the wiring very closely in order to be protected from water and dust ingress. Other enclosure manufacturer offers 7 different sizes of NEMA-rated cable glands that can be fitted inside a large range of wire sizes.

On a side note or tip in selecting the right wire: the wire size should be dependent on how much power that is needed to run inside and through the unit. Once that this has been established, and the rightful cable gland size is properly selected, the engineer can now continue building the enclosure. There are valuable resources in the internet (can also be found on different company websites) about rightful wiring selection.

The additional benefit of being able to use cable glands is it can also function as a strain relief. These can protect the wiring from bending, splitting, and fraying at some certain point of entry on the enclosure.