Control Cabinet Disassembly

After completing a successful R&D project proving and conducting the conversion of chemical to electrical energy stored in battery form, our client sought to decommission the cabinet. As such, it was returned to our workshop where we set about deconstructing the two-piece build.

To begin with, here’s the wall mounted control cabinet before and after, to be followed by the same process for the console standing unit.

What followed was a variety of pushes and turns to remove components and terminals, depending on how they’re designed to fit and slot onto din rails.

Below you’ll see different sized flat head screw drivers being used to push release wires, followed by an example of screw release ports on the Brodersen signal converter units and a box full of all removed wires.

Here you can see the removed grey cables and stacked terminals and end plates part way through the process.

Now for all the disconnected B&R modules from the wall mounted control cabinet encompassed of:

• Signal converters
• Bus converter
• Bus module
• Safety module
• PLC I/O module
• I/O modules
• Expansion modules
• Communication interface modules
• PLC module
• Terminal blocks

As you can see, part of the removed din rail has already been cut down and repurposed. Next to that are the removed trunking covers which are slid and slotted into place to cover the wires and cables after full assembly and allowing for access beneath when required.

Here we can see series jumper bars in red, blue, and orange. These comb-like parts are used to keep series of terminal blocks in strict position.

When terminal blocks are mounted to din rails as required, whether by being screwed into position or clipped into position, the jumper bars are slotted in to maintain the integrity of the piece and performance, ensuring that gravity and vibration do not disturb the connections.

When it comes to removing parts, the terminal blocks are coaxed off the din rail as required before and the jumper bars are finally removed.

Next week I’ll share some images and insights of the dismantling of the console standing unit.