Profile

Nema Enclosures of Houston is a leading manufacturer of custom electrical enclosures. At Nema Enclosures, we strive to provide you with superior service and better products fast by constantly refining our manufacturing process and upgrading our production machinery and technology. That’s the only way we can provide you with a competitive advantage.

Address

1118 Pleasantville Drive
Houston, TX 77029
United States
Phone: 1-713-921-2233
Fax: 1-713-921-3451

Products

Name: Custom Built Enclosure for WFMS
Description: WFMS is impressed with Nema Enclosures innovation and quality.
Details:
Recently, our customer WFMS Inc. of Sugarland, Texas approached us to manufacture a custom enclosure to hold several batteries. Our team designed an enclosure that features three adjustable shelves that are strong enough to easily support the weight of several batteries. Other features include a mounting pan on the back wall of the enclosure for any wiring harnesses, a small vent to provide air movement within the enclosure, and an easily accessible single-handle action handle with the option for a padlock. The enclosure’s versatile design and construction can be easily expanded upon in the future. This is another example of how Nema Enclosures strives to give our customers the competitive advantage by providing them with an innovative design approach to manufacturing, unmatched quality stainless steel electrical enclosure products that meet their exact specifications, and our best customer service possible.

Name: Custom Built Enclosure for Panelmatic
Description: Every one of our electrical enclosures held up under pressure. All twenty-one successfully passed the Panelmatic purge test.
Details:
Nema Enclosures manufactured the enclosures for these Panelmatic Burner Ignition Panels. They will be incorporated into an oil refinery in Cartagena, Columbia. The pilot lights in the panels indicate if fuel is flowing, if burners are lit, or if field action needs to be taken. About half of these panels come equipped with an emergency shutdown switch. These are going to be installed into a Class 1 Div. 2 environment, where petroleum distillates will be normally present.

Name: High Quality Custom Built Electrical Enclosures
Description: Nema Enclosures designs, customizes and fabricates quality UL rated electrical and instrument enclosures to your specifications and that meet your lead times.
Details:
We build enclosures to meet your exact specifications because we know that one size does not fit all. That’s why we encourage you to visit us in our shop at any time to view your order firsthand. We offer quick turnarounds and personalized customer service unmatched by other manufacturers Our electrical enclosures are made from three primary materials: economical carbon steel, durable 5052 aluminum, and attractive 304/304L or 316/316L stainless steel. Our silk screening services are cost-effective and long-lasting, giving each enclosure a personalized touch by adding company logo or important safety messages. We can also make a number of custom modifications to any enclosure including specialty locks or latches, custom cutouts, custom brackets, and window kits.

Press Releases

At Nema Enclosures we design quality into every electrical enclosure we build and make sure it’s clearly communicated to everyone involved in the manufacturing process.
We believe that a successful quality assurance program is built on clear and cooperative communication between all stakeholders throughout the entire custom electrical enclosure manufacturing process. Since we fabricate products that many of our customers incorporate into products of their own it is critical that we get it right the first time, every time. That is where our Quality Assurance program comes in. It is designed to achieve the following objectives: 1. Meet strict and often tight deadlines 2. Consistently produce high quality, highly customized electrical enclosures 3. Anticipate and manage client engineer design revisions 4. Deliver product exactly at the time our customers need it To that end, Nema Enclosures has a dedicated Quality Assurance team accountable for 100% in-process and final inspection of every custom electrical enclosure before it leaves our facility. It all starts with our drawings. At Nema Enclosures we believe that the best technical drawings produce the best electrical enclosures. We constantly work closely with our customers to ensure our drawings are complete and to our customer’s exact specifications, they have been thoroughly inspected and revised by our customer, where required, and they have received formal final approval by our customer. Only then do we move forward. Once the drawings have received final approval from our client, we can ensure high quality in our electrical enclosures because we monitor our progress by regularly conducting quality checks, known as hold points, at critical points in our manufacturing process. It is at each of these points where we have a formal assessment of how well we are doing. To ensure our highest quality, the final inspection is done by the Nema Enclosures Project Manager who designed the enclosure. Only then is the electrical enclosure ready to leave our facility. It’s all about reputation in our business. Due to the custom nature of our business, Nema Enclosures has a stringent quality control process and with we have been extremely successful in delivering our highest quality electrical enclosures to our customers. This is critical because most of what we fabricate is incorporated into products built by our customers for their customers. That means our customers depend on us for quality components. Their reputation depends on it and ultimately, so does ours. That is why we encourage our customers to visit us in our shop at any time to view their order firsthand; at any point during our manufacturing process. At Nema Enclosures we believe it is only through the establishment of clear qualifications, responsibilities, documentation, and communication requirements for quality control on any electrical enclosure, that the full benefit of the total quality management process can be realized. Benefits can include avoiding duplication of documentation and inspection, reduction of misunderstanding between stakeholders, real or perceived under or over inspection, and most importantly, long lasting protection of the final product and company reputation. We strive for this in every electrical enclosure we build. Only then are we satisfied. NEMA Enclosures Manufacturing of Houston builds to order metal electrical enclosures. Choose either a standard or a custom stainless steel enclosure to your specifications and modify it with silk screening or engraving. We can provide third party certification from UL, C-UL, IEC or NEMA. Custom enclosure jobs are handled by a dedicated project manager and can be completed in as little as 10 days.


The right purging/pressurization system protects your Nema Enclosures built electrical enclosure so it doesn’t ignite or explode on you.
When your electrical enclosure is being used in a hazardous location it is vitally important to keep any flammable substance such as gases, dust or metals from getting into it and coming in contact with the electrical circuitry inside. If that happens, your enclosure could ignite or even worse, blow up and put the entire surrounding area and people at further risk. That means safety issues, downtime, potential lawsuits, and added costs. It only takes a very small amount of energy to cause an ignition. In electrical circuits all it takes is a spark from faulty wiring or a bad connection. Most materials will burn if given the right temperature and pressure conditions. Fire is simply an oxidation process. Some oxidation processes proceed at a slow pace while fire is a rapid oxidation process. For example, steel usually rusts over a period of days, weeks, and months. However, if steel is finely granulated, placed in a pure oxygen environment, and then exposed to high temperatures, it will burn rapidly. Flour in a bakery can do the same thing as can the dust produced from grain stored in a grain elevator. While the oxidizer in most fires is oxygen, other chemicals may be oxidizers. Certain fuels, when combined with air, can form an explosive mixture. The main difference between a rapid fire and an explosion is that an explosion creates a pressure wave due to the rapid production of hot gas volume. That pressure wave is what is causes the "bang" in an explosion. The explosive pressure wave can cause serious damage to facilities and humans. That is why purging and pressurizing your electrical enclosure is so critical. Purging is the process of supplying enclosures with compressed air or inert gas at the proper flow and pressure in order to reduce the hazardous gas inside the enclosure to a safe level. Pressurization is the process of bringing compressed air or inert gas inside an enclosure to a pressure where there is no ingress of hazardous gasses or combustible gas. Purging and pressurization are required in atmospheres where flammable gases or liquid vapors are present. Only pressurization is required in atmospheres where ignitable metal, carbon or organic dusts are present. The most common and practical protective gas used in an electrical enclosure is compressed instrument quality air that contains no more than trace amounts of combustible vapor. Inert gases, such as nitrogen or argon are also acceptable. Most purging applications require a minimum enclosure pressure of 0.10 inches (2.5 mm) of water. In some circumstances, a minimum enclosure pressure of 0.50 inches (12.7 mm) of water is required to protect against ignitable dust. In all cases, a higher enclosure pressure should be maintained to create a reasonable safety factor. In rare circumstances, enclosure pressures as high as 2.5 inches (63.5 mm) of water may be required to offset sudden atmospheric pressure fluctuations, such as those created near missile launching or off-shore oil drilling platforms. Average protective gas consumption during pressurization at a 0.10 inch (2.5 mm) enclosure pressure should fall somewhere between 0.1 to 3.5 scfh per cubic foot (2.83 to 99.11 l/hr) of enclosure volume. Use depends on the protected enclosure's integrity and normal pressure setting. Use is also dependent on the quantity and size of covers and doors as well as devices which penetrate the surface. Advanced forms of protection such as cooling or dilution may require continuous flow rates of 30 to 100 scfm (849.38 to 2831.26 l/m). Purging requires a much higher flow rate than pressurization, but only for a short period of time. Any enclosure can be purged, but enclosures featuring gasketing and multiple door fasteners are best for purging. We recommend enclosures which meet or exceed the National Electrical Manufacturer's Association (NEMA) rating of Type 4 or Type 4X. Any basic electrical device can be purged, as long as all "live" or energized components can be isolated from the surrounding environment. Devices such as push-buttons, relays, timers and programmable controllers should be installed in a sealed enclosure. Motors require a totally enclosed housing. Equipment mounted in the protected enclosure can be accessed if the area is known to be non-hazardous, or if all power to the protected equipment has been de-energized. However, a cooling period may be required before accessing hot components, such as transformers or variable speed drives, which would otherwise be unacceptable for use in a hazardous location. Equipment mounted through the surface of a protected enclosure may require a sealed access door if the equipment is not suitable for exposure to the surrounding atmosphere. How to choose a purge/pressurization system. In choosing a purge/pressurization system, there are five primary factors; 1. The Hazardous Area Classification (Class and Division) in which the electrical enclosure and internal equipment are to be used. For Division 1 areas, the hazardous rating of the internal equipment determines if a Type X or a Type Y system is to be used. 2. Equipment rating - the rating that is necessary for the equipment depends on the Class and Division of the ambient atmosphere and the desired hazardous environment inside the enclosure. 3. Dimensions of the electrical enclosure used to determine internal volume. 4. Electrical enclosure configuration - for example, all cable entry must be sealed to NEMA Type 4 or 12 and any external wiring to the enclosure must be compliant for use in the particular hazardous environment present. 5. Power requirements, in case of a Type X system, especially the demand of an interlock. Purging and pressurizing an electrical enclosure is an absolute safety necessity when using an enclosure in hazardous conditions. Think about it when ordering your next one. Without this vital precaution, your electrical equipment and the people working around it would be at risk. Content and illustrations courtesy of Rittal Corporation, The International Society of Automation and Purge Solutions.


NEMA, IEC and UL standards help manufacturers protect electrical and electronic components from environmental factors to reduce safety hazards and to ensure consistent product performance.
Industry standards for electrical enclosures exist to promote safety, encourage design efficiency and define minimum levels of product performance. To standardize enclosure performance, organizations including IEC, NEMA and UL provide rating systems to identify an enclosure's capacity to withstand environmental influences, from dripping liquid to dust infiltration to complete submersion. The goal of these ratings is to assist you in making appropriate, informed decisions about enclosure selection that meets your application-specific requirements. Electrical enclosures are rated by Type (NEMA and UL) and/or IP rating (IEC) according to the degree of protection provided. Both Type and IP ratings cover: The degree of human protection from hazardous components inside the enclosure. The degree of protection for equipment inside the enclosure from ingress of solid foreign objects, including dust. The degree of protection for equipment inside the enclosure from ingress of water. IEC, NEMA and UL standards have similarities and differences in their performance criteria, influence on an enclosure's design elements, testing requirements and enforcement methods. All three address ingress protection; however, NEMA 250 and UL 50, 50E also define minimum enclosure design requirements. Importance of Electrical Enclosure Ratings Electrical enclosures protect sensitive electrical and electronic components from damage caused by elements in the environment to help keep your equipment, machinery and automation running at peak efficiency. It is important to understand enclosure ratings and the protection levels they provide because enclosures do not protect against all of these elements equally. While some lower-cost enclosures can provide a low initial price tag, if they are not certified according to the specific application needs, the maintenance and damage costs to the components can be substantial if they fail. Furthermore, the improper use of enclosures can result in more damage to equipment outside the enclosure and threaten the safety of workers. These are all excellent things to remember when you are in the market for a new electrical enclosure.


External Link

Nema Enclosures Manufacturing Corporation