What is a control panel?. What are the components in a control panel?

CONTROL PANEL
Control panel is a cabinet which contains electrical components to control the motors and equipments.

CABLES

Cables are used for the interconnection. Two types of cables are used. Power cable and control cable.
1. Power cables (which is used to connect the motor to panel component and panel to main supply)
2. Control cables (which is used to connect the control circuits)
BUS BAR

BUS BAR

Incoming supply is connected to bus bar and distributed from bus bar. It is normally made by Aluminum.

MCB (Miniature Circuit Breakers)

MCB is a protecting device. It is used before the feeder. This should be selected according to the capacity of the feeder

MCCB (Mould Case Circuit Breaker)

In most of the cases the MCCB used as an incomer for higher capacity feeders for better protection

ELCB (Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker)

The ELCB is also known as RCCB. The device used for the protection against the earth leakage current and residual current. It should be fixed before the incomer

INCOMER

The basic supply will connected to this incomer. It also called as SFU(Switch Fuse Unit). It contains one handle with fuse unit. Once it is turned ON the supply will pass to the next stage through fuse if any major fault occurs in side panel board, it will trip and it isolate supply.

SELECTOR SWITCH

Selector is switch is used for ON/OFF purpose and for selecting the mode of operation like auto/manual.

Starters are used for starting the motors safely. Mainly two types of starters are there. DOL starters and Start to delta. Dol starter is enough for the motors with power less than 10 hp.

OVER LOAD RELAY

Over load relay is for the protection of motor from the over load. It senses the load current and trips if it exceeds the limit. Current limit has to be set manually. It should be 80% of the full load current.

TIMER

Operation of timer is similar to relay. But a delay is there for actuation. We can set the time delay manually according to our requirement. It is very much essential for start to delta conversion.

CONTACTOR

Contactor is an essential component in the control panel. It actuates when the signal from the controller (PLC, Relay logic) comes. It is similar to relay. It is costlier than relay. It is used for a higher load.

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