Posts Tagged ‘Panel Production’

Why is UL 508A Certification Important?

Wednesday, March 17th, 2021

Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is the largest and best known independent, not-for-profit laboratory in the world that conducts safety and quality testing on a wide range of products. UL is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as an audited designator that can designate its standards as American National Standards.

UL 508A panel fabrication
Panel fabrication in Egan’s UL 508A Panel Shop

As the standard for industrial control panels, UL 508A certification demonstrates compliance to national safety standards – this certification ensures the proper design, assembly and wiring methods of components within the control panel. Having the UL 508A mark indicates that all requirements have been met and that the industrial control panel manufacturing facility is subject to inspection at any point to certify that standards (including the National Electric Code & NFPA 79) are being upheld. Electrical inspectors look for this mark as evidence of third-party certification.

For instance, at Egan Company, safety is our number one priority, and we are proud to carry several UL certifications. Our UL 508A Panel Shop designs and builds custom, industrial control panels for customers who depend on quality and system design expertise. With precision assembly, panels of all shapes and sizes come to life under UL code. Customers who rely on panels built at Egan include food & beverage producers, concrete producers, and many other industrial product manufacturers.

For customers, having this UL 508A certification means that Egan is furthering our promise to provide safe products.

Egan’s Panel Shop highlights:

  • 3 separate panel shops under 1 roof totaling 21,000 square-feet of manufacturing space
  • Steinhauer ModCenter – automated hole/cutout machine for enclosures
  • Wire processing
  • Label manufacturing
  • OEM panel manufacturing
  • Custom-engineered panel manufacturing
  • 5S + Safety methodology
  • Certifications – UL 508A, UL 698A, CUL, ETL

Faster, Safer, More Accurate Panel Production

Wednesday, May 17th, 2017

In an increasingly automated world, the construction industry has stayed relatively manual. Machines simply can’t replicate the level of precision and technique required to install building systems; however, Egan Company’s U.L. 508A Panel Shop has found one way to use automation to its advantage.

Precision, speed, and safety are the cornerstones of any successful shop. Whether for an in-house job or a customer, the goal is to deliver a product quickly and correctly – the first time. And that’s why our panel shop implemented the Steinhauer ModCenter, an automated modification tool that provides fast, clean cut holes in each control panel.

Shop professionals previously measured, drew, and cut enclosures by hand – taking up to four hours per panel. Although this is a time honored way of providing a quality panel, it is not efficient and leaves room for human error or injury.

By allowing for multiple clean cut outs and back panel drilling/tapping tasks to be completed all at once, the machine improves the overall quality of each control panel.

Egan’s Panel Shop wiremen program the Steinhauer ModCenter to cut each panel per customer specifications. By eliminating the need for wiremen to manually measure, drill, tap, and process, the time for each panel is reduced to about 30 minutes – 87.5% less than if done manually.

This machine frees up a lot of time for our wiremen to work on other aspects of our projects, and get panels out the door much quicker. We estimate it does the work of nearly two people.

-Tim Blair, Egan Panel Shop Manager

Once specifications are programmed, it can be saved as a template for future use – making repeat orders or modification of standard equipment even faster.  Delays and waste are greatly reduced, and shop personnel are less likely to be injured during the drilling and milling process.

Watch the Steinhauer in Action: bit.ly/EganSteinhauer

“This tool enhances Egan’s already excellent safety program, by reducing the risk associated with cutting and drilling into a panel with power tools,” said Jeff Hawthorne, Egan Company Senior Vice President.  “We appreciate the efficiency of this machine, but we appreciate the increased safety it provides the shop even more.”

With this great new addition to the panel shop, Egan is now able to be more responsive to customer’s needs and produce more consistent products with a promotion of greater safety.