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#114377 02/22/03 11:45 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
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Here's another scary control panel. This was controlling a critical cooling water system for forging and heat treating furnaces. I replaced this system about a year ago with a PLC. As you can see it was a bear to try to work on.

Rich

Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 273
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[Linked Image] what a mess! now that's scary. can't tell where anything goes. this is supposed to be a neat & workman like manner. don't think so!

Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 161
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Although red wire is a nice color, they do make more colors...
When I finish a controller it looks like a rainbow inside so you can tell what goes where even if the label should fall off. It also makes tracing wires quick when they enter a bundle. I have probably 40 different color combinations of
MTW wire in stock...
Oooh... look at the pretty colors...


Mike Wescoatt
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
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no din rail, wire channel, or so much as a tie wrap?

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 360
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IMHO it looks like it started off nice and neat, and somewhere along the line someone needed to add,troubleshoot and undid it.

TW

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,749
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RED is often used for ungrounded ac control conductors at less than line voltage.

This is a common practice when wiring Industrial Machinery.

See NFPA 79 for more on Identification of Colors in Chapter 14.


Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant
Joined: Jun 2002
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I agree with trainwire. Often times, a nice neat panel, turns into a rat’s nest when machinery/equipment malfunctions. Sometimes, in industrial setting, it has to be fixed as fast as possible and more often than not there are no prints available. So to troubleshoot the maintenance person starts cutting ty-raps and pulling on wires to see what powers what and where the wires go. When the equipment is back up and running everyone is happy and time is not taken to redress panel as it originally was. The result is a mess as pictured above.

Joined: Jan 2003
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Unfortunatly this enclosure started out that bad, it looks a little better since it had been disconnected already and one ball of wiring passing through the box was removed also. Even though only about half the wires were tagged at least the relays were labeled, but the print was yet another disaster. Good thing for the plant that "electrician" doesn't work here anymore.

Rich

[This message has been edited by Crowbar (edited 02-24-2003).]

Joined: Dec 2000
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I work around stuff like this all the time. 25 Year old plant and many hands in the panels, some of dubious experience and caring.

Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 4,294
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I'm sure it didn't start out looking like this mess. Looks like a troubleshooter ended up being a troublemaker.
Red? I modified an amusement park ride at Knott's Berry Farm (So CA) in the late '70s.
We used 31 miles of #16 TFFN for AC control wiring...every inch was red.


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