Competitive control panels for the North American market
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of all injuries related to electricity are a result of arc flashes.
Arc flash studies
According to the National Electrical Code (NEC), there must be an arc flash hazard warning on the electrical equipment of machine, switch, and control cabinets. In order to adequately protect personnel from the dangers of an arc flash when working on energized equipment/systems, it is the responsibility of the operator to carry out an arc flash study and evaluation.
However, more and more operators or end users are delegating this responsibility to the suppliers (OEMs, machine builders, system integrators, SSB). Siemens supports manufacturers of switchgear and control cabinets with a corresponding arc flash study, including the necessary warning notices and technical details.
Key US regulations
The following standards are of vital importance for machine and panel builders:
- UL508A for Industrial Control Panels
- NFPA 79 (Electrical Standard for Industrial Machinery)
- NEC (National Electrical Code, NFPA 70) for on-site electrical installation
Key Canadian regulations
The most important Canadian standards and regulations
The following standards are of essential importance to electrical engineers and panel builders:
- C22.2 No. 286-17 (Industrial Control Panels and Assemblies) – released for certification since May 10, 2018. The transition period is limited and ends in January 2022. See ↗︎CSA Certification Notice
- C22.2 No. 301-16 (Industrial Electrical Machinery) – released for certification since December 6, 2017. The transition period is limited and ends in January 2022. See ↗︎CSA Certification Notice
- CEC – Canadian Electrical Code. The current edition 2018 already refers to the mandatory compliance with the two standards in Appendix A of the Code.
Reliable product and system portfolio
You can rely on our extensive and reliable portfolio of products and systems that takes all North American requirements into account.
Special aspects when selecting products
To build a control panel that will comply with standards in the USA and Canada, it is not sufficient to simply use components that are certified in accordance with UL or CSA. Right from the start it’s important to include products with the correct certification for the application in the design process.
Whether a component can be used can be determined from the CCN codes (USA) or the Class Number (Canada). These may be found on the UL and CSA websites, and are also bundled in the Annex to our catalog LV 18.
We will help with the acceptance process by providing certificates that you can download easily using the CAx Download Manager, for example, which can be used to download bundled documents for multiple products.
