Enclosures like to be beside the seaside

A Fibox product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 26, 2004

The Southern Promenade at Blackpool, situated on the south side of the famous Pleasure Beach, has for many years been an unlit area.

The Southern Promenade at Blackpool, situated on the south side of the famous Pleasure Beach, has for many years been an unlit area.

Over a year ago Blackpool Borough Council and a team of lighting and building engineers and consultants began designing a lighting scheme for the 1km stretch.

The custom built parade of 46 lighting columns, required a safe, weather resistant housing for the column and subsidiary lighting that could be integrated into the bespoke design.

Immediately the designers turned to Fibox, the Stockton-on-Tees based specialist enclosures manufacturer, for a complete unit that could stand up to the forces of abrasive coastal conditions.

The curved triangular section lighting columns placed to the side of the promenade are constructed out of 13 pieces of stainless steel plate.

The control gear could not be integrated into the column, as this required a door for access that weakens the structure and would necessitate the use of thicker plate to provide the same level of strength.

Therefore each column needed a separate stainless steel control box that was hidden by bolting it to the promenade wall, flush with the ground.

The Fibox enclosures sit inside the stainless steel box, housing the electrical distribution and circuit protection for the main lighting columns, chameleon wall lights and handrail lighting.

Standard Mini PC 200/75G Fibox polycarbonate enclosures with an IP rating of IP66/67 were selected for customisation.

"Polycarbonate is often chosen for harsh environments as the most cost effective solution because it has excellent insulating properties and good UV resistance".

"By using these enclosures we were able to modify them and fit two enclosures together with gaskets, and also fit glands to accommodate the armoured power cables", said Ken Knowles from Fibox.

Along with customising the enclosure with machined holes and fitting glands, Fibox also sourced and fitted the internal parts of the unit, including the terminals, isolator and circuit breakers, supplying a complete, ready to install power distribution unit.

"Providing a safe housing, that could cope with wind, rain and salty spray from the sea was critical in this project".

"Driven by a strong design concept we also need a power distribution unit that would fit neatly inside the stainless steel box.

In addition to this, it needed to be flexible enough to become a mini distribution point to accommodate further power feeds as the scheme develops".

"We have an established relationship with Fibox, having worked on lighting projects in the past".

"They were naturally the first port of call", said Brain West, Electrical Infrastructure Engineer at Blackpool Borough Council.

The entire project from designing and manufacturing the lighting columns and enclosures has been a prime example of effective partnership between engineers at Blackpool Borough Council, consultants and specialist companies.

The combination of innovative materials, from the use of duplex stainless steel plates to create the lighting column structures, and polycarbonate for enclosures housing, has resulted in the successful completion of the project to transform the Southern Promenade into an attractive safe environment.