Customised enclosures put to work on the M42

A Fibox product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 22, 2005

Essential power supplies for the Highways Agency Active Traffic Management pilot project on the M42 motorway near Birmingham will be protected by Fibox EK enclosures.

Active Traffic Management is a new UK Highways Agency pilot project on the M42 motorway between junction 3a and 7, to the south-east of Birmingham.

The pilot scheme will combine a number of new technologies and existing motorway features to reduce congestion and make journey times more reliable.

The motorway will also provide more up-to-date information to drivers and enable a quicker response time to incidents.

It will be introduced in phases to tackle congestion by making best use of existing road space while minimising environmental disruption, with the scheme expected to be fully operational by Winter 2006.

Helping monitor situations as they arise on the motorway will be a range of different types of CCTV cameras, some of which will be mounted on new gantries set apart at distances of 500m.

Advanced motorway indicators and signs on the gantries will show lane control information.

Finding enclosures for the gantry power supply units that could withstand the rigorous environmental and climatic conditions proved problematic until Mouchel Consulting, the project manager appointed by the Highways Agency, approached Fibox with regard to its EK range of enclosures, which had been used in various other Highways Agency projects.

A key aspect of the Active Traffic Management will be the ability to, under controlled conditions, open up the hard shoulder as a running lane between individual junctions during periods of severe congestion or incident.

This, coupled with the ability to use signals to open or close lanes during an incident, illustrates an example of "smarter roads".

Naturally the reliability of the power supply to the information signs is critical in such instances with regard to driver safety.

For this reason the power supply enclosures have to be resistant to the harsh conditions in which they are expected to operate, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The ingress of moisture resulting from adverse weather conditions could have potentially disastrous consequences, leading to display sign failure, or possibly worse, display of incorrect information, which is why the enclosure is so important.

The Fibox range presents over 800 products for housing electrical and electronic equipment operating in hostile environments.

Fibox enclosures comply with EN60529 (IEC529), they have ingress ratings of IP67 and NEMA 4X, 6 and 6P have been achieved, with enclosure performance verified by independent laboratory testing.

The EK range covers dimensions from 190 x 190 x 130 to 760 x 560 x 250mm.

They are also available with flange openings that provide several options to fit various accessories or connect to other enclosures.

In fact, should the need arise, Fibox can offer a cost-effective range of CNC machining services or customised tooling so that enclosures can be customised to suit specific applications.

Holes, cutouts and openings can be created to customer specifications.

Polycarbonate was the choice for the M42 project for several reasons.

Its cost compared with weight, rigidity and impact resistance is second to none.

Also, its suitability to outdoor (and indoor) use is excellent, displaying good resistance to various environments including salt, acids, alkalis, petroleum, hydraulic oils, alcohols and cooling fluids.

The British weather is notorious for its fluctuations.

In recent years, exceptionally cold winters seem to be followed by heat wave summers.

On motorways, there is little shelter, and the full force of the weather is even more pronounced.

Although the enclosures are housed in an outer steel cabinet this does not fully protect the EK enclosures, and they can still be subjected to a wide range of operating temperatures, but due to the insulating properties of polycarbonate the EK enclosures are not affected by heat, cold or humidity.

The Active Traffic Management project on the M42 is expected to be a forerunner to smarter roads across the UK.

At 17km in length and with over 50 gantries in position and 250 advance motorway indicator signs, its scale is significant.

Well over 120,000 vehicles use the stretch between junction 3a and 7 every day.

There is no margin for error or failure, but with the power supplies housed in Fibox EK enclosures drivers can rest assured, they are in safe hands.