Electrical cabinets and enclosures provide “housing” for a host of consumer and information technology products, including video, audio and computer equipment, telephone systems, televisions and household appliances. Electrical enclosures protect the mechanical and electrical components housed within them, protect users from electrical shocks or burns, and play an aesthetic role. Today’s enclosures, whether for flat screen TVs or portable laptop computers, are lighter and sleeker, and reflect new design trends—a stark contrast to the bulky TV sets of the 1950s, for example, that were built with wood and metal casings.
This transformation has been made possible through the
use of durable plastics, which are now used to make most of today’s electrical enclosures. Plastics are lightweight; have excellent physical performance, allowing numerous production requirements to be met; offer a variety of design options; and are cost-effective. As a result, plastics have become the material of choice for enclosures. Plastics in electronics applications use flame retardants to meet
strict flammability standards for fire safety. But
flame retardants perform differently depending on a variety of factors, including the characteristics of the materials they are protecting. For this reason, manufacturers aim to select the highest-performing flame retardant for the material so that all performance specifications and flammability standards can be met.
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