Five Recommendations for Creating a High-Quality Electrical Control Panel Design

A well-designed electrical control panel does more than meet a specification, it anticipates future needs, makes life easier for end-users and maintenance teams, and ensures consistent and reliable performance over many years of operation. This reduces unplanned downtime, lowers maintenance costs and extends service life.

Based on our experience, here are five key recommendations for creating a high-quality control panel design.

Before you begin

You always get extra with Bensons. Before you start the design, ensure that the requirements haven’t changed and that all parties are aligned on what the desired outcome is.

1. Electrical Safety

Safety must always be the starting point. A high-quality design must ensure safe operating conditions both during manufacture, test installation and throughout the panel’s service life. This means:

• Accurate and unambiguous designs
• Clear segregation between power and control wiring
• Proper specification of protective devices and fault-rated components
• Shrouding of power components as required
• Compliance with relevant standards, such as BS EN61439 and ATEX, as applicable

2. Design for Manufacture and Installation

A well-designed control panel should transition smoothly from the CAD system into the workshop. This means laying out components in a way that simplifies wiring, reduces the number of customer modifications, and minimises wasted space and materials. At Bensons, we regularly review the layout of a control panel with the production team before releasing to manufacture, to avoid costly, time-consuming and unnecessary changes during production. Designs optimised for manufacture typically:

• Reduce build time and associated costs
• Improve consistency and quality of assembly
• Enable clearer documentation and smoother testing procedures
• Adequate space for the client’s incoming cables, potentially with trunking to keep everything tidy

Good design-for-manufacture principles not only support efficiency but also enhance overall quality control on the factory floor and on-site during the installation phase.

Squeezing a control panel into the smallest enclosure possible can save a few pounds, however, that will be lost in increased production time, since it is always more challenging to wire a panel that is tight for space. Similarly, such a decision at an early stage will have a knock-on impact on recommendation 3. 

3. Allow for future upgrades

Plant and facility requirements often evolve long before the control panel reaches the end of its operational life. A thoughtful, well-considered design should be flexible enough to accommodate modifications and upgrades without requiring complete panel replacement.

• Spare capacity on DIN rail, controllers, busbars and terminals
• Adequate space for additional devices
• Space for additional wire in trunking 

Leaving room for expansion makes a control panel more sustainable and increases return on investment for the end user.

4. Design for easy Maintenance

Control panels are often long-term assets that require maintenance, whether it is fault finding investigation, component replacement or routing inspection. Designing with maintenance in mind helps minimise downtime and ensure that work can be carried out efficiently and safely. Examples include:

• Clear component labelling and logical cable identification,
• Adequate working space in the enclosure and around components
• Neat, systematic wiring layouts.

If engineers and operations can access and understand the panel easily, maintenance and upgrade tasks become quicker, safer and less costly.

5. Invest in reliability

The goal of any control panel is not to be noticed, it should provide trouble-free service for many years. Reliability begins with a high-quality design, which is complemented by careful component selection. Choosing high-quality, robust components from trusted manufacturers, suited to their operational environment, is essential. This encompasses everything from a terminal to the wire used, the switchgear and the enclosure. Panels should be designed to deliver:

• A long operational life with minimal disruption
• Proven dependability in demanding industrial conditions
• Reduced likelihood of premature failures and costly downtime

Looking at the Bigger Picture

The principle is simple: invest up front in a well-designed and well-manufactured control panel, and you benefit from lower costs over its entire operational life. Safety, flexibility, maintainability, and reliability are not abstract design virtues — they are the factors that determine whether a control system delivers a strong return on investment or becomes a recurring cost burden.

At Bensons Panels, our approach to design is rooted in maximising life cycle value. For our customers, that means panels that deliver dependable service over many years, keeping both operating costs and capital replacement costs as low as possible.

If you are planning a project and want to explore how high-quality design and manufacturing can reduce your full life costs, our team would be delighted to help. Get in touch with us today to discuss your requirements and see how we can add value to your next control panel solution.