Adapting E2000 series for panel mounting

I've been asked the question by a customer so I figured I'd pass it on...

The customer wants to put an E5031NLWE switch inside a panel, cutting a push-button sized hole in the panel and mounting the rest behind. Punching the hole out not be a problem, it's just a question of how to mount it behind and any other (eg interference) issues would be.

I guess this very much the same as the construction of the metal clad switches, although I don't have one here to take a part to see how the switch module is attached to the plate.

Could I do this? Any suggestions? Or reasons to send back saying why not?

 

Sounds messy.
What is he trying to do?

 

Messy - well probably. He just wants to be able to put a C-Bus switch on the panel without having the C-Bus facia there. Sticking "any old" switch with a bus coupler was my solution, but he likes the C-Bus switch with LED.

Am I wrong to assume that the metal clad switches are pretty much just metal clad blanking plates with a hole punched and a standard switch somehow mounted behind them? Because that's pretty much what he wants to do, just substituting the metal clad blanking plate for a panel.

 

I would have thought bus coupler too but there are some CBus 30 series style mechs if he wants the LED indication.
It may be just easier to just cut a hole in the plaster adjacent.

 

C-Bus 30 looks like the answer, didn't know they existed. I'll have to see what the lead times are in the UK.

 

I have seen this done before. In the plant room of an IKEA store they had 4 large mimic panels of the store on a wall. In amongst other things they'd mounted C-Bus switches in behind mimic panels with only the buttons visible.

To do this they bought C2000 series switches, discarded the plastic covers and mounted these in behind the front panels. The mimic panel covers had holes punched out of them so that when the front of the panel was swung closed, the buttons neatly poked through in the rooms that they controlled. They also put a coloured border around each button to denote what kind of light it was, i.e. essential/general/commercial/etc.

In this way they had remote control of every light in the facility from this large panel and anyone could figure it out in a heartbeat.

 

Interesting, I hadn't thought about doing it that way around (mounting the backs of the switches to something, rather than mounting the fronts of the switches to the back of the panel).

Thanks for the suggestion.