Industry Vertical

Protecting the Goods

• By Ralph C. Jensen
• Apr 01, 2016

You already know you’re going to put some of that expensive security equipment outside in the elements. You also know how brutal the elements can be on sophisticated electronic solutions.

Now, you can protect wireless devices and products that must be mounted outdoors, or even submersed in water.

From design to production, Mier Products, Inc. has put a lot of thought into the research and design of enclosures so that you know when you have completed a security install, the equipment is going to work, and it will be protected. And now, along with Mier’s line of painted metal enclosures, they offer enclosures produced out of polycarbonate to enhance a superior performance.

Mier Products, which features an off-the-shelf line of enclosures, has also specialized in manufacturing custom enclosures since the start of the company. Bob Hullinger, president of the company, said that it takes experience, coupled with skilled workers and designers, to get a customer the custom enclosure he envisions. He also said the development of an enclosure is based on the countless enclosures they have designed since the late 1980s, though technological advances over the years have dictated the ever-changing enclosure lineup.

“Complete drawings are ideal, but we can fashion a design and a prototype using whatever method a customer uses to present his ideas and basic concepts,” said Bob Hullinger. “While we still fabricate all types of indoor and outdoor electrical enclosures, recent emphasis has been in wireless technology where our polycarbonate enclosures are ideal.”

“The design of these enclosures makes them perfect for use in the harshest of environments, such as coastal areas, oil refineries, electrical construction, irrigation systems, chemical processing facilities, water-treatment plants, car wash operations, sewage plants, utility fields, instrumentation, machine building and HVAC, anywhere protection from rugged environments is demanded,” said Scott Hullinger, vice president and COO at Mier Products. “In the case of wireless products, non-metallic enclosures are perfect for the application because antennae or transmitters may be mounted inside the enclosure without hindering the reception or transmission of radio wave signals.”

Just as the technology in the security industry has changed, so it has been with protective enclosures. The appeal of polycarbonate enclosures is far-reaching because of superior performance in many different environments. Three important considerations for using polycarbonate boxes include high-impact strength, their non-corrosive (no rust) abilities, and they are non-conductive, eliminating a shock hazard.

Maybe it’s just an enclosure to the untrained eye, but the fact is, each poly product undergoes stringent testing and certification to receive an Underwriters Laboratory (UL) rating. This goes along with appropriate testing for NEMA ratings for an enclosure on the outside of a building, for instance, as well as with submersible housings.

As with any research and development of products, Mier listens to its customers’ ideas and thoughts for improvements.

“Perhaps the most important part of research and development of new products is listening; the discovery of the product idea,” Hullinger said. “In our case, we have developed many new products, thanks to our customers who generate ideas. The recent results are much-needed accessories to go along with our outdoor NVR, DVR and CPU Lockboxes; the addition of several new outdoor temperature controlled rack enclosures, and a new addition to our Drive-Alert line.”

“Many customer product suggestions aren’t very subtle because customers thought the products were “naturals” for us and complemented products in our standard enclosure lines,” Hullinger said.

One recent example is customers had a say in the development of Mier’s new outdoor/indoor fancooled enclosures. Mier’s temperature controlled line had always been NEMA 4/4X/12, and included air conditioning and heating units to protect fire panels, NVRs and other electronic equipment often found inside. However, suggestions from installers have said that in some cases this amount of temperature control was just overkill. So, Mier developed a NEMA 3R fan-cooled line for installation where air conditioning or heating is not needed, but a constant exchange of ambient air and air inside the enclosures satisfied the demands. Important features of these units include rain/weather shrouds over ventilation openings, gaskets, and thermostatically controlled fans, which can exchange the internal air of the enclosure at 80, 131 or 300 cubic feet per minute depending on the model, plus a second filtered entrance which allows the exchange of the air. Filters need to be kept clean and must not be blocked to permit proper operation.

“Our NEMA rated outdoor enclosure lines come with differing options, but all are designed with the capabilities of meeting the NEMA and temperature control standards our customers are looking for, which means they are for either indoor or outdoor use and provide a degree of protection from incidental contact with the enclosed equipment and against weather and dust,” Hullinger said.

Mier Products has long been American made, and American proven. The company began its enclosures plan in 1987 when Robert Hullinger and a (then) partner opened for business. It wasn’t long however, when industry technology was changing the way security was approached. Enclosures, however, seem to be the last thing people think of, but they have tremendous value.

Small businesses in the United States seem to know where to turn when they are tasked with securing a much larger customer. For instance, Ron Harker, the COO at Convoy Technologies in Ft. Wayne, Ind. Convoy contracts with commercial trucking fleets to ensure the cargo departs and arrives safely and intact. To do this, Convoy worked with Mier Products to design and built a custom enclosure for the onboard DVR, which stores images of the driver and the load.

“The enclosure, which has a fan to mitigate heat, secures the images and protects the DVR,” said Harker. We spent about 45 days designing what we wanted, and Mier is providing a custom enclosure in two to three weeks. This will be used in several hundred commercial trucks nationwide.”

“We use Mier enclosures for air conditioning and the outdoor fire alarm communications systems, and have found they are good products, cost efficient, reliable and always in stock,” said Edgar Blanco, owner of Gold Coast Fire & Security, based in Ft. Myers, Fla. “These enclosures are used in an outdoor application; 50 percent of what we do is outdoors.”

The company used to depend upon several large customers for enclosure sales, but when those companies started sending work overseas, Mier had to change its business plan and way of manufacturing. Now they provide an ever-growing standard line of products, service a large number of OEMs and smaller customers, provide custom enclosures on demand, and provide valueadded items for special orders.

One thing that hasn’t changed: Made in the U.S.A. (Kokomo, Ind.) Mier has also seen some of that current overseas business coming back home.

“Quality products are very important to us,” said Anthony Lantrip, service manager at Cintas Corp. in Ft. Myers. “Quality is much more important to us than trying to save a buck. Mier Products offer us good U.S.A. quality. For me, made in the U.S.A. means if I can help save/keep a job in the United States, and if there is good quality, that’s where we’re going to invest.”

This article originally appeared in the April 2016 issue of Security Today.