Street Furniture Is Critical To Protection

“Street furniture” is a term that is used to describe enclosures that are specifically designed to prevent damage to equipment which is used for a process, but which must be located in a potentially high traffic area or region which presents the potential for damage.  There are many different types of damage that can occur to critical equipment and systems, so street furniture is designed in a way that takes as much potential damage into consideration and also provides the ability for enough customization to keep specific equipment safe from unspecified types of damage.  While there are configurations that are more standardized than others, which most street furniture is customized to a certain degree to take into consideration the unique and specific aspects of the equipment inside, as well as the environment that it is presented within.  The main consideration of street furniture is protection from the elements and from external sources of damage.

Street furniture is also known as street cabinets.  There are some specific characteristics of these types of enclosures that are generally universal.  One of the number one considerations of a good piece of street furniture is its double wall construction, passive or active heating and a resistivity to electricity through the materials to the components inside.  This means that even though there may be stronger materials from which to make an enclosure, if the material can conduct electricity it cannot be used effectively.  This is because many street cabinets are targets for lightning strikes due to their exposed nature.  The lightning strike produces not only damage at the point of the strike, but also produces a large-scale power surge which can couple into the cabinet itself, thus damage in the equipment inside.  In order to avoid this type of potential damage, most street cabinets are made from materials that do not conduct electricity, like aluminum.  Another consideration that is of utmost importance for the effective protection of equipment in the field is the inability for the equipment to overheat inside of the cabinet itself.  This means that great care must be taken in order to allow for appropriate exchange of air between the inside and the outside of the cabinet.  These points, as well as the areas where cables from the outside enter the cabinet itself are the points where animals will generally exploit the weaknesses in order to gain entrance, as well. And moisture in a cabinet is also to be avoided.  These points must be dealt with effectively to prevent ongoing damage to the equipment housed within or prevent outages as a result of damage.  Using specific materials and sealers at these crucial points, the expected damage as a result of entry into the cabinet by animals, people or weather can be minimized.  Equipment which is positioned in the field is always going to be more at risk than equipment which is protected inside a structure, and street furniture is the best solution that can be had if the equipment cannot be adequately protected through a specific installation into a climate controlled building.