Control Panel Fabrication
Panels built by the engineers who drew them — or built exactly to yours, with nothing improvised.
Black Box Engineering designs and fabricates industrial control panels in Mexico, for projects in Mexico and across North America. Panel fabrication is a standalone service line: you do not have to buy an engineering scope to buy panels from us.
Most panel problems are not fabrication problems. They are documentation problems that surface at FAT, or component-selection problems that surface at the arc-flash study, or wire-numbering problems that surface at two in the morning during commissioning. We build panels the way people who have commissioned them build panels.
What we build
- PLC and DCS panels — processor, I/O, and remote I/O enclosures
- MCC buckets and motor control — starters, drives, VFD packages
- Relay and interposing panels
- Marshalling cabinets and junction boxes
- Operator stations and HMI enclosures
- Custom enclosures to environmental and NEMA rating requirements
Two ways we build, and the difference is the discipline
To our design. We own the schematic, the layout, the bill of materials, the build and the test. One party is responsible from drawing to FAT, and that party signs.
Build-to-print. You issue the package — drawings, BOM, standards — and we build to it exactly. We do not modify an issued design to suit the shop. Where we see a problem, it comes back as an RFI or a redline for your engineer to approve, never as an unlogged change on the floor. That discipline is the entire value of build-to-print, and it is why owners with their own standards keep the work coming back.
Both are real service lines. We will tell you which one you are buying before anyone signs.
How they are built
- UL-listed components throughout, with a documented short-circuit current rating for the assembly — the number an inspector will ask for and the one most panels cannot produce.
- Built to UL 508A requirements for US projects, and NOM / ANCE requirements for the Mexican market.
- Wire marking, terminal numbering and nameplate schedules to your standard, not ours. If you have a corporate spec, we build to it.
- Point-to-point verification and factory acceptance testing before anything ships, witnessed if you want it witnessed.
- A turnover package that is actually usable — as-builts, BOM with part numbers and sources, test records, and the panel photos that settle arguments later.
Certification — where we stand, plainly
We build to UL 508A requirements. We are not yet a UL 508A listed panel shop — that authorization is in progress.
We say so directly because you can check, and because the answer matters to your inspector. Where a project needs a listed assembly before our authorization completes, the route is per-panel NRTL field evaluation, which many owners prefer for one-off and low-volume builds regardless. We document component listings and the assembly short-circuit current rating to support that evaluation as a matter of course, not as an extra.
If your project requires a listed panel shop today, tell us at the enquiry and we will tell you honestly whether to wait for us or use someone else. That is a cheaper conversation now than at inspection.
Why fabrication in Mexico
Local fabrication shortens lead times and lowers cost against US shop rates, without giving up the documentation discipline a mission-critical or regulated project needs. For cross-border projects, talk to us early — the logistics path is worth planning at quote stage rather than at ship date.
Get a panel quoted
Mexico City based, building for projects across North America. Send the schematic package, the BOM, or just the I/O count and the environment — and we will tell you what it takes and what it costs.