In today's fast-paced work environments, 24/7 critical applications such as control room must develop cable organization plans with considerations of day-to-day activities, operational efficiency of equipment, optimal performance, and the facility’s ability to change and grow over its lifetime. Raised floors can provide better cable organization to ensure optimal performance of the control center, simplify maintenance, and reduce downtime.
Types of Raised Floors
Standard raised floors usually are between 6 inches to 12+ inches high, and can sometimes be as high as 6 feet over the ground. Standard raised floors are meant to support the cooling and airflow needs of computers and other equipment that can create exceptionally hot pockets of air damaging equipment. This becomes more important for places like control centers where reducing or minimizing the risk of downtime is a priority. Cable management is a secondary function for this type of raised floor. (Freeaxez)
Designed primarily for cooling and airflow, not for cable management
Heavy floor panels (35+ pounds)
Can cause safety issues due to the height off the ground
Less flexibility, and needs to be serviced by specialized contractors
Low-profile raised floors are usually lower than 6 inches in height and are specifically designed to provide more flexibility to their users. These floors allow for organized cable distribution management where airflow is not a concern. (Freeaxez) In places like control rooms, low-profile access floors can be useful if computers are located in an external server room to reduce cable clutter in the work area.
Designed for cable management
System components are lightweight
Takes up less ceiling height
Efficient cable management
Easy to maintain
Advantages of using raised floors in Control Rooms
Using an external server/computer room: Raised floors are a perfect solution for control rooms using external server rooms which help reduce clutter in the work area of operators. Sustema's control room consoles are designed to run cables underneath the console in the case that power/data cables come from a raised floor or even from the ceiling using seamless cable posts.
Flexibility to expand the control room: Since some raised access flooring comes in modular sections, you can add or remove flooring according to your needs. If you expand into a larger workspace, you may be able to take your existing flooring with you–needing only to purchase the additional sections your larger space requires.
Adding new technology: Raised floors designed with an organized cable management system allow users to simply open the floor panels and run new cables as needed when integrating new equipment to the control room and without undertaking extensive renovations.
Cost-effective and reusability: More often than not raised access floor systems are not attached to the building. Therefore, giving its users the ability to move to another building and taking the raised flooring system with you rather than building a new one. In the case where the new control room facility is larger, it is also more cost-effective to purchase the missing parts rather than a complete system.
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