ANSI color standard for panels

Question

Enclosures for Electrical Equipment & Panels at Electrical Rooms, Substations and other facilities are typically "industrial grey" colored. From questions like in mikeholt.com, se.com, myperfectcolor.com and others, and some manufacturer catalogs and specs like in rittal.com, I have found some scarce reference to ANSI colors, like ANSI 59 grey, 60 grey, 61 grey, but I have not found any formal ANSI standard for this.

The best reference I have found is this one at se.com from IEEE C37.20.1: 2002:

The preferred color for the finish on switchgear assemblies shall be light gray No. 61 in accordance with ASTM D1535-1997

Does anybody know about this color standard?

your question is more suited for https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions — jsotola, Feb 11 '23 at 17:19
The heating in an education building has the electrical panels for the ventilation in bright yellow. Other electrical panels are off-white, seen electrical panels which are grey - in a submarine :) — Solar Mike, Feb 11 '23 at 19:57
@SolarMike Most substations and electrical rooms, around the world and manufacturers, use grey panels. — Brethlosze, Feb 17 '23 at 01:00
I bet there was an enormous amount of surplus gray paint available on the market ca. 1945. Related? — Spehro Pefhany, Feb 17 '23 at 02:04
Can’t be bothered to take a photo and I am not Color blind. — Solar Mike, Feb 17 '23 at 04:54

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 16 '23 at 23:01

I haven't found the standard for ANSI colors, but given the era, it's possible that the numbered color names were referenced back to FED standard color chips. (Available for purchase from a contracted supplier).

Other standards (like the ANSI/ECMA/ISO escape sequences) just gave color names, but the existence of the modern 4-parameter color definition for "ANSI 61 grey" suggests that "ANSI 61 grey" had a historical color definition, derived from the original MIL standard color set by way of the FED standard color set.

Electrical Panels may be "grey" because "grey" is an ANSI standard safety color for "not a special hazard". Grey panels may be "ANSI 61 grey" just because the industry was more familiar with that than with Pantone or Munsell color definitions.

ANSI color standard for panels

1 Answers1