Do you want to build a custom sheet metal enclosure for your electronics? This guide will help you design a perfect enclosure for your project.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything from choosing the right materials to designing the enclosure itself. We’ll also talk about how to assemble the enclosure, install your components, and test your new electronic device.
Able hardware custom-designed enclosures worldwide, and we’re going to share with you what works and what doesn’t work. It’s not rocket science, but it does require a little bit of technical knowledge.
Table of Contents
Custom Sheet Metal Enclosures Design
The sheet metal cabinet for normal conditions
The ambient air temperature should not exceed 55°C and the average temperature should not exceed 35°C within 24 hours, with a lower limit of -10°C.
Atmospheric conditions are clean air, relative humidity of 20% to 80%, no condensation.
The cabinet is for indoor installation, installed in the surrounding air clean, non-conductive, non-explosive dust, no strong vibration and shock places.
Mechanical and electrical equipment cabinets design
The special conditions of use are not in accordance with the normal conditions of use, the user should propose to the enclosures factory when ordering, and negotiate a solution.
The cabinet should be made of materials that can withstand certain mechanical stress, electrical stress, and thermal stress, and the materials can withstand humidity in normal use.
The cabinet should be made of anti-corrosion material or coated with an anti-corrosion layer on the exposed surface, and the structure of the cabinet must be safe and reliable, convenient to operate, and easy to maintain.
Shell, partition, door locking devices, and extractable parts should have the sufficient mechanical strength to withstand the stress encountered in normal use.
The door should be flexible, the opening angle should be not less than 90 °.
In opening the cabinet moving parts, the mechanical connection should be solid and reliable, and the connection and fasteners are not allowed to fall off.
The following dimensions are recommended for conventional Sheet metal enclosures:
Height size series:
1600mm, 1800mm, 2000mm, 2200mm.
Width size series:
400mm, 600mm, 800mm, 1000mm, 1200mm.
Depth size series:
600mm, 800mm, 1000mm, 1200mm.
Custom Sheet Metal Electrical Enclosures Design
Design Guidelines:
The enclosure should meet the performance requirements of the electrical products it carries from the mechanical structure and provide the necessary electrical and mechanical interfaces.
The enclosure should provide the necessary fastening, locking and limiting mechanisms for the installation of the plug, chassis, drawers and other components.
The enclosure should provide convenience for the installation of electrical devices, components and accessories, and specify in the manual the location of the surface, installation methods, and precautions.
The enclosure as a whole should have sufficient rigidity and strength to meet the installation, commissioning, and operation requirements of devices, components, wiring, and accessories in the cabinet, as well as complete sets of equipment assembled after the lifting, handling, closing the cabinet and other requirements.
Cabinet shell and structure parts should be able to withstand the impact of electrical and thermal stress in the operation of the product, without reducing its performance.
Cabinet engineering plastic manufacturing parts should have a certain degree of thermal stability, aging resistance, and flame retardancy.
Enclosure each heat dissipation, insulation, dustproof, protection, shielding, grounding, shock absorption, and other facilities can work properly.
The design of the cabinet should consider the requirements of ergonomics.
The design of the cabinet should give full consideration to the manufacturing process requirements.
The enclosures should meet safety requirements, including electric shock protection, mechanical hazard protection, fire hazard protection, shell protection, etc., and provide fire isolation.
The enclosures should provide appropriate heat dissipation measures according to the thermal characteristics of the product’s needs.
The cabinet should meet the requirements of the equipment for environmental protection.
Application conditions
Ambient temperature: indoor -10-55°C, outdoor -24-55°C.
Relative humidity: 5%-95% (no condensation and no icing inside the cabinet)
Atmospheric pressure: 80-110kPa.
Storage cabinets in storage, transportation in the extreme range of ambient temperature should be minus 40-70 ° C, relative humidity of not more than 85%, and long-term storage of ambient temperature should be minus 10-55 ° C.
No explosion, corrosion, electrical conductivity, destruction of insulation and surface coating media, and no serious mold is allowed to exist in the place of use.
The place of use should not have mechanical vibration and shock exceeding GDL4 level, and should not have the collision of K2 level.
In conclusion, electronic enclosures are used to protect sensitive components from damage caused by external factors such as moisture, dust, and mechanical shock. They are often found inside computers, servers, and mobile devices. In order to design these enclosures, engineers must ensure that their designs meet certain requirements. These include ensuring that the enclosure provides adequate protection against environmental hazards, meets performance specifications, and allows easy access to internal components.
The design process begins with defining the scope of the project, Once the enclosure has been designed, it’s tested to ensure that it complies with industry standards. This ensures that the enclosure will provide the required level of protection for its contents.
Contact Able Hardware now if have any questions about sheet metal electronic enclosure design.
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