Attractive, high-quality instrumentation enclosures 2

[CABEN]

Is anyone aware of companies producing attractive instrumentation enclosures?

Most of the offerings from companies like Rose-Bopla, OKW, Vero, etc. seem geared toward industrial uses where protection from fluids and particulates and impact resistance are more important than aesthetics. Some plastic enclosures look nicer, but start having a cheap, flimsy appearance.

So basically what I want is: clean, modern design … heavy, quality construction … something with aesthetics that differentiate it from a utility box.

 

[chassisdeeziner]

You could try

http://www.lmbheeger.com/products.asp?catid=61

http://www.elma.com/us/products/enclosures_and_components/Enclosures/

Other than that....we've always designed our own because we've never been happy with what's commercially available. You might also want to consider the danger of using someone's OTS product if you're going to produce for any length of time.....these enclosure manufactures often discontinue product lines/move mounting features/etc...none of those are good things for your sanity.

 

[alpharam]

http://www.serpac.com

Just have a look. Nicer than others.

 

[ravi108]

I am into design of enclosures for electronic part of Flow meter and like chassisdeeziner said even our firm also prefers to have to have custom designed enclosures.

I wanted to put up a question to you.

What is the cheapest & best option considering into account - corrosion resistance, EMI Sheilding, Heat Resistance, etc.
Is it die-casting, MIM or plastic enclusres, etc.

Any Guidance from your side would be of great help to me.

Thanks
Ravi.

 

[chassisdeeziner]

Ravi,

Wow...that's a tough question to answer in generic terms. It depends so much upon:
Product volume (piece price versus tooling cost)
Shock/vibration
Thermal environment
Corrosion environment
EMI requirements
Aesthetic Considerations (industrial versus consumer)

For my industry (which is generally low volume), my personal preference is for sheet metal fabrication. The tooling costs are low. There's a great deal of flexibility to customize/change the design throughout the product life cycle. It's easy to build a good Faraday cage for EMI containment without the additional costly steps of metallizing plastics and the like. Metals tend to do well on the toughness/impact resistance tests. Corrosion is easily manageable since our instruments are most often used in lab settings.

I also tend to go for some cutom plastics for face plates/user interfaces to provide a more custom fit and finish.

Just my thoughts...

Chassisdeeziner
LeCroy
Innovators in Instrumentation

 

[ravi108]

Hi Chassisdeeziner,
Thanks for sharing your views.

It Was interesting to hear from you. Compared to your environment my environments is very tough( In the process plants, with lot of corrosive gases and fluids )

Also in my case making the enclosure leak proof is a major consideration, due to moisture and other gases in the atmosphere. I was wondering if it would be possible to have sheet metal fabrication which are fully leak proof, and if yes would it be cost effective?

I wanted to know, if in your enclosures do you provide some mechanism to protect or cusion the inner electronics, incase there in any impact. I mean, do you provide some buffers for absorbing the shock on instrument.

Ravi,
Pune, India.

 

[chassisdeeziner]

Ravi,

Corrosive gases....YUP....that's definitely a more hostile environment than I have to design for. I imagine that makes for a critical material selection.

It is possible to make a "sealed" sheet metal enclosure....generally it involves 1)welding the enclosure seams to close them up....usually not too expensive, but you do have to have someone that knows how to weld sheet metal with a good TIG process and 2) A good gasket material on the removable cover (from the likes of Schlegel, Teknit, or Instrument Specialties)

Yes, we provide some cushioning for hard drives and other sensitive electronics. We also spend a great deal of time designing for both in use and shipping vibration frequencies by instrumenting and testing critical components of the instrument.

Chassisdeeziner
LeCroy
Innovators in Instrumentation

 

[CABEN]

Thanks to eveyone for their advice and ideas.

Ravi-
You might be interested in some of Rose-Bopla's enclosures (

http://www.rose-bopla.com).

They have a number of sealed, gasketed metal enclosures in aluminum and stainless that might be appropriate for you. Also try Google-ing "NEMA enclosures" and you will find all sorts of providers of industrial enclosures. NEMA enclosure standards define varying levels of protection from fluids, gases, particulates, impact, etc.

As for my own application, I'll be going custom. One option that I hadn't considered due to expense at low volumes is plastic injection molding. But I've found that there are a number of companies who cater to, or are at least friendly with, low volume customers. (Check for instance:

http://www.epsilonindustries.com/

and

http://www.protomold.com)

If anyone has had good experiences with others, please let me know.

-Caben