Sheet metal enclosure fabrication

Stage 1. Housing design.

The basic stage is the most important!

It is the first link in a chain of production of housing for electronics, metal housing or special equipment. At this stage, the 3D model and design (design documents) of the future metal housing is developed. Its overall dimensions, design features taking the functionality into account, production effectiveness, appearance and preliminary prime cost are defined. That is why when designing the housing the unnecessary haste may cause excessive expenses. And when it is a batch, it will result in a tidy sum.

After that, the design documents are confirmed by a customer and are transferred to be used for the production of the first sample.

Stage 2. Sheet metal laser cutting.

The technologies of material processing are far ahead nowadays. No one is surprised with the cutting of sheet metal with the help of laser, with water-jet cutting or cutting with the help of a punching machine.

Each of these methods of metal processing has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, it is better to process the contours of difficult geometry with a laser, while it is more efficient to create the elements with many holes with the help of a punching machine. Water-jet cutting is more appropriate for nonmetals processing (stone, glass, rubber, etc.)

The decision about application of one or another way of sheet material processing is made based on the design features of the produced housing for electronics. For example, it is more economically expedient to produce a metal housing with many vent holes using a punching machine.

Stage 3. CNC bending of sheet metal blanks.

CNC machines are used to bend flat patterns of sheet metal. Hämmerle machine (manufactured in Sweden) with press force of 100 tons makes it possible to bend a sheet metal with the thickness of up to 6mm and minimum leg of 4.5mm with sheet thickness of 0.5-0.8mm.

In some cases, the high bending accuracy of up to 0.3mm makes it possible to do without further welding and cleaning.

Due to the availability of a unique original tool only banding allows for hardening without metal housing building-up.

With the help of the controlled warp of beam, it is possible to carry out alternate angle bending. CNC press machine is quite a versatile tool. With the help of bending it is possible to carry out the most ambitious design solutions, to toughen a component without adding any additional elements or operations to the construction.

All of these solutions will eventually decrease the prime cost of a product with no loss in quality and functional peculiarities.

Stage 4. Fastening elements installation and welding.

Any housing for electronics has attaching points for boards, mounting seats for loudspeakers, cable entries, control panels, etc. Boards and loudspeakers, frontplates and radiator cooling systems, as well as other radioelements and electronic components are installed in housing with the help of the pressed or welded screwed elements.

Semi-automatic CO2 welding or argon welding with non-consumable electrode is used during the production of metal housing. The correct choice of the method and place of welding influences the structure rigidity and the product’s appearance.

Stage 5. Anti-corrosive and decorative coating of surface.

In order to protect the surface of metal housing from corrosion, the paint-and-lacquer coating or galvanization is used. The most applied technique of paint-and-lacquer coating today is powder coating. What are the advantages of powder paint?

1. It doesn’t require special or additional equipment for surface preparation before painting.
2. Good adhesion.
3. Nontoxic.
4. Doesn’t require special skills of an operator to use it.
5. High polymerization rate (10-15 min).
6. Impact resistant.
7. Resistant to weather conditions.
8. There is a possibility to apply texture paints (shagreen, velvet, moire, etc.)

It is known that there are no advantages without disadvantages…, but there are not so many of the latter:

1. Limited colour palette.
2. There is no possibility to mix paints to achieve specific shade.
3. Time-consuming readjustment during transition from one colour to another.

Stage 6. Logos, signs and name plates.

Every earnest (conscientious) manufacturer would like the products to be recognizable and not to be confused with the analogues produced by the competitors. A ‘logo’ was invented for this purpose. Logo marking is the final stage of the production of any product, including housing for electronics. Logo and any other information about the product are created with the help of UV coating or screen printing. It depends on the housing size.

What is the difference between these two methods?
Screen printing is a very old technique of sign writing, however, it is still widely used in different fields of industry. Its main disadvantage is the time-consuming and labour-intensive preparation process before printing, especially if it is necessary to print several colours. That is why it is appropriate to use screen printing only for numerous batches and monochrome images.

UV coating is something quite different. It is actually a common printer. Therefore, it is possible not to limit own fantasy in choice of the colour. In addition to the full-colour printing, there is a range of other advantages, like:

1. The number of products doesn’t matter.
2. High printing rate.
3. Good adhesion.
4. Impact resistant.

The single disadvantage is that the resolution of a printed image depends on the device’s resolution capability. This means that if a sign contains small details, they may be printed vague.

Our works.

Housings for MSG Equipment test benches were developed and produced at our enterprise.