Alan Cook, Managing Director of enclosures4U, discusses the problems of sourcing high visual impact enclosures faced by low volume product manufacturers and reveals an innovative new solution.
High volume manufacturers of industrial and consumer products have the budget and economies of scale to invest in the costly tooling required to provide interesting and functional bespoke enclosures for their products which can greatly improve their market appeal.
But what of low volume manufacturers, custom equipment designers or entrepreneurs making small quantities of their product or possibly just a one-off bespoke design?
We are all familiar with the traditional aluminium die-cast box or grey plastic box solution. These may be cheap, easily available and functional but hardly inspirational and only of use if the end product is a never-to-be seen control box or similar where the appearance is not going to affect buyers.
But if the end product is to be seen and include any kind of human-machine-interface (HMI) the appearance becomes a factor in its marketing and sales appeal. And if the designer needs to provide access to a PCB, openings for connectors, inclusion of cooling fans etc. additional engineering will be required. The options currently available are very few, lack imagination and often require additional costly customisation and time consuming, complex assembly.
Help is at hand to hard-pressed designers in the form of the new Interscale M range of enclosures from Pentair-Schroff which provides a wide range of enclosures for non-standard small form factors. This flexible enclosure solution offers a platform which meets emerging market trends including miniaturisation and individualisation for manufacturers of products including fan-less fieldbus enclosures, for single-board computers or ARM modules, mobile diagnosis or therapeutic equipment for medical systems, PC-based point-of-sale (POS) systems, video monitoring for building services or peripheral control units for industrial applications.
After a great deal of research and investment a new competitively priced, flexible platform solution for smaller product packaging is now available. Taking a “ground up” approach and incorporating the wishes of customers this innovative enclosure system offers very fast assembly requiring just 2 screws and allows immediate access to any internal PCB.
This innovative range of enclosures has been designed to be easy to modify and facilitates shorter product integration time by using a simple plug-in mechanism, offers integrated EMC shielding and the ability to be made to look “individual” with simple modifications from a range of standard options. The
The Interscale M enclosure range offers 21 standard enclosures in 1U, 2U and 3U heights, with and without perforations with widths from 133 to 310mm & 19 inch and depths from 133 to 399mm. Modified versions, even for 1 off quantities are available in the event of a standard box not being available for the application, fixed and flat fee costs are charged for additional features and modified products are available on fast lead-times, typically 10 working days.
Complete custom solutions for bespoke end systems may also be specified from a range of special case sizes with advanced colour choices and non-standard cut-outs. To facilitate end user added value engineering manufacturing Step files available on request.
A wide range of accessories is available for the Interscale M product range including PCB mounting studs, integral plastic feet, tip-up feet for instrumentation products, a stacking aid to facilitate making tower systems, optional integrated fan mounting plate and DIN Rail adapter.
The “Best Case Scenario” video demonstration of this new enclosure range can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51rupuqqYLg and helpful assembly and documentation detailing cooling, EMC and safety agency approvals are available online to assist with product integration.
enclosures4U is the new online source for standard and custom enclosures for electronic, communication, control and electrical system builders. A Foremost Electronics company, enclosures4U offers its customers all the financial stability, experience and customer service of the long established Essex based specialist distributor of electromechanical components and builds on its existing strong relationship with Pentair Schroff.
The product range now available online from enclosures4U will suit applications including, IT, instrumentation, medical and industrial systems. For more information www.enclosures4u.com or call +44 (0)1371 811171
