Steel enclosures

Server Rack Enclosures Produced in Asia

Frances Bennett Engineering Blog, Materials of Enclosures, Steel enclosures , , ,
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An engineer just recently returned from their annual quick trip in the Northeastern Asia. They had a hard time to assimilate all the wide variety of several issues – both in the economic and political aspect. There is one trend that has been repeatedly seen in the shift of direction especially in the Chinese government that is heading towards the military buildup and very far away from the manufacturing sector.

Our country has recently heard of the increased tariff taxes, decreased sales, and these factors has made a rise in the overall sense of concern. The Chinese manufacturers are not receiving parts of the incentives that they are supposed to receive. However, there are still growing businesses but few buildings going on. There is still an existing effort to latch on to any businesses as long as they can.

With this in mind, the engineers were really surprised at the increase in level of protection that is being seen in the improvements of the server rack. In today’s factory the engineers have saw a wide series of solutions that ranges from basic 4 post open cabinet – these are great solution to increase the maximum air flow for them to complete the server rack rooms.

The engineers have also seen the narrow panel space to achieve the maximum space utilization for those server cabinets that has the extra width to accommodate the cable waterfalls. The engineers have also seen the welded units, knock down units (manufactured for easier transportation), and seismic units. With this in mind, the majority of the ventilation that is coming from the perforated doors to curved doors were also installed.

The engineers were also able to see some of the cleverest solutions in terms of the cable management. Together with the plastic “teeth” these can be readily snapped in order to make these fit to accommodate the needs of the customer and it effectively covers to protect the equipment. This has made the thinking of the engineers to be able to fully recognize the several industries that continues on pressing on with the evolvement. Even if with this comes with the servers that continues to shrink, the applications of the equipment as well as the opportunities that may come can work with several server and continues to produce consistent results.

Even if there are products that were as large as the server racks, the market for these server racks are going global. The development of these industries are up to the manufacturers, to be able to continue in gleaning on the best innovations that can come around the globe.

How can a PCI Compliant Server Rack Enclosures Can Save Up a Lot of Space?

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PCI Compliant, Server Rack Enclosures

The majority of the consumers does not consider or even think about the total safety of the personal information the companies can get when they purchase a product via credit card – even eating at a restaurant or checking in a hotel with your credit card can have the potential to take away your most valuable information. However, for businesses the privacy of their customers’ information should be their primary concern – and nothing else.

This is not only because the PCI Security Requirements for these companies should be fulfilled (as mandated by the major credit card companies) but also the importance of the security and safety of customer private information drives the U.S. economy at large. The major credit card providers that should comply to these are American Express, Discover, JCB, Master Card, and Visa.

The retail stores, restaurants involved and the hotels are having a hard time or difficulty of complying with these regulations because it is very expensive to keep up with the PCI requirement. This requirement tells businesses that they should have a highly restricted physical access to the cardholder’s data and valuable information.

The retail stores, restaurants, and hotels are very busy places most of the time. The personnel are in and out of the facility for the majority of the time and even the best security cannot check on everyone 24/7.

There is one way to do this – restricting the access area by constructing a separate data center of computer room. However the space that this computer area will take would cost lots of money and the money that would be invested in a separate computer room can be spent on other more important stuff such as floor displays, food preparation equipment, and dining area. Most often than not, managers tend to disapprove the notion of this.

However, there are companies that offers a very convenient solution but in a less expensive way. There are server racks that are PCI compliant that can house all the necessary servers, storage, as well as networking equipment in a space-saving manner. These server racks can be wall mounted, desktop, portable racks, or even freestanding. Every wall mounted server rack is manufactured to be tough made from solid steel with the aluminum frames and panels.

Every single door placed on the server rack enclosure does come with the standard and specific durable keyed lock. It is very important that the manufacturers of these server rack can offer enclosure with the tight-lock security in their enclosures as well as variety of space saving shapes and sizes. There are also different configurations that should be offered such as vertical mount, swinging door, server side mount and included is the corner configurations. This thing is important for the PCI compliance.

The manufacturer companies of these enclosures should be able to understand that the PCI compliance is a very important issue for the customers in the retail setting and of course to the hospitality businesses. That’s why now businesses should be keen in keeping their customers’ important information in a safe place.

Four Efficient Ways on How to Properly Select the Right Wall Mount Server Rack Cabinet

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Air-Conditioned Server Rack, Server Rack

There are server racks can come in variety of options. There are also wallmount enclosures and cabinets widely available and this makes it very hard for the engineer to effectively determine what is the best sever rack for any given environment. In this article, we will discuss the five most important factors to help you determine which is the best cabinet to be used for your data center.

1. Determine the Cabinet Height Needed for Server Racks

Carefully identify the height that will be importantly needed for your data center. This is a very important aspect and a crucial starting point. Gather the equipment you are planning to install in your office and identify the number of U spaces needed and necessary for your server rack. The important information you need to know is that the “U Space” is practically equivalent to 1.75 inches. Make sure that you measure properly the size of your server rack. If in case you only need an 8U space right now, it is also important to consider adding more space for the future growth of your data center.

2. Determine the Wallmount Cabinet Depth for Server Racks

Given the minimum height that was already determined, the engieners can now concentrate on determining the internal depth of the wallmount. More and more server rack wallmount sizes are being manufactured and anyone can efficiently see a size variation of 11 inches that has 30 inches dep size. While your server rack can be only have a roughly 18 inches in depth, it is better to consider the minimum internal depth required for cabling which is worth 3 inches. An optimum 21 inch depth should be the least required internal depth.

3. Determine the Wallmount Cabinet Weight for Server Racks

After determining and finding the right cabinet that can fit the needs of your data center in terms of height and internal depth. Once the cabinet can efficiently hold the equipment purely based on its weight capacity, that would be ideal. There are server racks that can accommodate this need. In addition to this, you can install your server rack vertically. You might also need to install and determine the right server rack you needed if you are planning to install your equipment vertically.

4. Determine the Wallmount Cabinet Features for Server Racks With this in mind, there are unlimited variety of good features available in wallmount server racks. The right style of the wallmount can be properly fixed and it can also be swinging. In addition to this, this is also vertical, a NEMA 12, or any style anyone can relate to. If you need the ability to remove the side panels of the server rack, just tell the manufacturer. Also if you need your cabinets to have a lock and a key just tell them you would need these features

The Best Practices to Improve Rack Airflow Tips for the Server Rack Enclosures

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There are several ways on how to greatly improve the cooling inside the server rack just by utilizing blanking panels in able to effectively manage the air flow very efficiently. In selecting a server rack that has built-in channels to accommodate better cable management and have improved air flow, the removal of the obsolete or unimportant equipment from the rack should be done.

With this in mind, an engineer should consider that a 3-phase power can greatly increase the amperage available inside the server rack. It can decrease the overall number of PDUs needed for the power management and it can leave more space to improve airflow.

The rising energy costs are now being compelled by several engineers to re-plan and re-think the IT structure together with their best practices. They are also gearing towards decreasing the power consumption by implementing the best standards for energy efficiency. The rightful planning should include the hot or cold isles containment strategies and managing the current and future hot spots. There should also be continued monitoring of the heat dissipation process inside the data center that will help companies and engineers to greatly increase the cooling capacity inside the server rack. The sealing cable openings placed on the floor with grommets is the primary key to do this.

The Power Distribution Units (PDUs) are now evenly distributes power to other servers during a power strip. The Rack mount power strips are now being specifically manufactured specially for the server racks and wall mounted racks that are placed vertically or behind the mounting posts. Placed inside a back portion of the cabinet. The power strips will now fall under two different categories: intelligent and standard.

While having the standard power trips that consists of some features that can give very important information – indicators and output displays – they should be effectively managed in-person and on-site personnel.

On the contrary, the most intelligent power strips that gives remote power control should allow the equipment administrators to effectively perform a cold reboot of the rack servers. This should also include the devices and other troubleshoot problems coming from any location provided that there is an internet connection. It greatly decreases the downtime it takes for the servers and having the vital business functions should be online very fast.

These remote power products does not only gives a very efficient control of these systems but they also give permissions for the equipment administrators to be able to properly leverage the leading advances in the power distribution systems.

What are the Post-Production Waterproof Enclosures and Its Uses?

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If winter has come to Cleveland, there is one indicator that it has officially come to this place. There will be a 20 degree blizzard that I have to drive through the morning. Of course, with my 2 years old Labrador, I do not get the option of just hibernating for the winter time.

My dog does not understand the blizzard cold – I mean it is too cold! He cannot get it because has a very beautiful fur coat! That is why I spent money on a pair of thermal pants and very pretty cargo sweatpants. I did not realize how handy they became until I got home from our very early morning walk, both myself and my dog was totally soaked. However, my cell phone which was in my pants all the time was totally dry. Waterproof pants are totally cool, right?

I have several customers who always ask me how to make our product lines of enclosure waterproof. While we have several electronics enclosure that are already designed to be waterproof, most of these enclosures are not. The waterproof enclosures have an amazing gasket that was in the track that can seal out the moisture.

Once the cover is now screwed on the base of the enclosure, the gasket will start to flatten out that will seal the electronics inside. This is because the track is now molded unto the enclosure, it can be designed to have the exact dimensions that will give the appropriate space needed. There are times that I am not lucky enough and there will still be customers that will call us back to say that they were able to waterproof the standard enclosures. In our next post, we will going to take a look at some of the customer options that they have shared with me.

What are the Real Purpose of Battery Clips?

Frances Bennett Engineering Blog, Materials of Enclosures, Steel enclosures ,

Just recently, there was a mishap happened in my kitchen: the garbage disposal bin suddenly backed-up leading my sink to slowly drain itself into the dishwasher. Then afterwards, it leaked on almost everywhere. This hilarious but stressing situation happened during night time and I only discovered the disaster happened until the next morning when I am about to grab my cup of coffee.

This is not the only disaster that has happened, when I got home from work the water from the accident caused my wood flooring to buckle. When I try to flatten down my floor, the wood flooring cracked. This is because the people who fixed my kitchen just glued the wood tiles on the linoleum flooring. Causing the pieces that were soaked in the water came up so easily. However, the rest won’t budge. I guess I need to replace half of my flooring.

With this in mind, when we have something to be permanently placed on a certain area, we should secure it permanently. Like my floor, I do not expect anything like that would happen. Another example of almost the same kind of scenario are the keyfob remote controls.

Even if the the keyfob controls are very small  – and even if they are – the batter holders can still bring a lot of damage if they go around and sliding inside the case. In order to prevent this from happening while keeping the integrity of the PCB board (and eventually avoid long lasting damage) the battery holder should be put permanently on the board through soldering.

This will make sure that the battery holder will stay very secured even if the keyfob just hangs from the keychain and is being swung around using a finger, or even thrown or juggled through the air with a mobile phone to save a falling cup of coffee.

Do you know how to properly solder things? Below are some very useful tips on doing this. While it takes some valuable amount of time and practice to use these methods and tools properly, soldering in basic terms is putting things together using a molten metal instead of glue sticks.

How to prepare the soldering iron:

•    Plug in the soldering iron and place it properly on its stand.

•    Soak the sponge on the water and dampen it and place it in the stand.

•    After dampening the sponge, wait for just a few minutes for the iron to warm up.

•    Once the iron warmed up, wipe the tip of the iron with a damp sponge.

•   Melt some metal on the tip of the soldering iron.

To start soldering, do the following:

•    By holding the soldering iron like a pen, hold it near the base of the handle.

•    Touch the soldering iron to the end pieces of the things that you will put together.

•    Feed the soldering metal unto the solder of the joint.

•    Gently remove the solder and eventually the iron unto the solder of the joint.

•    Inspect the joining ends closely.

How Important is Waterproof Rating on Electronic Plastic Enclosures?

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If I loved something, I will always go back to where it was. For years now, I have been going to the same Chinese restaurant near my neighborhood. Just recently, there have been series of experiences – really bad ones – and there’s a possibility I might decide to find a new Chinese restaurant. Until the bad taste is already gone. I did a little Google research for new Chinese restaurants and I have stumbled upon a website where people are encouraged to review local establishments.

When I checked on the different, divided categories and this will enable me to find the best Chinese restaurant replacement. There’s no need for me to sift through every restaurant listing in my area. I can be confident that basing on my general testimony, it is reasonable that this might be possible. The individual tastes might vary, and I just found out that there is a possibility I might not like the new place but at least I am not going and finding new restaurant in a blind spot.

With this in mind, per testimony can work in various of ways. The additional benefit to this is in the industry of electrical design. More often than not, the customers always ask the specifications about the electronics enclosure. They always start with: “Do you know if anyone else has done …?”

Well, if a customer will ask if the HD-45 can be considered IP66K compliant, there’s only one sure answer to this. It certainly is. Just last year, there was a customer who had complete the IP66K testing on the HD-45. It was certain that the cases will not leak. The customer is more than happy to announce that the case just passed with flying colors and passing rate.

With this, what does IP66K Mean? To explain this clearly, the first 6 in the IP rating indicates that the electronics enclosure is entirely protected against dust ingress. The second 6 in the rating means that the enclosure can also protect the equipment against strong water ingress coming from jets/streams of water. The limited ingress of water is now permitted provided that it should not bring damage to the PC board.

The machining holes and other customizations for electronics enclosure should have an effect on the IP rating of the electronics enclosure. There should be careful consideration that should be made to make sure that all the cutouts of the materials are now correctly sealed in order to maintain the waterproof rating to make submersible and waterproof enclosure.

In conclusion, I strongly suggest that you conduct your own testing for your own product prototypes. This is to make sure that individually, in your end the prototype meets the same rating. Basing on the findings from one of the customers of this enclosure, it is more likely that the electronics enclosure should be able to meet the IP66K rating. However, with this in mind, engineering projects always vary. There’s a possibility that you might cause the enclosure to be less-water tight.

What is the Relationship of Relative Thermal Index to Electronics Enclosure?

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I am not a very good driver when it comes to freeway. I usually drive a certain patch of freeway on my way to work. Majority of the time I believe there is a cop waiting for me holding a radar gun that points to the traffic. I guess most of us know that there is a high chance that the cop is there on his post every time we drive past. Still my fellow drivers just keep on slamming on their breaks when they spot the cops. But in line with this, we all push the different limits of what we know what’s right or what should we do or what we should not. But still we get away with the things that we should not be doing. When something like this happens, we quickly learn not to repeat the same mistakes again right?

With this in mind, I would like to prevent you from learning this lesson in the hard way. Plastic boxes also have limitations too – in terms of temperature. Some of the enclosure plastic materials tends to have a higher temperature rating compared to others. Regardless of what the rating is. Once the temperature already reached the required temperature, the engineer is already risking deformation and loss of shape.

What is RTI or Relative Thermal Index?

Let us define what RTI is. It is formerly known as CUTR – or Continuous Use Temperature Rating. This is the highest limit of service temperature, where the critical properties of the material should remain inside the acceptable limits. There are about 50% after 10 cycles, and this is according to the UL testing.

With this in mind, RTI is the external indicator of the material’s innate properties. However, there is a limitation to this. RTI does not consider some of the specific application factors such as the stresses that are inherently molded and mixed into a part before the external load is going to be applied. Including in this is chemical exposure, part thickness, etc. The only most reliable method in predicting part performance is to have the prototype part be subjected into a test under some actual conditions.

There are three independent RTI ratings that can help us with this:

  1. The electrical measures effectively measure dielectric strength
  2. The mechanical part has an impact with measurement of tensile impact strength
  3. The mechanical part that exists without impact measures the tensile strength

For other enclosure manufacturing companies, the standard flame-retardant ABS or the RTI temperature is up to 80 degrees. However, just like my fellow drivers on the freeway, they can only drive up to 10 miles over the limit. It is then most possibly safer in driving at a slower rate than that.

The Latest Innovation Electronic Enclosures: A Pocket-Sized Enclosures for USB Applications

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While a lady walks her dog one day, she came across her nearby neighbor with her new puppy. Knowing that the puppy is only 4 months old, one cannot deny her flufyness. You can see the super cuteness in its big face: big eyes, feathery fur, and stunted snout. However, its cute legs were probably short about 4 inches long. The lady came up to her neighbor and said “wow! I was amazed on how impact and adorable your puppy is!” However, to her surprise the dog has already achieved its optimum size.

The lady’s jaw was about to drop, good thing her 50 pound behemoth stopped her on what she was about to do but her dog keeps on dragging her to the small and adorable cute dog in front of her. Her dog thinks it’s a chew to by the way. This lady kept her thinking, “what should be my next dog will be?” Also, it made her wonder what is with the small dogs that people are stopped on their tracks when they see one? What is in the tiny that makes them cute and adorable?

What item is better than being tiny? In the electronics world, most of the sales person will gladly tell you that tiny is small but very useful. As we all know the majority of the electronic devices that were being released today (phones, gaming consoles, music players, televisions) are getting more and more compact than its previous models and counterparts. However, the capabilities are not toned down because even if the devices are getting more compact, the capability of these products increases. Even the computers are starting to get hip in having their models in compact sizes. One of the smallest craze going around the electronics world today are USB ports because they become the amazing standard for any peripheral computer equipment and devices.

For the design engineers out there, where do you usually get the case to install your USB case product in? Of course in the enclosure manufacturing companies.

Some of the companies’ pocket-sized enclosures are specifically designed for some USB applications. They are initially molded in some of the most durable and flame self-exitinguishing plastic material. The features of the enclosure include some of the smooth and textured surface with some of the recesses. These can be seen in both halves and there was one time that there is space saved because there is a 3 piece snap together design. There are USB enclosures that are available in gray and clear, the USB plastic enclosure series is a very effective way in creating a number of useful electronic uses. Since we most of the engineers know that the flammability ratings are crucial to our end use, we made sure that the new line for the enclosures has higher ratings. The Gray enclosures are widely available in ABS material that comes with the rating of UL94-HB. While the other clear enclosures are being made and molded in polycarbonate with the rating of UL94-V0.

The Different NEMA Plastic Enclosure Product Line Extensions

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NEMA Plastic Enclosure, Product Line Extensions, The Different NEMA Plastic Enclosure Product Line Extensions

A couple of weeks earlier, I have noticed that I have shed body weight. I was really hoping to lose a lot of this ever since I was a kid. Unfortunately, I was not able to purchase clothes that will look good on my new size. Therefore, while trying good clothes one morning, I had a bit of utter frustration because apparently, my fashion sucked and I looked like an old maid.

Right then and there, I totally decided that it was about right time to go on a shopping and buy the clothes that will really fit me. Now, we’re talking about the whole shebang of shopping for clothes: skirts, dresses, dress pants, jeans, capris, tops, and even shoes. I also decided to add some new clothes sizes that I was not able to wear since high school. Because of this, I love the idea of having expanded wardrobe in my closet.

With this in mind, the NEMA plastic enclosures available in some of the enclosure manufacturing companies will make you feel that you are going to totally love their expanded product line. Like my new wardrobe, there are NEMA enclosures that were just recently added on some of the companies’ product portfolios and these are now available in smaller sizes. It is now being pared down in sizes and there was a trim of 2.52” x 2.28” x 1.38”. They are widely available across all three NEMA product lines.

Several customers have lead to believe that they have already requested a smaller NEMA enclosure and they are totally excited when enclosure manufacturing companies tells them that there are new models available for electronic enclosures and they are available to be shipped now.

Because of these wonderful features, the older ones are retained and are still widely available. The gasket for dust and water-proofing enclosures, the stainless steel crews and the sturdy enclosure construction. The available optional cable glands and the mounted flange kits are also widely available for the new enclosure sizes. We are pleased to know that the expanded product lines are deeply going to help you out the rightful NEMA rated case enclosure that is the perfect fit for you company.

In conclusion, if you would like to have your enclosure customized, you can politely ask the enclosure manufacturing company to fix the problem for you. Most of the companies allows businesses to have a customized enclosure for them. Just make sure that the details are clearly communicated so that they will deliver you the best product as possible.