Customization of Electronics Enclosure: Machining Seems Like a Scrapbooking Method

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My boyfriend and I are always making sure that we celebrate anniversaries in the best & most fashionable way, with that in mind, it is our anniversary next week. For this year’s celebration, I tried putting together all our memorabilia in a scrapbook for our moments last year. This is the biggest dates that we celebrate yearly and for this year we went to a steakhouse. It is one of those places that they regularly print their menu in a daily basis.

With this in mind, I was able to keep our menu and I used the last year’s menu for our yearly scrapbooking. I cut out the items that we ordered from the menu. I have to glue for each of the description on a very fancy scrapbook paper. This might sound a lot of work, but it is a nice keep sake. However, getting each of the proper descriptions on a proper line up was very frustrating. Especially if each one of of the descriptions came in a different size.

This is like having the different cutouts machined differently on the base to effectively cover on the plastic electronics enclosure. Several companies have already tried to machine the enclosure in house. Together with the CNC machining process, there will be precised cutouts one each of the component (example: the base and cover) and in theory, they should be able to properly line up. However, if just one piece of a certain product is just even a couple of millimeters off, a design engineer will not be able to line up the holes especially if the enclosure is already assembled.

Your electronics equipment will not properly fit inside the enclosure, and also, the entire piece will be totally discarded. Without having the proper electronics equipment, the attempt to properly machine these enclosures and combine them with one complete unit can cause an unexpected slippage and compression. Which in return, would also cause several holes to not line up effectively. Now, this should take into account that there are companies that offers CNC machining not just a drill press. Drill Press will always have the tendency to produce very uneven holes.

However, there are companies that utilizes advanced machining techniques in order to produce the right product specific guides that allows them to properly machine an enclosure as one entire unit. Ensuring that the placement of the equipment inside the enclosure are of the same size and measurement. Also, this is not the only most precise method of machining that is widely available. This is also the most efficient and cost effective method. This is the very reason why companies are able to pass along the cost savings to its customers because of the low cost.

What Should be the Characters of the Ink that will be Used to Print on Plastic Electronics Enclosure?

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Just recently, my boyfriend and I just spent a very long weekend to attend a out-of-town wedding. The family of my friend and our friends came over from all over the country just to attend her wedding. There were even English guests all the way from United Kingdom. This is the true testament that the wonderful couple are now finally getting married. People have spent time, money, and the effort just to be there for the celebration.

Before the wedding which was scheduled on a Sunday, there was a mandatory practice the Friday before for the wedding rehearsal. The amazing ceremony will be held at a riverbank park with the reasonable outdoor space reception just for the family. Sunday is a casual celebration and when Monday comes, this is going to be the celebration for the people who was not able to come to the wedding last Sunday. There were handmade decorations and pretty favors, the family style dining was good. There was good bear and the eclectic mix of music. Some guests might question the rustic appearance but our entire weekend was perfectly amazing especially for the happy couple.

With this in mind, knowing the characteristics are very helpful. Not only when working with other personalities from other people, but also this is very vital when dealing with certain chemical properties. Such as ink used for printing on enclosures. This is the type of ink used to print on pad for electronic enclosures. The characteristics does not only exhibit what the product is, but also what the material can be resisted.  

There are numerous characteristics that are necessary to have the permanent ink to be just like that: permanent. For example, if the customer wants the ink to be totally unaffected even if the enclosure is stacked on top of each other. Now, the stacked enclosures will not be damaged even if it is shipped because the right ink is used for the printing of the enclosure.

Or you can just imagine that there was a customer that wants to place something on top of the enclosure, if the ink was used was not the right one, there is a possibility that the graphics will be damaged. The abrasion resistance only means that the ink will not we wear in a way that it is completely gone by means of friction.

Over the course of several years with this type of experience, there are blog posts that are going to be explored using the different types of ink resistance that will be offered. Just feel free to comment about the characteristics or types of resistance you are looking for with your ink.

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

Frances Bennett Engineering Blog, Steel enclosures ,

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?

Frances Bennett Engineering Blog, Steel enclosures , ,

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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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.

What is the Right Electronics Enclosure for Your Company Processes?

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What is the Right Electronics Enclosure for Your Company Processes?

Aside from the need in determining the right size of the enclosure for the equipment or component, it will house, the style and type should be greatly considered. As a shoe rack, it is not enough that the user knows how many shoes it can fit, but what style the user is looking for. The style can also be dependent on where the shoe rack will be placed. This is also the same in selecting an enclosure. The environment can also determine which style the company should go for.

In this article, we will discuss the numerous possibilities a plastic enclosure can have in terms of customizing its style. Enclosure customization really brings a lot of benefits because it can be tailor-fitted to the need of the company.

There are a handful of possible ways companies can customize their enclosure.

If a company need mounting flanges or creating a hand-held device, they should contact directly the manufacturer to determine the possible ways to easily customize a plastic enclosure for them. This solution also applies if the company needs a gasket type of NEMA enclosure to provide protection equivalent to a certain level of NEMA standard such as; NEMA 4X, NEMA 6P to specify the category of the particular enclosure; rainproof, weatherproof or waterproof. The simplest way to do this is to look up if the company provides an available product brochure online.

If the company is already familiar with the product line the manufacturer is offering, it is easier to tell what the need. Usually, companies display their product line on their website so that the customers can easily tell which products they possibly need and if there are customization needs that should be done.

Also, some enclosure manufacturing companies offer to search by the size of the enclosure. This can be shown most of the time at the top-middle page of the website. This is helpful because the searches can be narrowed down by length and width. If a website is efficiently designed and have this feature, the buying company can save a great amount of time because they will be presented a list of the products based on their custom search.

Even if the information is readily available online, the buying company should always ask the customer support for the information on their enclosure. Keep in mind that no matter how informative a website can be, it pays to directly ask the company about the products and customization services that they offer. Not all companies are the same. Usually, you can tell if a company is easy to transact with if they have good customer support.

Just make sure that before selecting or inquiring the enclosure that you need, on your end you should have the valuable details already laid out. Including the customization needs, the size of your equipment or component, and what type of enclosure your company is looking for. Work directly with a design engineer so that the company can choose wisely which enclosure to buy for their company project. In taking the time to consider which enclosure do they need will help them save a lot of money and effort in investing in the wrong enclosure.

Different Alternative Ways to Improve Enclosure’s Internal Ribbing to Achieving Identical Strength and Increased Space Inside the Enclosure

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Several enclosure manufacturing companies utilizes the internal ribbing in making their electronic enclosures to make it extra rigidity and to also make it more durable. Design engineer might take this approach as a logical strategy but the addition of internal ribbing might bring some complications on the electronic enclosure. Given its ability to give strength, it can hinder the flexibility of the design and it can take up internal space in the enclosure. Sure, this strategy also gives some cons and disadvantages.

For this very reason, some of the electronic enclosure manufacturers chose to have their standard moles to not allow provisions for any types of internal ribbing. If industrial companies needing electronic enclosure has a need for high-strength requirements for their process applications that posses high-impact use, some of the manufacturers that does not want internal ribbing offers wide range of design features that can satisfy this need. This includes options for wall thickness that plastic materials, ABS NORYL, nylon and polycarbonate materials for enclosure provides. These companies can give the advantage of an internal ribbing without the additional bulk inside the internal enclosure space.

Aside from the bulky feature and possibility of less space, there is also one major disadvantage to internal ribbing. Some of the plastic enclosure are required to have custom holes and cutouts for cable glands. When an internal ribbing is installed inside the enclosure, it might prevent the cable glands to go inside the enclosure and it might obstruct the holes. Milling cutouts or holes on the internal ribbing is complicated to do and it is not cost efficient, to be honest. In addition to this, the internal ribs can greatly reduce the amount of space that is available inside the enclosures and it can limit the space provision of the components that can be placed inside the electronic enclosure.

With this in mind, enclosure manufacturing companies offers some best design alternatives. The design engineers can add exceptional strength to the enclosure by redesigning the overall shape of the structure of the enclosure. Given the careful calculation of the design, given with proper analysis and testing, some of the manufacturers of enclosure can give the same strength an internal ribbing can give inside the enclosure.

For some of the outdoor applications that require high strength and impact resistance for electronic enclosures, manufacturers can also offer industrial or production companies an increased wall thickness for electronic enclosures. The enclosure boxes that are specifically designed to have this type of strength and impact resistance can have walls up to 25% thicker. Majority of the NEMA rated enclosures are designed with increased wall thickness.