I have been asked assist with the design of an enclosure. I have done a fairly extensive search but found no suitable guide books. The enclosure I had in mind was going to be sheet metal and need to be about 500mm^3. This is not an electrical enclosure (lots of books). It will need to be able to be hung from a wall or floor standing, and will need to support a load of about 40kg. I was hoping to find a book that covered items such as legislations (such as I know that you need to be careful when selecting a hole size in case somebody traps a finger). Pros and cons of different materials, different types of access (door or lift off panel etc), examples of lockable enclosures, maybe some guidance on how to make it a bit aesthetically pleasing, maybe some guidance on what fixings should be used (how many m10 screws are needed to stop it falling off the wall). Anybody got any suggestions for a book?
The McMaster-Carr catalog has a massive amount of enclosures for all kinds of uses. I've found it a great resource for getting started on projects like this. www.mcmaster.com/ Tom M
Brad, Even if its not an electrical enclosure you should determine the Nema rating for this cabinet simply for establishing the weather and dust restriction rating. I would suggest that you also view Hammond Enclosure catalogs. For hardware have a look at Faucher and Emka catalogs. What will this cabinet be housing? This is important for the design aspect of the cabinet. Where will it be installed. Again important aspect of your design will be the environment where your cabinet will be exposed to. Regards PB
I believe that you are over-thinking this. Use your everyday engineering sciences tools (strength of materials, etc.) and think about what materials best suit the application and any need for a decorative finished look etc. Certainly feel free to see what type of existing enclosures might have features that you could emulate. I don't believe that you need a text to do this. Just walk around and look.
THIS SITE can provide a lot of catalog uses. it 's very good,If they post some pic about how to use in site,It's more uesful to us.
As for materials, start with the basics. For a 40Kg load I would suggest going with 16 gauge CR steel (painted or electrocoated) or stainless steel if it is going to take a beating. 16 ga. is cheap and plentiful, and likely strong enough for most industrial applications. It is very easy to weld / spot-weld. You might consider welding strenghtening plates to the back at the screw attachement points - can be on inside or outside. Basic sheet-metal forming is all that is needed. Might need to tig-weld the seams if it has to keep dust/moisture out. I did a lot fof these enclosures for the tranist industry (right out of school), and per the very good suggestion you received earlier, referencing many other existing designs can be a great leg up.
Thanks for all your responses they have been really helpful. Can anybody advise on CE marking? I have just been told that I need to check the earth bonding for the enclosure to CE mark it. Just to further explain the problem, this enclosure houses electrical components however these components are already electrically protected in their own right. (I would compare this to designing a TV cabinet, the TV it’s self is electrically safe therefore the cabinet designer does not need to include an earth connection etc.) Also if it is all painted do you need to include an earth anyway as you can’t do a PAT test on it. We already supply most of the components inside the enclosure as separate parts the only difference is we are now grouping them together inside and metal box and selling as a single product. Although we have the CE certificates for all of the internal components, as we are selling this as a single product we need to CE mark the overall unit and I have been told this includes the metalwork. How do you CE approve painted metalwork? I am sure I am over thinking this.
