An enclosure on a vehicle or beside a track has to do three things at once: keep water and dust out, stay closed while the whole structure is vibrating, and survive being opened by a technician in the rain. We build sheet metal enclosures for transport and rail projects from your drawing — wayside control cabinets, roadside controller housings, onboard equipment boxes, EV charging cabinets and passenger-area housings — in stainless steel, aluminum and carbon steel. Ingress protection to IP54–IP66 and impact resistance to IK08–IK10 are specified on the drawing and checked before packing.
What we run in our own 2,500 m² workshop: three lasers (2 × 3,000 W and 1 × 6,000 W), four CNC press brakes at 250 t / 3,000 mm, ten welding stations, brushing and mirror polishing. Passivation, electropolishing, anodizing, zinc plating, hot-dip galvanizing and powder coating are applied on audited partner lines that we specify and inspect.
What we build for transport and rail
These are the enclosure types we are asked to quote most often on transport projects. None of them is a catalogue item — every one is built to the drawing you send.
| Type | What the site asks of it | What the drawing usually has to settle |
|---|---|---|
| Wayside and trackside control cabinets | Continuous vibration from passing trains, driving rain, wide temperature swing, salt or de-icing spray in winter | Material grade for the site, gasket groove continuity, door lip and drip edge, cable entry position, grounding stud |
| Roadside controller housings | Traffic signal and variable-message-sign controllers sit in road spray and are opened frequently by maintenance crews | Tamper-resistant fasteners, hinge load on a tall door, louvre or filter ventilation versus sealed IP rating |
| Onboard equipment boxes | Weight limits, cable routing in a tight cavity, fire and smoke behaviour of the material set | Wall thickness versus weight, internal mounting plate layout, radius on every exposed corner |
| EV charging cabinets | Outdoor siting, heat from the power electronics, public access, payment or meter compartment separation | Ventilation path and filter, split compartments, lock selection, finish that survives UV and cleaning |
| Passenger-area housings | Ticket machines, gate surrounds and information panels are handled by the public all day and cleaned with chemicals | Grain direction on brushed stainless, weld grinding and blending, concealed fixings, IK rating on the face |
| Tunnel and ventilation control panels | High humidity, condensation, corrosive atmosphere, restricted access for service | Drainage and breather arrangement, coating system for the atmosphere, service clearance inside the door |
The four ways transport enclosures fail, and what we do about each
Fasteners working loose
Vibration is the failure mode people underestimate. A self-tapping screw driven into 1.5 mm sheet will back out. We specify self-clinching (PEM-type) nuts and studs, threaded inserts, or nutserts on any face that carries a removable panel, and we use lock washers or prevailing-torque nuts on the rest. If your drawing shows sheet-metal screws into a removable cover, we will flag it during drawing review and propose the alternative.
Water getting past the door seal
Most leaks are not the gasket — they are the geometry. The gasket needs a continuous compression face, which means welded and ground corner seams rather than an open folded corner, a door lip that sheds water away from the seal, and a gland plate at the bottom rather than holes cut in the side. We hold the door gap with a fixture during welding and check the seal line with a height gauge before assembly.
Corrosion starting at the weld
On stainless, the heat-affected zone is where corrosion starts. The fix is the right filler for the grade, proper back-purging or post-weld treatment, and passivation afterwards — passivation is applied on an audited partner line that we specify and inspect, not in our own workshop. On carbon steel for outdoor siting, hot-dip galvanizing or a specified coating system is the difference between five years and fifteen; both are routed out, and we check coating thickness on arrival and again before packing.
Damage from public handling
An IK rating on the drawing is a design decision, not a finish. It is achieved with material thickness, return flanges behind the face, concealed hinges and tamper-resistant fastener heads. We can quote to IK08–IK10 as specified, but the number has to be on the drawing so that we can build and check to it.
Railway and rolling stock: the wording that appears on the drawing
A transport enquiry rarely arrives as "build us a box". It arrives with a specification number on it, and that number decides what gets tested after delivery. Four appear more often than the rest, and each one constrains something different on the sheet metal:
| Standard | What it actually constrains | What that means for the enclosure |
|---|---|---|
| EN 45545-2 | Fire safety of materials on railway vehicles: flammability, smoke density and toxicity. Equipment enclosures usually fall under requirement R22 or R23, at hazard level HL1, HL2 or HL3. | This is a material and coating question, not a strength question. We build to the material and coating system the drawing names. The test evidence comes from the material supplier’s certificate or a third-party laboratory. We do not issue an EN 45545-2 certificate. |
| IEC 61373 | Shock and vibration testing for rolling stock equipment, by mounting category: 1 A (body-mounted), 1 B (bogie-mounted), 2 and 3. | Shock and vibration are tested on the assembled unit, because the mass and the mounting decide the result. What we control on our side is the structure: continuous welds rather than stitch welds, self-clinching hardware instead of screws cut into sheet, and no cantilevered bracket carrying the weight. |
| EN 50155 | Electronic equipment on rolling stock: operating temperature class (OT1–OT6), standby class (ST0/ST1), supply tolerances and EMC. | On the enclosure this shows up as the temperature range the gasket and the coating have to survive, and as a requirement for a defined earthing path. |
| ISO 16750 | Environmental conditions for electrical and electronic equipment on road vehicles — the road-vehicle counterpart to the rail set above. | Same logic: the drawing names the class and the test, and the enclosure is built to hold it mechanically and environmentally. |
Two further details decide whether a transport enclosure survives its first winter, and both are settled on the drawing rather than in the workshop.
Salt. Coastal routes, tunnels and de-icing salt put chlorides on the outside of the cabinet. Where the drawing names a salt spray test, it is usually ISO 9227 or ASTM B117 neutral salt spray. The material choice follows from that: 316 holds up better than 304 in a chloride environment, and among the aluminium grades, 5052 and 5754 resist corrosion better than 6061, which carries copper. An aluminium part in that environment relies on anodizing and sealing rather than on a paint film. The full comparison is in our stainless and aluminium enclosure finishes guide.
Earthing. Rail and transit cabinets almost always need a defined earth path for EMC. Anodizing is an electrical insulator, so if a bonded contact face is required, the drawing has to say where the coating stops: a masked contact area, a conductive conversion coating, or a stainless insert. This is the single most common reason an anodized transport panel fails incoming inspection — and it is fixed on the drawing, not in the plating bath. We go through it in detail on the anodized aluminium enclosure page.
So that the boundary is clear: we build the enclosure to the drawing and to the material and coating system it names. We do not hold a rail fire or vibration certificate, and we cannot issue one. Where your project needs documented compliance, that evidence comes from the material supplier and the test house, and we will tell you at quotation stage which parts of it we can supply and which you will need to arrange.
Materials and thickness we run for transport work
| Material | Grades | Thickness range | Typical use on transport projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stainless steel | 304, 316, 430 | 0.5–15 mm | Coastal and de-iced sites (316), passenger-area housings and brushed faces (304), interior trim and dry-service panels (430) |
| Aluminum | 5052, 5754, 6061, 3003 | 0.5–10 mm | Weight-limited onboard boxes, welded cabinets (5052 / 5754), machined brackets and stiffeners (6061) |
| Carbon steel | SPCC, cold-rolled, hot-rolled pickled | 0.5–18 mm | Wayside cabinets and structural frames where the protection comes from the coating system, not the base metal |
Bend length is the practical limit on a cabinet door: our press brakes take 3,000 mm at 250 t, which covers a standard full-height cabinet door in a single set-up. Above that, or above the tonnage for the thickness, we will tell you at drawing review rather than after cutting.
Finishes: what happens in our workshop and what we route out
Being explicit about this saves a project later. Brushed and mirror finishes are done in our own workshop, so grain direction, grit and a sample panel are things we control directly and can agree with you before production starts. Everything that needs a tank, a booth or an oven — passivation, electropolishing, anodizing, zinc plating, hot-dip galvanizing, powder coating — is applied on audited partner lines that we specify and inspect. You get one point of contact and one inspection standard, not a chain of subcontractors you have to chase.
Sealing, hardware and assembly
Most transport enclosures arrive at the line as a kit of parts we have already fitted: gasket and channel, hinges, quarter-turns or key locks, grounding studs, gland plates, DIN rail and mounting plates, captive fasteners, and any customer-supplied locks or switches you send us. Assembling in-house means the door is fitted to the body it was welded with, which is the single biggest factor in whether the seal actually holds.
What we check before shipment
Dimensional checks are done with height gauges; coating thickness with a film thickness gauge. We do not run a coordinate measuring machine, so any feature that needs CMM verification should be called out on the drawing and we will tell you honestly whether we can hold it in-house or need an external report. Before packing we confirm drawing conformance, bend angles, weld quality and appearance, coating thickness, the IP seal line, fit-up of doors and removable panels, and export packing.
Frequently asked questions
Can you build to rail standards such as EN 45545-2 or IEC 61373?
We build to the drawing and the material set you specify. If your project requires an EN 45545-2 material set or an IEC 61373 vibration class, tell us at enquiry stage and we will confirm the grades and finishes we can source and weld. The certification of the finished assembly is done on the complete vehicle or system, not by the enclosure shop, so we will not claim a listing we cannot hold — we supply the enclosure to your specified material set.
Do you hold a UL or NEMA listing?
No. UL and cUL listing is carried out on the finished assembly with the equipment installed inside it, so it is not something an enclosure fabricator can hold on its own. What we do is build to the NEMA type and the material callouts you put on the drawing — NEMA 3R, 4, 4X or 12 constructions, Type 304 or 316 stainless, ASTM aluminum tempers — and supply material certificates and inspection records with the shipment.
Can you work from inch drawings and gauge callouts?
Yes, most of our enclosure work is quoted from drawings in both metric and inch. We convert gauge to millimetres on the drawing review sheet so that both sides are looking at the same number: 16 ga is 1.5 mm, 14 ga is 1.9 mm, 12 ga is 2.6 mm, 11 ga is 3.0 mm, and 10 ga is 3.4 mm for steel. Tolerance on the converted value is what we quote to.
What is the thinnest and thickest you can bend at full cabinet-door length?
Up to 3,000 mm at 250 t, which covers 0.5 mm through roughly 6 mm carbon steel depending on the bend length — tonnage rises with length, so a 3 m bend in 6 mm is a different job from a 500 mm bend in 6 mm. Send the thickness and the bend length and we will confirm at drawing review rather than guess.
Can we get a sample before production?
Simple samples take 3–7 days. A complex first article — a full cabinet with hardware, gasket and finish — takes 15–20 days, because the finish and the hardware are on the critical path, not the cutting. For brushed stainless we agree a sample panel for grain and grit first, so the production batch matches something you have held.
What do you need to give us a price?
A drawing in STEP, DWG, DXF, PDF or a SolidWorks file, the material and finish, the quantity and any repeat schedule, and the ingress or impact rating if one applies. A sketch with the overall size and the quantity is enough for a budget figure. We work under NDA as a matter of course, and lead times are quoted after drawing review rather than pulled from a table.
How are enclosures packed for export?
Doors are strapped or bolted closed, faces are wrapped and separated, and the cabinet is crated or palletised for container shipment with moisture protection. If your project has a specific packing or marking requirement, put it in the enquiry and we will quote to it.
Next step
Send a drawing or a sketch and we will come back with material, finish, sealing and hardware options, and the lead time for your quantity. Quality system documented to ISO 9001, with CE and RoHS material compliance on the materials we source.