Anodized Aluminum Enclosures: Type II & III
Type II and Type III anodizing on aluminum enclosures: thickness by service, why 4043 weld wire goes grey, and the eight lines to add to the drawing before you send it.
Buyer Guides
Buyer decision guides for OEM sheet metal fabrication, enclosures, cabinets, RFQ preparation and supplier evaluation.
Stainless and Aluminum Enclosure Finishes: How to Choose
How to specify brushing, anodizing, passivation and electropolishing on stainless and aluminum enclosures: what each finish solves, what it cannot do, and what to write on the drawing.
Brushed Stainless Steel Finishing
Brushed stainless finishes by grit and grain direction: coarse, No. 4 and fine brushed, run in our own workshop with a sample panel agreed before production.
Aluminum Sheet Metal Fabrication
Aluminum parts in 5052, 5754 and 6061: laser cutting, CNC bending and welding, brushed in our own shop, anodizing routed out. Simple samples 3-7 days.
Stainless Steel Sheet Metal Fabrication
Stainless steel parts in 304, 316 and 430: laser cutting, CNC bending and welding, brushed in our own shop, passivation routed out. Simple samples 3-7 days.
Buyer Guides
Standard Enclosure Sizes vs Blank Sheet
A floor-standing cabinet has a strong pull towards being drawn from nothing. The enclosure is derived outwards from the equipment that has to sit…
Buyer Guides
What We Check Before Signing a Customer NDA
Most drawings arrive after a confidentiality agreement rather than before one, which is a reasonable order. The agreement itself, however, tends to get…
Buyer Guides
Who Buys the Fitted Parts? Drawing the Line on Customer-Supplied Hardware
An enclosure rarely arrives complete from a laser cutter. Locks, hinges, seals, displays, readers and printers appear somewhere between the flat sheet…
Buyer Guides
Ventilated Acoustic Enclosures
A sheet metal enclosure blocks sound well until something inside needs cooling air. Then the enclosure develops a hole, and everything learned about…
Buyer Guides
Prototype to Production
A single unit price is the wrong answer for a part that has never been built. The first piece and the five-hundredth piece are not the same job, and…