Electrical Enclosures and Cabinets, Built to Your Drawing
Fulei Metal builds electrical enclosures and cabinets from customer drawings only. Wall-mount boxes, floor-standing cabinets, distribution cabinets, control cabinets, battery and charger cabinets — in mild steel, stainless steel 304/316 and aluminium — in a 2,500 m² plant in Ningbo, China, since 2016. You send the drawing; we cut, bend, weld, finish, assemble and pack it.
If you are looking for a catalogue enclosure in a standard size, we are the wrong supplier — say so early and we will point you to a stockist. What we do is the part that has no catalogue number: the box that has to fit your layout, carry your cutouts, take your mounting plate and survive your environment.
What we build, and what we do not
| In scope | Out of scope |
|---|---|
| Enclosure bodies, doors, mounting panels, back plates | Castings and forgings |
| Cutouts for connectors, glands, vents, displays, switches | Injection-moulded parts |
| Welded frames and chassis for equipment | Pure machining work (lathe/mill only jobs) |
| Pre-installed hardware: DIN rail, locks, hinges, fans, filters | Electrical wiring and PCB assembly |
| Surface finishing and assembly to your specification | Certification of the finished equipment |
| Export packing with photographs before shipment | — |
Being clear about the boundary saves both sides time. If a project needs something we do not run, we say so in the first reply instead of quoting around it.
Choose by what kills the enclosure
Most enclosure failures are decided before the first cut is made — by the wrong material for the environment, a finish that cannot survive the cleaning routine, or a sealing design that was never drawn. Use this table to pick the right family, then open the page that matches.
| Where it will live | What usually kills it | What we would build it from | Read this |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indoor control room, clean, dry, no washdown | Nothing much — cost and assembly time | Mild steel (SPCC), powder coated, IP54 | Custom electrical cabinet manufacturing |
| Outdoor, rain, dust, UV | Water ingress at the door seal and cable entries | Mild steel or 304, sealed to IP65/IP66, sloped roof | Weatherproof electrical enclosures |
| Coastal, de-icing salt, marine air | Chloride pitting at welds and cut edges | Stainless 316, or 304 with a sealed finish | Stainless steel enclosures |
| Food, dairy, pharmaceutical, washdown | Cleaning chemicals and standing water in seams | Stainless 304/316, continuous welds, no trap corners | Stainless steel enclosures |
| Wall or column mounted, space constrained | Heat, and a mounting plate that flexes | Folded 1.5–2 mm, reinforced back plate, IP54–IP66 | Wall-mount electrical enclosures |
| Power distribution, floor standing | Busbar loading, door sag, arc-flash requirements | 1.5–3 mm frame, bolted or welded, IP54 | Low voltage distribution cabinets |
| Battery, PCS, EV charger, inverter | Heat, and a cabinet that becomes a fire load | 2–3 mm, forced ventilation or heat exchanger | Enclosure thermal management |
| Washdown with high-pressure hose | Water forced past the gasket | Sealed to IP66 with a tested gasket design | IP66 enclosures |
How a project runs
| Step | What happens | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Drawing review | Your files are read for manufacturability; anything tight, missing or ambiguous is listed | A question list and a quotation with the intended process route |
| 2. Sample or first article | Built at the agreed revision and measured against the drawing | The part plus a first-article dimensional report |
| 3. Batch production | The frozen revision runs on the same equipment as the sample, with in-process checks | Production to the same inspection plan |
| 4. Finishing | Coating applied with the masking your drawing defines, so threads and mating faces stay clean | Finish to specification |
| 5. Inspection and packing | Outgoing inspection recorded; packed to the agreed specification | Inspection record and packing photographs |
| 6. Repeat orders | Same route, same inspection plan, same packing. A revision change is treated as a new first article | A repeat order that matches the first one |
Materials, thickness and what we actually run
| Material | Grades | Thickness range | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mild / cold rolled steel | SPCC, SPHC | 0.5–18 mm | Indoor cabinets, distribution boxes, cost-driven volume work |
| Stainless steel | 304, 316, 430 | 0.5–15 mm | Food, chemical, coastal, medical, appearance parts |
| Aluminium | 5052, 5754, 6061 | 0.5–10 mm | Lightweight housings, heat-sensitive equipment |
In the shop: three laser cutting machines, four 250-tonne CNC press brakes with a 3,000 mm bed, ten welding stations and four production lines. Laser tolerance is held to ±0.05 mm on simple profiles. Brushing and mirror polishing run in our own workshop. Anodising, passivation, electropolishing, plating and powder coating are routed to audited partner lines that we specify and inspect.
Surface finish, and which ones we run ourselves
| Finish | Where it runs | Notes for enclosure work |
|---|---|---|
| Powder coating | Audited partner line | Mask threads, mating faces and earth points before coating |
| Brushed (grain direction) | In-house | Agree grit and grain direction on a sample panel before production |
| Mirror polishing | In-house | Used on stainless fascia and trim |
| Passivation | Audited partner line | For stainless after welding; specification confirmed at quotation |
| Anodising (Type II / III) | Audited partner line | Aluminium only; the film is insulating, so earth paths need masking |
| Plating | Audited partner line | We quote it least often on enclosures; usually for a contact face, not a body |
We do not own the anodising, plating or coating lines. We say so up front, because finding out at the factory audit is worse than reading it here.
What we can measure, and what we cannot
Dimensional inspection records are issued with the first article: the features the drawing calls out, measured with calibrated hand instruments and recorded. We do not run a coordinate measuring machine, so a drawing whose acceptance depends on CMM-verified geometric tolerance should be discussed before we quote — we will tell you honestly whether we can hold it.
Our quality system is documented to ISO 9001. We do not hold a third-party ISO 9001 certificate and do not claim one. What we can show instead is third-party audit evidence: TÜV Rheinland reference MIC-ASI243729 and Bureau Veritas reference MIC-ASR263630, available for buyer review under NDA.
Safety, EMC and ingress approval apply to the finished equipment, not to the metalwork alone. That testing is arranged by you or the certification body, on the complete product.
Lead times
| Stage | Typical |
|---|---|
| Simple sample (laser cut and bent, no coating trial) | 3–7 days |
| Complex first article (welded frames, multi-part, hardware sourcing, coating trial) | 15–20 days |
| Production batch | 25–35 days, quoted after drawing review |
Freight is quoted separately to your destination port. We keep production time and shipping time on separate lines so the number you are comparing is the one you control.
Related reading
Medical device enclosure guides
- Medical device enclosure materials: 304, 316 and 5052
- Medical enclosure cleanability: the seven features that fail
- Medical electronics enclosures and EMC shielding
- Medical device enclosures in low volume
- Diagnostic equipment enclosures
- Medical carts and stands: what the ward demands
- Electrical enclosure manufacturer for industrial and outdoor applications
- Custom metal enclosure manufacturing
- Custom electrical distribution box enclosures
- Industrial control cabinets
- Energy storage battery cabinet enclosures
- Outdoor equipment cabinet fabrication
- Sheet metal server cabinet fabrication
- Telecommunication equipment cabinet fabrication
- SPCC vs stainless steel vs aluminium for electrical cabinets
- Bolted vs welded enclosures
- Standard enclosure size platform, or design from scratch?
- Common DFM problems in custom enclosure projects
- RFQ checklist for overseas enclosure buyers
- Outdoor enclosure material, coating and IP rating guide
- Quality inspection checklist for sheet metal enclosures
- Export packaging guide for cabinets and enclosures
Frequently asked questions
More enclosure and cabinet guides
- Electrical enclosures and cabinets: choose by what kills the enclosure
- Weatherproof electrical enclosures: where the water actually gets in
- Stainless steel electrical enclosures: 304, 316 and 430 by environment
- Wall-mount electrical enclosures: panel bow, door sag, wiring space
- Low voltage distribution cabinets: what we build and what we do not
- Enclosure thermal management: sealing and heat are opposites
- IP66 enclosures: what the rating tests and what it does not
- Custom electrical cabinet manufacturing in China: what to expect
What is your minimum order quantity for a custom electrical cabinet?
There is no single number, because it depends on the process route. Small bent parts usually start around 1,000 pieces; larger cabinets and enclosures commonly start from 10 or 50 pieces depending on size, coating and packaging. Send the drawing and the quantity and we will tell you which applies.
Can you build to our existing enclosure design, or do you only work from your own?
We work from your drawing only. Send STEP, DWG, DXF, PDF or a SolidWorks file with quantity, material, thickness, finish, tolerance, assembly and packaging requirements. If something is missing, we raise it as a question rather than guessing.
Do you supply the electrical components inside the cabinet?
We install hardware you specify — DIN rail, locks, hinges, mounting plates, fans, filters, cable glands — and we can source common items. We do not do electrical wiring, PCB assembly or the certification of the finished equipment.
What IP rating can you reach?
IP54 to IP66, depending on the sealing design and the gasket. IP66 is achievable on welded and bolted designs when the seal is drawn in rather than added at the end. We will tell you what the design you sent us can hold.
Can you help if we do not have drawings yet?
Partly. We can review a sketch, a photo or a sample part and tell you what we would need to quote. We do not do full product design, but we will flag manufacturability problems early, which is usually where the value is.
Where is the factory, and can we visit?
Beilun District, Ningbo, China — about 40 minutes from downtown Ningbo and close to Ningbo Port. Buyers are welcome to visit, or we can run a live video walkthrough of the cutting, bending, welding and packing areas.
Do you export to our country?
We have quoted buyers in 60+ countries and shipped to more than 30 export markets, including Europe, North America, Japan, Korea and the Middle East. Tell us the destination port and we will quote freight separately.
Send the drawing
Send the drawing with the material, the environment the enclosure lives in, and the finish you have in mind. With complete drawings, simple laser-cut and bent parts are quoted within 24 hours on working days (GMT+8). Complex assemblies take longer, and we confirm a quotation date after the drawing review rather than guess one.