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Home
> Design Philosophy
Chassis Plans' design philosophy is to provide exceptionally
engineered, cost effective industrial computers at a
competitive price. Chassis Plans provides turnkey
solutions of custom industrial rackmount systems, allowing
clients to have quality industrial chassis with minimal
investment in time or money.
- On-time
- On-budget
- Technically sophisticated
- Turn Key
- Incredibly well documented
Chassis Plans' designs are superior to any others on the
market. We've been doing this since 1985 and have
designed more systems than any other design team. We offer
no unnecessary fluff. Features are often added to
others chassis to inflate the system specifications, not
because it improves the design. Many of these features
are of questionable benefit and several are actually detrimental.
As required, features can easily be added to our chassis
designs to include system monitors, speaker amplifiers,
and shock mount drives. Real features, signs of excellent
design talent, such as hidden hinges, two-screw lid removal,
adaptability, door and seam overlaps, safety/emission
compliance, front accessible filters, cooling analysis,
low cost, serviceability, and just plain good looks are
standard with all Chassis Plans' designs. See our White
Papers on cooling and noise, shock and vibration,
and others for some additional design background.
Chassis Plans' designs are cost effective. We are
dedicated to specifying, engineering, manufacturing and
integrating the products that fit your budget and standards,
providing reliability, during and after the sale. Whether
you need a turnkey solution or specialized design, Chassis
Plans will meet the excellence you demand for your products.
All components such as fans, power supplies, drive cages,
etc., are easily accessible for quick removal and repair.
All purchased components have short lead times and the
designs are easily modified to suit customer component
requirements (handles, locks, etc.).
Chassis Plans' fast response time and skill will help
make your ideas and requirements a reality. From idea,
to prototype, testing and large production runs, we are
your industrial computer source. Testing for agency
approvals such as CE, UL, MIL Spec and FCC can all be
handled by our staff. Chassis Plans' designs are guaranteed
to be error free and to meet commercial agency certification
requirements.
So what's involved in manufacturing a custom enclosure?
It's just a metal enclosure right?
Chassis Plans Manufacturing Documentation Package provides
a highly detailed set of drawings and other information
required to fabricate manufactured parts, purchase components,
and assemble a high quality industrial chassis. There
are no short cuts; all these steps are required.
Depending on many criteria including design complexity,
prior art, and lead time, a design may be done in Autocad
or in Solidworks. Both packages have advantages and disadvantages.
The end result, however, is a highly documented design
that is easy to manufacture and is highly sustainable.
The Customer Proposal Drawing
The first step is to communicate with the customer what
we think they want. The customer drawing is a quick but
detailed representation as to what the chassis will look
like and how everything goes together. The drawing is
accurately scaled and pretty well detailed. This assures
both us and the customer that all the parts will fit,
there is adequate cooling, and the product appearance
is what is desired.
The Model
The engineer constructs a completely detailed 3D model
or layout of the desired chassis in either Autocad or
Solidworks. In Solidworks, this is a true 3D solid drawing.
In the case of Autocad, a 2D orthographic representation
is created. Each of the parts of the chassis is drawn
on it's own layer so that any fit and interference problems
can be determined. Click here
for a self-viewing Solidworks example. (Please note
this is a large executable file that is generated by Solidworks.
It is virus free and does not install anything on your
hard drive. Deleting the .exe file will completely remove
all traces.) Once the design is finalized and perfect,
each of the component parts is extracted to its own drawing
and detailed as shown below.
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Autocad 2D Orthographic
Layout
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Solidworks Model
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Sheet Metal Detail Drawings
These are accurately scaled CAD drawings providing all
detail and manufacturing information for each fabricated
sheet metal part in a chassis. The drawings are provided
as files to the sheet metal vendor to generate the machine
program. The drawing is also printed to provide inspection
information. Any change to the drawing once released
for production requires a new revision to both the drawing
and the BOM.
Assembly Drawings
An isometric pictorial of each of the subassemblies
and completed chassis shows the relationship of each
of the parts including required hardware. Multiple views
are provided for clarity as required. These drawings
are used by the manufacturing group to assure every
chassis is assembled to the same standard and that "tribal
knowledge" is not required for chassis assembly.
Step-By-Step Assembly Instructions
While a picture is worth a thousand words, detailed
instructions and pictures assure the chassis is correctly
assembled in the least time. These instructions simply
clarify the assembly drawings.
1) Install Fans (item 35) and Fan Guards (item 36)
onto Fan Panel (item 6) using 6-32 x 5/8" Screws
(item 43) secured by 6-32 Nuts (item 44). Note direction
of air flow. Position fans with leads at bottom.
NOTE: Do not over torque nuts as this can break the
fan housing
2) Install Reset Switch (item 31) from front and press
into place. For consistency, install switch so that
pushing on the left side of the switch is the reset
position.
Bill Of Material
A complete listing of each of the fabricated and purchased
parts giving an item number related to the assembly
drawing, description, unique part number, and required
quantity. Special notes are included as required. All
items, both manufactured and purchased, are controlled
by revision.
Source Control Drawings
This is the document used by the purchasing department
to procure purchased components. Included is complete
vendor information with company name, address and phone
numbers. Vendor part numbers are provided. Where applicable,
multiple vendors are listed allowing price shopping
and alternative sources. Known pricing information is
also provided. This guarantees the correct parts are
purchased at competitive prices.
Shop Instructions
Instructions and assumptions the chassis fabricator
should understand. Having this information up front
prevents mistakes and misunderstandings.
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