• • • ENCLOSURES • • • No longer ‘just a box’…
The most significant shift in the industrial enclosure market over recent years has been the demand for increased customisation and fulfilment. From CNC machining to pre-assembled electrical terminals, additional services save the customer time and money, says Chris Lloyd, managing director of Spelsberg UK
T
he most significant change for industrial enclosure manufacturers over the past 10 years has been the requirement to provide
not just the enclosure itself, but a customised, partially complete or even a finished unit. This means that customers, typically OEMs but also end-users, increasingly request components to be assembled by the enclosure manufacturer, providing a product that’s ready – or almost ready - for installation. Driving this trend is the reduction in the time
and cost of labour for the customer. Shifting this aspect of manufacturing production to the enclosure manufacturer also speeds up project completion, meaning faster time to market.
Enclosure assembly
and customisation In addition to providing the actual enclosure, this means that manufacturers are typically requested to fit components such as electrical terminals and cable glands, through to membrane keypads and overlays. Part of the pre-assembly process can also include customisation. Using CNC machining, this can mean drilling specific sizes and locations
of holes for optimal cable routing, through to countersinking and tapping to increase mounting flexibility. Today, the enclosure manufacturer has the skills
and technology that the OEM or end user doesn’t have available in-house, in order to provide customised and assembled units. This increases the accountability demanded from the enclosure manufacturer - instead of sharing it with third-party machinists or fulfilment houses - which improves the speed and reliability of project completion.
The shift to complete
finished products The extent of progression in the one-stop-shop demands placed on current industrial enclosure manufacturers also includes complete finished products that are ready to install. For example, as a result of the rise in electric-powered vehicles, including cars as well as bicycles and scooters, manufacturers like Spelsberg have been tasked to provide OEMs and local and municipal authorities with complete charging units. Spelsberg’s e-bike charging station, the BCS, is a complete battery charging unit, ready for public
installation and use by an e-bike rider. The BCS includes not only a durable IP54/IK08 industrial enclosure, but also the electrical charging sockets, ready for connection direct to a 230/400 V power grid. Providing completed products like an electric battery charging station means close partnership with electronic component specialists, such as PCB designers and manufacturers, as well as wider technology specialists such as mobile app developers. Each BCS unit can be located by an e- bike rider thanks to the connection of a smartphone app. The demand on enclosure manufacturers for
complete products is increasingly seeing a need for wider skills recruitment as well as additional partnerships with new types of suppliers. Manufacturers like Spelsberg are not only investing more in terms of electronic component development and manufacture, but system design is increasingly coming to the fore. Where previously a customer may have presented their design for the enclosure manufacturer to produce, increasingly the customer gives only their challenge or desired outcome, tasking the manufacturer with the design and development of the solution.
26 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • MAY 2022
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
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