by Protolabs One of the first choices when designing an enclosure for electrical or electronic equipment is the material to use. For light-duty applications indoors, the choice is often plastic, but when the environment is harsher, electromagnetic shielding is needed, etc. metal is the clear choice. But what metal? The traditional choices are aluminum, carbon […]
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Choosing the Right Manufacturing Method for your Electronics Enclosure
by Protolabs You’ve designed a new electronic product. You’ve completed the functional design, and everything works as intended. Now it’s time to design the enclosure. But this brings up a couple of fundamental questions. How will you manufacture it? And what materials will you use? Let’s consider the materials first. The most basic choice is […]
A Toolkit for Customizing Your Parts with Digital Manufacturing
by Lora Osborn, Injection Molding Manager, Protolabs In today’s highly-competitive marketplace, good design can help a product stand out from its competitors. A product made from off-the-shelf components is at a disadvantage. But customization is expensive. There are costs for design, development, tooling, testing — and on and on. So, is customization worth it? In […]
Digital Manufacturing for all Industries
DEVELOPMENT SPEED and a well-designed, user-centric final product are critical to the success of companies launching consumer and computer electronic products and devices to different markets. Technology-enabled manufacturing processes can accelerate design cycles, lower development costs, and help support more SKUs and product customization that consumers now demand. From airplanes to automobiles to hospitals, electronics […]
Choosing a sheet metal finish
Perhaps the first thing to ask oneself when specifying or designing a sheet-metal item is whether a finish is actually needed. If the item is made of stainless steel, it probably will not need a coating to protect it from corrosion, and a brushed, bright, or even mirror finish may be acceptable appearance-wise. Aluminum, brass, […]
Design begins with definition
Designing anything begins with definition — deciding what it should do. That should go without saying, but sometimes we get so involved with details that we can lose sight of the purpose of a project. A case in point is injection molding; there are so many variables, so many attributes to choose from, and so […]
There’s more to CNC machining than the model
The scenario is familiar: a designer comes up with an idea for a product — a consumer device, part of a military system, a vehicle, etc. After some refinement, the next step is the detailed design and creation of a prototype. Engineers then generate CAD models for all the parts of the new product and […]
Injection molding, 3D printing take their places in digital manufacturing
In the context of all the buzz around 3D printing, the term “injection molding” may sound like a ho-hum and low-tech term. However, depending upon your design requirements, there is an important place for both processes and 3D printing (additive manufacturing) is not poised to take over injection molding any time soon. Although 3D printing […]
Additive manufacturing: To do or not to DIY 3D printing
As 3D printers become more ubiquitous and less costly, the idea of DIY 3D printing or additive manufacturing — for product development, prototyping and manufacturing — becomes increasingly attractive. Images and videos abound of shiny and sophisticated 21st-century industrial machinery creating a solid product from thin layers upon thin layers of material in succession bringing […]
Key design considerations for sheet metal enclosures
Even the simplest of electronic products need to be enclosed somehow. Additionally, having a basic understanding of how electronics enclosures are fabricated can go a long way to a more successful overall design and positive end-user experience. While there are electronic products that are more suitable for plastic enclosures, sheet metal electronic enclosures have the […]
