How to make an Aluminum PCB Enclosure?

An aluminum PCB enclosure is a type of enclosure specifically designed to house a printed circuit board (PCB) while providing structural support and protection.

Wellste aluminum PCB enclosures are made from aluminum 6063, which offers various advantages such as durability, lightweight construction, excellent heat dissipation, beautiful surface, and so on.

Below is an aluminum PCB enclosure case from Wellste customer’s project for your reference.

Aluminum PCB Enclosure Design phase communication

Date: 4^nd Apr 2020

Today, we received an inquiry from USA, the customer wants a custom aluminum enclosure, since it is still in the design stage, they want a rough quote.

Custom Aluminum Enclosure Preliminary Quotation

The approximate cost for evaluating the mold size is around USD 580. The customer accept the price and would like us to assist with processing, surface treatment, and also provide a aluminum extrusion enclosure cover plate.

We are able to provide all of these services. Typically, for customized aluminum PCB enclosure, we offer a complete set of products, including the cover plate and screw.

The first Custom Aluminum Enclosure sample

As a result, the customer has arranged for an initial sample to be made. This is the sample:

As the client is still in the design stage, the project progress is slow. After sampling, the customer project was put on hold.

Date: 25^nd Mar 2022

The customer’s project was restarted, and the drawings were also modified.

The extruded aluminum enclosure sample needs to be proofed again, and the surface should be painted black.

The second Custom Aluminum Enclosure sample

The customer is satisfied with the anodized aluminum enclosure sample.

However, there is an issue with the PCB assembly – the slot height of 1.4mm is not compatible with the client’s PCB.

The customer would like to modify the slot to a thickness of 1.7mm and asks if we need to open a new mold.

We can try to modify the mold, but there is a 90% chance that it will result in scrap.

We recommend that the customer opening a new mold and send us one of their PCB boards to ensure proper assembly. This will help us ensure a precise fit and avoid any potential issues.

Revised Aluminum PCB Enclosure design

The customer just needed to make a final change to the appearance, so he agreed to re-open the mold. We open the mold again and extruded sample to test.

The third Custom Aluminum Enclosure sample

This time the sample fit the PCB perfectly, but two problems arose:

1. Longitudinal wire drawing appears on the surface

2. When assembled to the aluminum PCB enclosure, the end panels do not fit perfectly.
3. The customer thought it was because the extrusion was 0.2mm shorter on one side than the other.

 In this regard, we can solve the surface problem by adding a polishing process, and we need to try to repair the mold for the installation height problem.

The fourth Custom Aluminum Enclosure sample

We send another sample to customers. After repairing the model sample:

Aluminum PCB Enclosure Feedback

The customer is very satisfied with the surface and assembly of this sample, and will place a large order in the second half of 2023.

Some Thoughts from Wellste

Wellste has a professional technical team that can provide customers with comprehensive technical support and consulting services.

Whether it is design advice, engineering solutions or technical training, they can provide professional assistance.

With Wellste, you can design, manage, and operate your projects like never before.