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The aluminium enclosure

A project log for City Air Quality

Developing hardware to track and assert the air quality in a city based on IOT topology.

radu-motisanRadu Motisan 05/14/2017 at 12:593 Comments

To finalise this product I had to design an enclosure and I opted for anodised aluminium profiles. These can be cut to various lengths to match the PCB, you just need to make sure that the other sizes fit. Luckily the manufacturers offer a large set of profiles to choose from, and I was able to find one that matches the height of the sensors, but also gives some space at the bottom where the copper sockets are soldered, protruding the PCB limit.

Using the existing profile as a starting point, I had to identify PCB position and sensor sizes to do the holes, logos, and other silkprint elements. I opted for a black anodised aluminium finish with a white silkprint. As the design includes an air pump, holes for air intake and exhaust where added:

Due to the shape of the PCB, the width of the aluminium profile became the length of final enclosure. This was sent to the factory for machine processing, mainly cutting and cnc milling. About 2 weeks later, the first enclosures were ready:

These came out very nicely, and exceeded my initial expectations. The thickness of the aluminium and the proportions of the box give a nice overall feel to this product.

Discussions

Radu Motisan wrote 06/26/2017 at 07:52 point

Thanks guys, glad you like the enclosure. Must say I was also very happy with the thick aluminium case, it gives a feeling of a good quality product, not to mention the strength it provides. The manufacturer is Yonggu, they are one of the factories I work with. They are a bit more expensive, but have a good quality. Should you need a contact there, let me know.

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Andrew Bolin wrote 06/21/2017 at 01:21 point

I'd also like to know where you got the case from, it looks great.

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Owen Phillips wrote 06/20/2017 at 00:34 point

I love this design! I'd like to try using it in my project - Where did you buy the aluminum from? Who did your machining?

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