Posted to News on 8th May 2006, 00:00
Sand cast panels
Aluminium has good temperature stability and excellent fluidity characteristics at casting, enabling the formation of complex three dimensional shapes with tolerances of 0.4mm and wall thicknesses down to 3mm. Such characteristics enable front panels of enclosures to contain the necessary control and instrumentation components without sacrificing style or functionality.
Norse Precision Casting offers a solution to both panel and enclosure design, by sand casting a fast supply of finished parts. Sand casting also offers economic prototypes with the particular advantage in the early stages that design changes to prototypes are relatively easily accommodated, at minimal cost.
On back panels, aluminium can add strength, dissipate heat, or both, without at excessive weight penalty and at little extra overall costs than the additional material. Mounting pads and contact pads to conduct heat away can be cast in whilst inserts such as threads can be set into the material without difficulty.
Specialising in such complex shapes, Norse says the key lies in the pattern making and the ability to produce near net shape, whilst post-cast machining can, if necessary, finish to higher accuracies.
