On 8/29/2006, Ian Gordon wrote:
We are hoping to move from metal to coated ABS enclosures for various products as these provide a significant cost saving. Thus I would welcome any comments as to how to ensure that the coated ABS versions are as resilient from an EMC point of view as the metal ones. Hi Ian: There are a lot of challenges associated with coated ABS enclosures, as others have already posted. I have found that often the cost savings is not as great as originally estimated, after all the manufacturing problems are solved to get effective shielding and reliable connections among the various coated pieces. One compromise solution that can sometimes be the most cost effective is to use an uncoated ABS enclosure to achieve the desired external appearance, with some form of internal metal shielding attached to either the chassis or the ABS enclosure. When the metal shielding is inside the enclosure you do not have to be concerned about its aesthetic appearance, so it can be much less expensive than a metal enclosure that is visible to the user. I think this approach can sometimes give you the best of both worlds, with the shielding effectiveness of a genuine metal enclosure and the low cost of an ABS enclosure. If you compare the cost of coating the ABS to the cost of making an inexpensive internal metal shield, you may find that the internal metal shield costs no more than coating the ABS but performs better. Joe Randolph Telecom Design Consultant Randolph Telecom, Inc. 781-721-2848 (USA) [email protected] http://www.randolph-telecom.com <http://www.randolph-telecom.com/> ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________ - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
