Toolless Custom Design Enclosure Process

Design Services for your Custom Design Enclosure Project

With Toolless Plastic Solutions, getting your custom design enclosure is smooth and effortless. Your project is in good hands with over 25 years of experience from our team. We can divide the process into 5 main steps: Project, Quoting, Ordering, Production, and Arrival. Follow the cogs of our machine as it flows down–working together–to provide you with a custom design enclosure.

1. YOU HAVE A PROJECT:

When it comes to electronic circuit boards, our customers have many projects that they could need an enclosure for. The applications we work for are numerous. However, most of the time, we deal with preliminary projects. Our customers may have a rough idea of what they need. They certainly have a good idea of what goes inside the enclosure, but no idea how to make a plastic case around it. Thanks to our quick RFQ forms, there is no need to go into too many details of size, the number of holes, standoffs, or printing. However, if you do have detailed drawings, you can use the same RFQ form, to give you more design options and help through the quoting process below.

We receive a lot of requests from inventors that need a raspberry pi case, just to house the Pi and show their branding on it. We also receive requests for single boards, multiple boards, LCD screen panels, and more. Our capabilities even extend to being able to redesign off-the-shelf enclosures. This accommodates new sizes for customers that have used standard enclosures for a long period of time. They may have thought the only way to make a box was to either buy a standard enclosure or go with injection molding. With Toolless, they have an effective solution that does not require a mold and provides them with the custom design they’re looking for. 

2. QUOTING PROCESS:

The journey progresses with whatever a customer can provide. Some of the time, our customers just have a circuit board that they need housing for. We’ve had customers come to us at various points in their thought process. Anywhere from a quick draft on a napkin to a very sophisticated dimensioned drawing.

What all our customers have in common is that they are looking for a custom design enclosure. They may not be familiar with our process, and often want to know how much it costs. Pricing can vary depending on the quantities, the complexity of the custom design, and the branding. But Toolless offers a cost-effective solution for your custom design enclosure, with no MOQ. In fact, we can simply run a prototype, which could help to test your market and anticipate any future needs. You can also run as low as 5 or 10 units. Keep in mind that the initial investment is low: no minimum order quantity and no tooling cost.

Custom Design Enclosure


3. CUSTOMER PLACES THE PURCHASE ORDER:

Once the quote is received, the customer can decide to place a purchase order. We try to make this process easy for our customers. We actually deal with a lot of different actors: purchase managers, supply chains, business owners, or even one person making their own project in their garage. A credit card is sufficient to pull the trigger on building a prototype, and we can evaluate terms for production.

Once the PO is placed, we input it in our ERP Systems, check thoroughly quantity and pricing and hand it to our designers for what we call “Re-print”. All these operations are controlled according to our QMS system.

The prototype phase requires some design back and forth between our customers and our designers. This is our procedure to send a complete set of 3D models to our customers for approval. It might take a few days before you get a 3D model but be sure that our designers are working on it.

2 cases scenarios come with releases of a production run.

  • Release with modification: In that case, the designers need to sign off on a modification before releasing the shop traveler to the workshop.
  • Release with no modification: The shop traveler is simply reprinted by implementing the sales order accordingly.
Custom Design Enclosure

4. PRODUCTION OF A PROTOTYPE OR MULTIPLE UNITS:

As per this page, we do have a 10-step process in place to fulfill your order. This consists of milling (CNC Machine), sawing (saw table), Faceting (Chamfer, rounding), bending, printing (Digital printer), assembling, and shipping.

CNC Machines

We have 7 CNC machines which we use to rout the plastic to give it the first shape. Milling will also cut holes, hog-outs, slots, ventilation slots, and other features proper to CNC routing. This is the most crucial, and sometimes most time-consuming procedure.

Saw Tables

We have three saw tables. The saw is a unique Toolless process. We noticed that we could accelerate production by using saw blades instead of the endmills in CNC. We usually go from 10mm/s to 33mm/sec which speeds up drastically our production time. Like CNC, saw blades come in different shapes and thicknesses, which allows for multiple functions.

Facet machines

Our 2 Fact Machines use a combination of CNC milling and sawing. It is also kind of a unique process to speed up some rounding and chamfers that could take some time on the CNC and makes us flip over the part. Quality is also better on the facet machines and less offset than on CNC.

Bending

For a long time, we have used an old bender that came from France. However, recently, we have upgraded to much more powerful machines, and intend to buy a couple more to substitute the other one. We currently have four bending machines at our disposal.

Printing

We use a European UV printer that cures the ink on plastic. Fast, efficient, and effortless. The large printer bed allows for multiple parts to be printed at one time.

Assembly

Sometimes referred to as collage, which refers to the French process of bonding the plastic together. Assembly is our main process, which needs to be monitored and follow strict procedures to get a quality product. This is where the puzzle comes together. All the parts are stocked in a specific area and we build the puzzle here. Starting with 1 setup unit that gets approved by our design team. We have the capacity to make a large range of enclosures, from 5 to thousands.

Shipping / Inspection

Following our QMS, this area is one of the most important of all. Also following specific procedures of packaging and inspecting, we can ship up to 1000 units a day.

Custom Design Enclosure

5. LEAD TIME/ PARTS TO DOCK

A general guide line for shipping ETA is as follow:

  • Prototype: Between 5 days to 3 weeks depending on complexity and designers availability
  • Production run: between 3 to 6 weeks depending on loading capacity at the time of the order.

This is just a guideline. We actually can make a prototype in less than 5 days, above all if a trade show is on the line. Toolless is an easy company to work with. Our lead times is yours and we try to be flexible and make arrangement to meet with your deadline.

TOOLLESS, ALWAYS ONE STEP AHEAD.

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