About the manufacturer
Plastic Enclosure Manufacturers Without Molds
Most plastic enclosure manufacturers start with a mold, a die or a printer. Toolless starts with a pre-colored plastic sheet, seven CNC mills and a 13,000 square foot plant north of Seattle, and ships custom enclosures in 1 to 10,000 units without tooling.
Where we fit
How plastic enclosure manufacturers divide up the market.
Enclosure manufacturers fall into three groups. Catalog suppliers sell stock boxes and machine holes in them. Injection molders build a steel tool and produce tens of thousands of identical parts from it. Sheet-based shops like Toolless cut, bend and bond pre-colored plastic sheet into a custom housing with no tool at all, which makes them the practical choice for runs of a few dozen to a few thousand units.
Toolless Plastic Solutions has been a custom enclosure manufacturer in Everett, Washington since 1998, licensed on a process invented in France in 1985 and majority-owned since 2006 by LTP of France, the largest producer of Toolless enclosures in the world. We acquired PEI, a Washington enclosure maker in business since 1993, in 2012.
Evaluating a supplier
Six questions to ask any electronic enclosure manufacturer.
These are the questions our own customers ask on the first call, with the answer we give.
How fast is the first part?
Prototypes in 3 to 21 working days from an approved model, made on the production equipment. Volume releases ship three weeks after PO.
What does tooling cost?
Nothing. There is no mold and no die. Setup charges apply to one- and two-unit orders; production runs carry none.
What happens when the design changes?
The CNC program is edited and the next batch reflects it. Customers make changes between releases on a blanket order as a matter of routine.
What quality system is in place?
ISO 9001:2015, registered through PRI Registrar, with an in-house quality-control lab and inspection before every shipment.
Is finishing done in house?
Yes. Two UV digital printers, engraving, painting, EMI/RFI coating, acrylic windows, inserts, hinges and latches are all done on our floor.
Who am I talking to?
One engineer acts as project manager for your job. The majority of our staff have been with the company for more than ten years.
Inside the plant
What a custom plastic enclosure manufacturing company does with a sheet.
The full ten-step process is on the manufacturing page. Condensed, it runs like this.
Program and machine
The SolidWorks model becomes CNC code. Openings, vents and recesses are milled into the flat sheet on one of seven CNC mills, then the panels are cut to size.
Groove and bend
Edge joints are routed as a modified tongue-and-groove. V-grooves for bends are scored halfway through the sheet on custom table saws, then each panel is folded in a computerized thermal bender.
Insert and bond
Brass inserts are heat-staked into bosses, bosses are installed, and the panels are solvent-bonded into a rigid housing at assembly stations.
Finish, inspect, ship
Printing, engraving, painting, EMI shielding and hardware are applied, and every unit passes the quality lab before it leaves Everett.
Capacity and reach
A plastic enclosure manufacturer that ships beyond Washington.
The plant at 2202 100th St SW in Everett is 20 miles north of Seattle and runs Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm Pacific. From there we supply enclosure companies and OEMs across the United States and export to Canada, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, France and South America. Weekly shipments leave for Australian customers.
Our sister platform, ElectroniCase, gives instant online quotes on standard enclosures for customers who want to size a box themselves. See Toolless International and our facility.
- Equipment
- 7 CNC mills, custom V-groove table saws, computerized thermal benders, assembly stations, 2 UV digital printers, quality-control lab
- Materials stocked
- General-purpose and flame-retardant ABS, Boltaron 4335, polycarbonate, PETG, acrylic; sheet from 2 mm to about 12 mm
- Quantities
- 1 to 10,000 units; ideal from 100 to 10,000; blanket orders 10 to 10,000
- Engineering
- SolidWorks; accepts STEP, IGES, SAT, SolidWorks, STL, DXF; delivers prt, igs, stp, stl, sldprt
- Customers abroad
- 50+ in Canada, 20+ in Australia, plus South Africa, Mexico, France and South America
- Certification
- ISO 9001:2015 (PRI Registrar)
Track record
Five hundred ventilator housings in two weeks.
When Ford's COVID-19 ventilator program needed housings in 2020, Toolless produced 500 units in two weeks, because no tooling stood between the drawing and the first part. In 2023 we built custom enclosures for Amazon's Just Walk Out technology at Lumen Field in Seattle, and since 1994 the plant has supplied medical device makers with housings for surgery rooms, sleep diagnostics and respiratory equipment.
Customers describe the difference on the testimonials page; Halytech, Sensata, Futrex and IMA North America are among them. Project write-ups are in the case studies.
Related
Learn more about the company.
Manufacturing process
All ten steps from CAD file to shipped enclosure, with photos.
Learn moreQuality
How the ISO 9001:2015 system and the quality lab work on every order.
Learn morePEI history
The Washington enclosure maker we acquired in 2012 and what it added.
Learn moreWho we serve
The industries and product types that come through the plant.
Learn moreWhere are the enclosures made?
Everything is designed and manufactured at our 13,000 square foot plant at 2202 100th St SW, Everett, Washington, 20 miles north of Seattle. Engineering, CNC machining, bending, bonding, printing and inspection all happen on the same floor.
Is Toolless a good fit for a prototype-only project?
It can be, with one caveat. Our pricing is built around repeat production, and a prototype is most valuable when it is made by the process that will build the production units. If Toolless will also make your production run, prototyping here is the ideal path. Low-volume production is welcome.
How many units can you produce?
Runs of 1 to 10,000 units. The process is ideal between 100 and 10,000, and blanket orders of 10 to 10,000 units release three weeks after each PO. One or two units are possible with a setup charge.
Do you ship outside the United States?
Yes. We have more than 50 customers in Canada, more than 20 in Australia with weekly shipments, and customers in South Africa, Mexico, France and South America.
Start your enclosure
Send the board. We’ll send the box.
Quotes come from an engineer, not a form robot. Attach CAD, photos or a sketch and we reply within one business day.