Mounting of Samba series

[john_uk]

I am just designing some equipment, the styling of the device is important. This has lead to the upshot that we want to be able to mount the Samba 7 inch  PLC from the back of the enclosure rather than the front. Has anyone done this successfully? How did you design the mounts fittings?  The options for materials / manufacture are sheet aluminium or injection mould. Ideally we want to go with bent sheet material as that will help with EMC shielding. 

[Ausman]

In cases like this it is always a toss up for me as to whether to do sheet metal myself or do a CAD for laser cutting, as even doing one-offs it is sometimes better and easier to do a CAD file that I send to the laser guys.

However, it sounds like you are not doing a one-off, so I'd be doing it in properly done metal, with appropriate cutouts for connections etc.  You may find that your sheetmetal shop even has correct dies for doing rounded edge punchthroughs for connection holes etc.   So a little time spent in discussion with a well equipped shop might lead to a far superior, much nicer looking, much better to use and likely far cheaper in the long run product.  Another important point is rigidity of the standoff legs etc. so that there is no exacerbated vibration of the plc.

cheers,

Aus

[Joe Tauser]

Don't design something you can't service while the machine is on.  You'll regret it, or your field techs will hate you.  You have to be able to get to the wiring while it's running.

If I'm using a standard enclosure the manufacturer usually offers a flying hinged subpanel kit.  I order one smaller than the one I'm using and mount it with standoffs.  If you have a machine shop you can easily replicate this functionality.

Joe T.