Circuit board housings for computer server system

Paul Boughton
The rapid production of complex precision components by the manufacturer and supplier of perforated metal, RMIG Group, has helped an international electronic manufacturing services company provide a high quality solution for one of its clients.

The contract to produce 50,000 circuit board housings for an advanced commercial computer server system led RMIG to plan the production on its new Amada EMZ-3610 NT, which enabled rapid manufacture, exceptional quality and high material utilisation to be achieved while also ensuring strict production, delivery and cost controls could be met.

Manufactured from 1.0millimetre thick pre-galvanised steel, each individual PCB housing plate measures 465mm x 265mm and contains more than 1500 individual perforations for ventilation and weight saving together with around 300 special semi-perforated circuit board location notches.
 
In production, the components were produced by RMIG from 1500mm x 2500mm sheet blanks, enabling 25 individual items to be produced from every sheet, using the Amada’s integral ‘sheet save’ feature, which ensured high material utilisation with minimum wastage.

Due to the complexity, volume of perforations and the positional accuracy required for each hole of just 0.1mm, 19 different tools were required to perforate the components to the pattern and specification demanded by the customer. By using the flexible Amada machine, the components were capable of being finish machined in a single pass giving a production rate of 1000 per week.
 
Andrew Wadbrook-McLay, Production Manager with RMIG UK, explained: “This was a challenging component to produce, but is fairly typical of the increasingly tight tolerance, advanced manufacturing contracts that we undertake, as customers appreciate the detailed skills, expertise and manufacturing knowledge we apply to their products to deliver a cost effective, high quality solution.”
 
He added: “As the world largest specialised manufacturer of perforated metal product, the international group resources we have available to us are immense, which enables us to achieve quality standards, production output levels and manufacturing flexibility that clearly appeals to our diverse range of customers.”

RMIG UK