Custom Chassis & Card Cages
Boards seat properly only when the card guides, backplane rail, and standoffs hold their positions to each other. K-Display makes chassis, subracks, and card cages with guides, rails, and hardware fitted, delivered as loose panels, a joined chassis, or a finished assembly ready for boards.
Holding guide and rail positions through fabrication
A card cage holds boards at a fixed pitch and lines their connectors up with a backplane. The guide slots and the rear backplane rail have to keep their positions to each other through forming, welding, and hardware installation, and rail flatness and guide spacing matter as much as overall squareness.
The same chassis carries standoffs for a separate board, gasket lands that seal a seam, and a ground pad that has to stay bare. Each one has to keep the position the design gave it through forming, welding, and powder coat.
The front and rear rails hold each pair of card guides in position. Their spacing establishes the board pitch, while the backplane mounting keeps connector locations tied to the same cage.
Chassis and card cage parts
- Equipment chassis
- Formed bases, side panels, and removable covers joined into a chassis, with connector cutouts, vents, gasket lands, and mounting features. For chassis that mount in a rack on ears or slides, see Rack-Mount Enclosures.
- Card cages and subracks
- Frames with card guide slots or purchased guides, front and rear rails, and backplane mounting at the board pitch.
- Backplane and module rails
- Rails, brackets, and tie bars that hold the backplane, and the mounting rails and brackets for modules and the power supply within the chassis.
- Front panels and brackets
- Panels for card fronts and bracket sets for fans, drives, and power supplies, cut and formed to fit the chassis.
- Hardware-fitted chassis
- Chassis with standoffs, nuts, and studs installed, finished, and assembled with guides and covers fitted, ready for board installation.
What has to line up when the boards go in
- Board pitch and guide alignment
- Cards bind when the pitch drifts across the cage or the guide slots are not parallel. We hold guide and rail positions to the board pitch or subrack standard the design follows (IEC 60297, IEEE 1101.1), and use a weld fixture where the design needs one.
- Parallelism and flatness
- Slot parallelism and rail flatness decide whether a card seats squarely in its backplane connector. We form and weld to the tolerances the boards need and check guide position and rail flatness on the first assembled cage.
- Guide type and attachment
- Formed slots take their position from forming and welding, while purchased guides take it from where they fasten to the rails. We locate formed slots in the flat pattern, or cut the guide hole pattern into the rails, depending on which the design uses.
- Standoffs and hardware
- Self-clinching hardware seats by sheet material, hardness, thickness, and distance from edges and bends. We check each fastener against the sheet and the nearest bend before cutting, press it in from the face the design needs, and keep connector, ejector, and cable clearances open.
- EMI features and bare surfaces
- Gasket lands, bonded seams, and conductive faces pass current across a joint only while they stay flat and bare. We build the lands, seams, and vent openings as specified and mask bonding and grounding points before powder coat, so those faces stay bare.
Cut, form, weld, fit hardware, and finish
One shop cuts, forms, welds, and finishes the cage, so the board layout sets the weld fixture, the hardware edge distances, and the masking before any panel is cut.
Review the chassis as an assembly
Check the panels, rails, and guide slots against the board layout and connector positions, check hardware edge distance and bend proximity, and confirm hardware, material, and finish together before any part is cut.
Cut, fit hardware, form, and join
Laser cut or punch the panels and press standoffs and nuts where press access allows. Form the flanges, then spot weld or fasten the rails and panels, using a fixture where the design needs one to hold guide and rail positions.
Mask, coat, and fit
Mask ground pads and gasket lands, then powder coat. Hardware is already in, so installation never chips the finish. Guides and covers are fitted last.
Locate the guides from the board layout
Include the board thickness, guide part number and connector position in the same layout. Checking those together gives the fabricator the rail positions and attachment pattern that must survive forming and joining.
A card follows its upper and lower guides toward the backplane connector. Guide position and the rear support must agree, so the board reaches the connector squarely rather than relying on the connector to correct its path.
What the chassis is built from
A chassis drawing or model with the board layout is the full set. A sketch of the panel stack with the board pitch is enough to start.
- Chassis drawing or model
- Panel drawings or a STEP model with material and grade, thickness, bend radii where they matter, cutouts, and position tolerances.
- Board and connector layout
- Board pitch, card guide part numbers or slot dimensions, backplane and connector positions, board thickness, and the modules or power supply carried.
- Hardware, EMI, and finish
- Self-clinching hardware part numbers, gasket and vent panel part numbers, powder coat color and texture, and the surfaces that stay bare.
- Quantities and delivery state
- Quantity, delivery date, and loose panels, a joined chassis, or a chassis with hardware, guides, and covers fitted.