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Home
> Custom Project Examples.
Follows are just a few of the many custom designs we have
implemented and manufactured. These examples highlight our
capabilities as well as provide examples for future projects
for other clients. Chassis Plans' engineers have been providing
innovative solutions to industry since 1985 and are conversant
in all aspects of design and agency certification. We have
provided simple sheet metal boxes through highly complex
ship-board Navy certified designs and telco Nebs certified
systems. Please visit our web page which details our design
philosophy and the steps involved in bringing a design
to market.
From prototype to production Chassis
Plans prides itself on quality rackmount enclosures. For turnkey
projects or specialized engineering services, Chassis Plans
understands how to overcome the technical challenges involved
in converting innovative concepts into successful, timely
products.
Our design philosophy is
to provide exceptionally engineered, cost effective industrial
computers at a competitive price. Chassis Plans provides
a turnkey solution for custom industrial rackmount systems,
allowing clients to have quality industrial chassis with minimal
investment in time or money.
Technically
sophisticated
Incredibly
well documented
Note that some of the examples provide E-drawings. These
are executable files generated by Solidworks. They do not
install anything on your system and can be completely removed
by deleting the .exe file. They are virus free. These E-drawings
give you the same control over the model - rotate, hide surfaces,
etc - that Solidworks offers, but without the ability to edit.
A customer required a light weight 1U LCD Display /
Keyboard to fit in a Hartig travel case. The requirement
was a weight less than 22 pounds and an installed depth
less than 20 inches. Chassis Plans exceeded the design
requirement by producing a keyboard weighing 19.6 lbs
with an installed depth of 19 inches. There is no lighter
or shorter keyboard on the market with these features. |
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A major supplier of battlefield qualified systems required
a continued supply of the Appro 4408 chassis which Appro
no longer offered. The specification from their military
customer did not allow for another chassis to be substituted.
Chassis Plans exactly reproduced the Appro 4408 chassis
dimensionally and functionally. The chassis looks exactly
the same. Turn around time on the project was a short
5 weeks. |
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A large highly respected manufacturer of chip manufacturing
equipment required a very custom rackmount system. A
limiting factor was a depth limit of 16.63" and
the I/O had to be accessible at the front. An Intel
EATX Dual Xeon Server Board fits and provides 1 I/O
slot. A hard drive and 1U power supply are included.
Seven high flow 40x38mm fans cool the system. Chassis
Plans provides totally integrated systems.
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In conjunction with the 1U system shown above, the customer
also required a 2U chassis of similar construction.
A limiting factor was a depth limit of 16.63" and
the I/O had to be accessible at the front. An Intel
EATX Server Board fits and provides 2 I/O slots. A hard
drive, slim CD and 2U power supply are included. Three
high flow 80mm fans cool the system. Chassis Plans provides
totally integrated systems.
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A leading company in audio noise control for broadcast
and film required a quantity of small, light 4U enclosures
for mounting in a Hartig portable case. We modified
our standard C3Chassis
to exactly meet their requirements. Modifications included
an aluminum construction instead of steel for lighter
weight, low noise fans, modified rear panel including
BNC connectors, modified drive bay area, customer specific
paint and logo.
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An aerospace company needed a 1U chassis to hold 2 removable
SCSI drives or a mix of removable drives and tape drives.
The chassis had to be 16 inches deep and 16.75 inches
wide which precluded an off-the-shelf solution. Good
cooling was required.
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A defense contractor required a large quantity of "flight
line proof" rackmount keyboard/LDCs. They liked
the features of the CPS217 but had special ruggedization
requirements. Chassis Plans was able to modify the standard
CPS217 to include:
Mag-Floride coated protective glass over the LCD
Aluminum construction instead of steal
Special Cherry keyboard w/ touch pad
Shortened length for installation in a Hartig case
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In the winter they build ice roads. You can't drive
to the oil wells in the summer because the tundra is
too soft. This international oil services company needed
a chassis that would survive continuous bouncing and
banging in the back of the data logging truck as they
drove on these ice roads. Hard to get parts in the middle
of Winter in the far North oil country when your computer
gets bounced to death.
Chassis Plans created what has to be one of the most
rugged chassis every built. Each of the drive trays
is held by four thumb screws, two in front and two in
back. Five SCSI drives are arrayed behind the air filter
for good cooling. A card hold-down is tailored to the
installed cards. Special zero backlash slides are used.
All stainless steel hardware was installed for harsh
high salinity environments. Color matching was provided
as well as a standard silk screen with the company's
logo. Strict depth and front panel requirements were
met to comply with the customer's specification. Chassis
Plans was able to create an enclosure that will accommodate
their needs for years to come. |
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After designing and producing a large quantity of the
5U chassis shown above, the customer required the same
chassis features in a 4U enclosure. The resulting design
is identical in all regards in a smaller package.
See
the 3D E-drawing! |
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Spawar came to Chassis Plans to design a Mil Spec
chassis that would be light, extremely rugged, adaptable,
and able to satisfy the rigorous shock and vibration
specification in 901D. The "Rock" was the
result.
This is an aluminum and stainless enclosure providing
redundant power, 4 5.25" external drives, 2 3.5"
external drives, and 2 internal 3.5" drives.
Both Intel and Sun motherboards can be accommodated.
The chassis passed Mil Spec 901D (Barge
Test). If you are not familiar with the Barge
Test, go here
for some entertaining film footage.
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The DOD required a robust
20-slot chassis for use in remote locations world-wide.
Critical performance issues had to be met. The system
had to be easy to install and maintain with minimal
MTTR. A defined drive mix as well as depth issues
precluded using an off-the-shelf solution.
Chassis Plans successfully met the design challenge
offering an innovative solution with a swing-down and
removable drive/power supply sub chassis. This approach
greatly simplified initial integration and on-site service.
The top section accommodates any 20-slot backplane offering
20 full slots with great cooling for the installed high
power cards. |
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Chassis Plans was approached by an arcade game manufacturer
to provide a ruggedized PC chassis able to fit existing
game cabinets and to survive the abuse and transportation
loads imposed on these cabinets. Microsoft and Intel
were supporting the Arcade PC initiate to use simple
PC components for arcade games instead of the historically
used dedicated boards. The problem was office type computers
were failing. See ArcadePC
Drop for a graphic example of what this system can
survive.
The resulting design was the first single-sided arcade
chassis allowing access to all I/O and drives from
the same side. The chassis can be supplied with shock
mounts tailored to the specific application.
Variations of the original design have now been installed
is such diverse applications as ATMs and kiosks, lumber
mill saw control where constant vibrations and shocks
were killing other systems, chip testing systems where
cooling fan vibration is an issue, public transportation.
This design is perfect for any application which requires
an easy to service yet rugged shock and vibration resistant
design. Shock mounting the entire system is the only
way to assure component survivability. See our White
Paper on Shock and Vibration. |
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The customer, a large multinational printing press manufacturer,
needed to replace an existing card cage with a newer
model. The backplane had changed and his offshore supplier
was not able to adapt in a timely manner. The customer
also wanted to incorporate some additional features.
Chassis Plans was able to create full documentation
in 2 weeks and provide prototype system 2 weeks after
that.
See
the 3D E-drawing! |
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With the US not having a President for several weeks
due to hanging chad, the Government has provided funds
to modernize the voting process. The Government's goal
is computerized voting for all elections. In conjunction
with several partners, Chassis Plans developed a small,
light weight system to control the LCD panel, touch
screen, printer, and provide network and WIFI interface.
This compact computer was 1/4 the weight and 1/3 the
size of the competition
Included inside the 6"x4-3/4"x2.5" chassis
is an 800MHz Via board, 2-1/2" hard drive, PCMCIA
WIFI controller and flash drive. Total system weight
is 1-1/2lbs.
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This embedded 1U network appliance was developed to
maintain the continuous flow of legitimate customer
traffic during a Denial of Service attack as well as
minimize the time network engineers spent on labor-intensive
manual investigations. The customer was unable to find
an off the shelf product that offered the required appearance
and features. The design incorporated high airflow to
cool the motherboard as well as a front panel LCD display
for system status. |
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Network Perimeter Policing is the comprehensive real-time
monitoring and interpretation of important system events
throughout a customer's network, including unauthorized
behavior, malicious hacks and denials of service (DoS),
anomalies and trend analysis. The customer required
a simple 1U chassis, no external drives, and a defined
front panel connector scheme. Chassis Plans was able
to quickly develop a chassis which exceeded all the
customer expectations.
See
the 3D E-drawing! |
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The customer had been purchasing another chassis which
went end-of-life. The application is for complex operator
simulators for the military, bus drivers, police drivers,
etc. The chassis had to look good, provide limited access
to the drives and controls, and adequately cool the
image generator boards and motherboard.
See
the 3D E-drawing! |
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The client was looking for a Digital Video Recorder
(DVR) system for motel security. The system needed
to be unobtrusive, secure and tamper proof. He wanted
just "another box on the wall".
The result was the W05 Wall Mount Enclosure. Designed
for installation in an equipment closet or on the
factory floor, the W05 offers a PC in a box. Doesn't
look like a PC but will accept a standard ATX motherboard
and provides a floppy, CD and up to 4 hard drives.
The door locks and engages the top cover which protects
the plug in cards' connectors from tampering.
The W05 is the perfect solution for a telephony system,
security or premises monitor, DVR, process controller,
etc. |
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A relatively simple custom chassis. Standard 4U design
with three horizontal 5-1/4" drives. The client
wanted additional cooling for the hard drives in addition
to their own look. The end product was powder coated
over the entire exterior and had a complex logo silk
screened to the door. |
 
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The customer needed a high performance motherboard with
sufficient cooling for the dual processors. The three
plug-in PCI cards were accommodated using a riser card
which provided the proper PCI interrupt parsing. In
addition, the chassis had no front accessible drives
and dual SCSI hard drives in a mirror arrangement. Of
course, custom paint and logo were provided. |
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The client required a minimal depth 4U chassis with
good cooling, filtered air, and no locks. Having control
over the manufacturing and having a domestic source
were important. The resultant design was constructed
of 16 gage CRS, was only 16.5" deep, and is fully
revision controlled for consistency. The chassis is
gold zinc while the front panel is painted. The lid
is secured by only two screws for quick removal. |
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The customer manufactured
a film editing head. The target market was film dailys
where the day's filming was proofed. A highly custom
retro look was required as well as a proprietary rear
panel for the many required connectors and cables.
The resulting design is very attractive, provides
a small color LCD display, is well cooled and provides
ample fixed and removable data storage. Many custom
non-PC boards are mounted inside the enclosure.
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The primary requirement was for a non-Taiwanese appearance.
While the Taiwanese manufacture many fine chassis,
it becomes hard to differentiate your product because
they all look the same. This customer wanted a highly
unique "made in the USA" appearance. Chassis
Plans was able to modify a standard product line to
provide this customer with a chassis look not found
elsewhere. |
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This was a tough custom design. The initial requirement
was to fit a chassis to a 21" telco rack, but have
the design be able to also fit a 19" rack. The
motherboard was a massive EATX dual Xeon server class
board. Because this was a NEBS certified central office
application, the system, including the massive processors,
had to be ruggedly constructed to satisfy the seismic
requirements of NEBS. Five external NIC connectors had
to be available at the front panel.
The resulting design met all the customer requirements.
It is NEBS compliant in all regards, fits both 19 and 21 inch racks,
and is rugged enough to pass all seismic and transportation
spectra when fully populated. Many application specific
features were built into the chassis. |
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The customer was purchasing a chassis from a domestic
supplier. The design was poor, the doors did not open
completely, and the quality was poor. The customer was
also having delivery problems. However, because of customer
commitments, they could not switch to a different chassis.
Chassis Plans provided a chassis that looked the same
but worked. The quality of the metal work was significantly
better, the doors opened all the way, and the chassis
had a much better look and finish. Not rocket science,
but this simple chassis allowed the customer to keep
several major customers. |
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This custom 4U enclosure was created to house two separate
computers with independent single board computers and
custom backplanes. Chassis Plans worked closely with
the customer's engineering staff and other partners
to create an enclosure to withstand high RF frequencies.
The resulting design meets CE for susceptibility in
high RF environments. The independent backplane chassis
can be swapped in case of failure for a very low MTTR.
This is another design which is highly customer specific
that can not be satisfied by any off the shelf solution. |
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To stand out in the crowded Internet server arena,
this customer needed a bold appearance. Budget constraints
precluded using plastic. The result was a highly effective
front panel design that was low cost but provided good
functionality.
The chassis provides a 20 slot passive backplane, redundant
power supply, 6 hot swap hard drives and two 5-1/4"
drives. Cooling is provided by four hot swap 4.7"
fans and one hot swap blower.
A tower conversion kit was designed for floor mounting.
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