Should you develop a custom enclosure or use a standard enclosure?

For many electronic devices, developing a completely bespoke enclosure is not always the most cost-effective solution. A standard enclosure offers many advantages without you having to compromise on individuality.


Advantages of a standard enclosure

• Significantly lower development costs
  A bespoke enclosure must be designed, tested, and often revised multiple times. By contrast, a standard enclosure eliminates much of this development effort and expense.

• Shorter time to market
  Standard enclosures are available immediately. They simply need to be adapted to your application (e.g. by drilling holes, cutting out display openings or applying printing), which often reduces development time by weeks or months.

• Lower project risk
  Standard enclosures have proven their reliability across a wide range of applications. Key characteristics such as mechanical stability, temperature resistance, and protection ratings are well documented and extensively tested.

• Certified protection ratings and materials
  Many standard enclosures are already designed to meet IP54, IP65, IP66 or IP67 standards and are made from tried-and-tested materials such as ABS, polycarbonate, etc. A custom-designed enclosure must first demonstrate these properties.

• Lower tooling costs
  Developing a custom enclosure requires significant tooling and upfront investment. With a standard enclosure, these costs can largely be avoided.

• Cost-effective for small and medium production runs
  For small to medium production runs, a customised standard enclosure is usually more cost-effective than a completely new enclosure.

• Easy customisation
  Standard enclosures can still be customised:
  - CNC machining
  - EMC shielding
  - Printing or laser marking
  - Paint finishes 
  - customised front panels or membrane keyboards

This delivers a customised end product while avoiding the time, cost, and complexity of a completely new enclosure development.

When is it worth having a custom housing?

A completely bespoke enclosure makes sense if:

• Very high production volumes are required (often several thousand to tens of thousands of units)

• no standard enclosure offers the required dimensions or functions

• the enclosure is an integral part of the product design or brand identity

• there are specific mechanical or functional requirements.
  

Conclusion:

A standard housing offers the best balance of cost, development time and quality for many applications. It enables a quick project start, reduces technical risks and can still be customised to suit the product.

A custom enclosure is most appropriate when specific technical requirements or design objectives cannot be met with a standard solution, or when production volumes are sufficient to justify the investment in development and tooling.