Electronics and audio

Housings, covers and chassis where the metal does three jobs at once: it shields electromagnetically, conducts heat away and holds the geometry stable.

Det som pleier å gå galt

EMC shielding requires electrical contact in the joint — and coating insulates
Heat dissipation through the housing instead of a fan
Flat sealing faces when the enclosure needs an IP rating
Thin walls in compact units, with screw bosses that do not create shrinkage voids
Mass that damps vibration in audio equipment — there, weight is an advantage

Hvorfor støping

A die cast housing is a continuous metal shell with every mounting feature cast in. The alternative — plastic with metallisation, or sheet metal with welded brackets — takes more operations to achieve the same, and the plastic housing must be metallised anyway to shield.

What the industry needs

Housings and covers for instruments, control units and portable equipment. Chassis and mounting frames. Loudspeaker enclosures and casings for audio equipment, including marine audio. Cooling housings where the electronics dissipate heat.

What makes the requirements special

EMC. A continuous metal housing is a Faraday cage. That is the main reason metal enclosures hold their ground against plastic in equipment that must pass an EMC test. But the shielding breaks wherever the housing loses electrical contact with itself, and powder coating insulates. If the housing is to shield, the contact faces must either be masked before coating or machined clean afterwards — and that has to be on the drawing from the start.

Heat. Metal conducts heat out of the enclosure. That can remove the need for a fan, which removes a moving part, a noise and a hole in the enclosure. Aluminium generally conducts heat better than zinc, but the actual value depends on the alloy — we quote figures for the alloys we actually run, not textbook values for pure metal.

Sealing. If the enclosure needs an IP rating, the sealing face must be flat and carry a groove for the gasket. Flatness on a cast face across a larger area is a real challenge: uneven wall thickness causes distortion during cooling. The remedy is either to design an even wall from the start, or to mill the face after casting.

Mass as a function. In audio equipment weight is not a problem — it is the point. A heavy housing damps unwanted vibration in the cabinet. Then zinc is the right material, not a compromise. This is one of the clearest illustrations of why material choice should follow function.

Why we fit

Zinc has almost no Norwegian competition. Very few Norwegian suppliers offer zinc die casting at all. If you need finer detail, thinner walls or mass, the Norwegian field is close to empty.
Machining under the same roof. Sealing faces, contact faces and threaded holes are finished here.
Blasting in house, with coating and anodising managed by us at a sub-supplier.
Short lead times on small series. Electronics volumes are often moderate — that suits our model.

What has to be clarified

We have not published a minimum wall thickness for zinc or aluminium, and we have not published the flatness we can hold on a sealing face. Nor do we run EMC, IP or leak testing in house. If you need documented tightness, it has to be arranged as a separate test.

Produkteksempler fra denne bransjen

Housings and covers

Zinc loudspeaker housing

An enclosing part for audio equipment, die cast in zinc. Here weight is not a compromise — it is the function. A heavy housing damps unwanted vibration, and zinc is the heavier metal.

Electronics and audio

The metal shields, conducts heat away and holds the geometry. At the same time.

Housings, covers, chassis and loudspeaker enclosures in zinc and aluminium. Zinc die casting has almost no Norwegian competition.

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