Patent Application
20230120027
The present disclosure relates to outdoor enclosures or cabinets suitable for housing electrical components, control systems, and the like.
Electrical power providers, utilities, telephone companies, cable service providers, etc. use outdoor enclosures or cabinets to protect electrical and/or electronic equipment that forms part of their systems or networks and that must be installed outside of buildings. Because of the outdoor installation, these enclosures or cabinets must often provide robust protection for the components in the interior of the enclosure. Such protection may include protection against corrosion, protection against mechanical intrusion, vandalism, earthquakes, protection against electromagnetic interference, etc. Because of the outdoor installation, these enclosures or cabinets must often also provide robust protection from electric and electronic components therein for other equipment and people in the area surrounding the enclosure. Such protection may include protection from electromagnetic emissions, protection against current-carrying parts with dangerous voltages, protective grounding or protective insulation, protection against sparks exiting the enclosure, protection against water and dust intrusion, etc.
Manufacturers produce outdoor enclosures or cabinets from sheet metal, fiberglass, or plastic, depending on the required size and intended application. For certain sizes and applications, outdoor enclosures or cabinets are typically made from sheet metal cut and/or stamped and bent into panels or other parts that are then mechanically joined to one another, for example by spot or linear welding. Welding construction has conventionally been considered the best and/or only solution because of the strict demands on the cabinets, as described above.
Unfortunately, the involved labor and other costs of spot or linear welding can be significant, rendering the produced outdoor enclosures or cabinets too expensive especially in environments where a large fleet of enclosures is to be deployed. The high thermal stresses produced by conventional welding techniques frequently also result in dimensional distortion of the welded parts, which can be highly undesirable.
There is a need in the art for alternatives to extensive welding construction of sheet metal-based outdoor enclosures or cabinets.
The present disclosure provides a metal enclosure made from various parts and configured to be assembled by gluing the various parts together using adhesive without the need for significant welding. Although, the disclosed enclosure does not involve any or at least no significant welding, the enclosure provides weather, dust, electric, and electromagnetic protection/shielding. Moreover, given that adhesive bonding of components is significantly less expensive than welding, the enclosure as disclosed herein may be fabricated at a significantly lesser cost than prior art welded enclosures.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate various example systems, methods, and so on, that illustrate various example embodiments of aspects of the invention. It will be appreciated that the illustrated element boundaries (e.g., boxes, groups of boxes, or other shapes) in the figures represent one example of the boundaries. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that one element may be designed as multiple elements or that multiple elements may be designed as one element. An element shown as an internal component of another element may be implemented as an external component and vice versa. Furthermore, elements may not be drawn to scale.
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In the illustrated embodiment, the top panel 10 has formed thereon overlap flanges 10b, 10c, 10d. Similarly, the bottom panel 12 may have formed thereon overlap flanges 12b, 12c, 12d. In other embodiments, instead of or in addition to the top panel 10 and the bottom panel 12 having formed thereon flanges, the rear panel 4 and the two side panels 6, 8 may have formed thereon overlap flanges. When assembled, flanges 10b, 10c, 10d and flanges 12b, 12c, 12d may overlap corresponding portions of the rear panel 4 and the two side panels 6, 8, thereby providing surfaces for adhesive coupling of the main body 2 to the top panel 10 and the bottom panel 12. Similarly, in the case the rear panel 4 and the two side panels 6, 8 have flanges formed thereon, such flanges may overlap corresponding portions of the top panel 10 and the bottom panel 12, thereby providing surfaces for adhesive coupling of the main body 2 to the top panel 10 and the bottom panel 12.
The enclosure 1 may be assembled by bringing the rear panel 4, the right side panel 6, the left side panel 8, the top panel 10, and the bottom panel 12 together and applying adhesive at the overlapping surfaces. In one embodiment, the enclosure 1 (e.g., the panels 4, 6, 8, 10, 12) may include holes 20 in which rivets 22 may be inserted, not necessarily to structurally retain the enclosure 1 together permanently, but to retain the structure 1 together while the adhesive cures. In other embodiments, minimal spot or tack welding, or tooling or jigs, among other methods, may also be used to retain the structure 1 together while the adhesive cures, in addition to, or instead of the rivets 22. The panels 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 adhered together form a case having a cavity or volume with a front opening. The door 14 may be swung about the hinge 16 to open or close the front opening of the enclosure 1.
In one embodiment, each of the panels 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 is fabricated from galvanized or non-galvanized sheet metal and the panels 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 are adhered to each other using a suitable adhesive such as an acrylic or epoxy structural adhesive. The hinge 16 may be welded, bolted, glued, etc. to the door 14 and the right side panel 6 or the left side panel 8 to hingedly connect the door 14 to the rest of the enclosure 1. The assembled enclosure 1 may then be painted or powder coated to further protect the enclosure against corrosion.
Each of the right side panel 6, left side panel 8, top panel 10, and bottom panel 12 may have formed thereon the respective recessed channel 6a, 8a, 10a, 12a that, upon bonding together of the panels 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, meet to form a case channel circumscribing the front opening of the enclosure 1. As best seen in
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Upon curing of the adhesive, the enclosure 1 as disclosed herein is as structurally adequate as a welded enclosure and provides weather, dust, electric, and electromagnetic protection/shielding. However, given that adhesive bonding of components is significantly less expensive than welding, the enclosure 1 as disclosed herein may be fabricated at a significantly lesser cost than prior art welded enclosures.
The following includes definitions of selected terms employed herein. The definitions include various examples or forms of components that fall within the scope of a term and that may be used for implementation. The examples are not intended to be limiting. Both singular and plural forms of terms may be within the definitions.
As used herein, an “operable connection” or “operable coupling,” or a connection by which entities are “operably connected” or “operably coupled” is one in which the entities are connected in such a way that the entities may perform as intended. An operable connection may be a direct connection or an indirect connection in which an intermediate entity or entities cooperate or otherwise are part of the connection or are in between the operably connected entities. In the context of signals, an “operable connection,” or a connection by which entities are “operably connected,” is one in which signals, physical communications, or logical communications may be sent or received. Typically, an operable connection includes a physical interface, an electrical interface, or a data interface, but it is to be noted that an operable connection may include differing combinations of these or other types of connections sufficient to allow operable control. For example, two entities can be operably connected by being able to communicate signals to each other directly or through one or more intermediate entities like a processor, operating system, a logic, software, or other entity. Logical or physical communication channels can be used to create an operable connection.
To the extent that the term “includes” or “including” is employed in the detailed description or the claims, it is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as that term is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “or” is employed in the detailed description or claims (e.g., A or B) it is intended to mean “A or B or both”. When the applicants intend to indicate “only A or B but not both” then the term “only A or B but not both” will be employed. Thus, use of the term “or” herein is the inclusive, and not the exclusive use. See, Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 624 (2d. Ed. 1995).
While example systems, methods, and so on, have been illustrated by describing examples, and while the examples have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the applicants to restrict or in any way limit scope to such detail. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the systems, methods, and so on, described herein. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention is not limited to the specific details, the representative apparatus, and illustrative examples shown and described. Thus, this application is intended to embrace alterations, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, the preceding description is not meant to limit the scope of the invention. Rather, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
