Polycase - Tech Talk

Polycase Narrows the Search for Plastic Electronic Enclosures

Polycase — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:41:39 +0000

If you are looking for plastic electronic enclosures, you have landed in the right spot. Polycase specializes in plastic enclosures and has since 1951. We manufacture the enclosures on-site in our Avon, OH facility. In addition to molding the enclosures, we offer value added services such as CNC machining and printing that is completed in-house as well.

Our website is our product catalog. Shedding the paper catalog is not only a great benefit to the environment, it allows us to provide you an interactive experience with our products. We have organized our enclosures into 10 categories based on features and functionality:

The categories are intended to lead you to a particular enclosure based on the project or application you are building. If functionality is not as important as the size of the enclosure, we also provide the capability to search for your enclosure by the size of the box or the size of your PC board.

Once on a product page, you have the option to view multiple images in the photo gallery, play with a 3D model, view engineering drawings and read material specifications. We also have an extensive video library containing short video clips on each of our series.

Is there a feature or aspect of our site you found helpful? Do you have any suggestions for ways we can improve our site?

Just leave me a question or comment. I’m all ears.

The Polycase Electronic Enclosure Videos Library is Growing

Polycase — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:41:04 +0000

There is a video store by my house that is going out of business and they are selling everything in the store. I already have an extensive DVD collection at home but decided to stop in to see if I could find any deals. I watch a lot of movies, especially in the winter months, so it’s nice to have a stockpile of new movies.

At Polycase, we have a collection of videos in our video library that continues to expand as we add new products. Our latest additions feature our AC wall plug-in series, the GS Series and PS Series enclosures, along with our BX Series potting boxes. These videos can also be found on the series pages.

The electronic enclosure videos are very useful for viewing details on the enclosures that are not visible from the photo gallery. The videos explain all the features and benefits of a particular series. Also included in the video library is a short 90 second overview video of our machining and printing capabilities. Polycase is truly a one-stop shop for all your electronic enclosure and value added service needs.

Questions or comments? I’m all ears.

Promoting Employee Wellness at Polycase

Polycase — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:39:53 +0000

At Polycase we pride ourselves on making quality plastic enclosures. We truly care about the products we manufacture and we equally care about our employees and their health and wellness. Just as we strive to improve our products and services, we provide our employees with resources and opportunities to improve their well-being. These programs are completely voluntary and are aimed at promoting general health and fitness among our employees so we can all live happier, healthier lives. These programs include:

Free Access to YMCA Facilities- Polycase employees can enjoy free access to all Greater Cleveland YMCA’s. This access includes the use of the facility, equipment and classes.

Holiday Weight Maintenance Challenge – A weight maintenance challenge is held for Polycase employees for the month of December. Employees who want to participate contribute a small entry fee. Polycase matches the entry fee pot dollar for dollar. Employees who do not gain more than 2 lbs. over the holidays spilt the pot.

Smoking Cessation Program- Polycase offers free and anonymous support for smokers who would like help quitting. This support includes personal phone coaching sessions, a personalized quit plan, and a free supply of nicotine replacement therapy.

Does your company try to promote health and wellness to its employees? What programs or steps have been implemented? Leave me a comment to share your experiences.

Question or Comments? I’m all ears.

BX Series: Contemporary Potting Enclosures

Polycase — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:31:31 +0000

I am one of millions of Verizon phone service users. Verizon offers a phone upgrade every two years to their customers so we are able to get the latest and greatest phones at a discounted rate. I recently used my upgrade to switch from a Blackberry to an iPhone – a great decision I must say. The iPhone offers many more features and is just an all-around cooler phone.

Polycase has also been upgrading products. Our engineers went back to the drawing board on six sizes of BF series potting boxes. The six enclosures have been re-introduced as our BX Series. The BX series offers a contemporary look for potting applications and can be purchased with or without mounting bosses for a PC board at no additional cost. Each size is paired with an optional glue on cover, the cover is sold as a separate accessory. The BX is molded in black flame-retardant ABS plastic with a UL flame rating of 94V-0. We just added the BX Series video to our video library, check it out here -just click on the red play button to start watching.

Questions or Comments? I’m all ears.

Printing on Textured Plastic Electronic Enclosures

Polycase — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:20:06 +0000

I don’t like to “assume” too much anymore, at least in a business setting. It never seems to have great results. I’m sure plenty of you out there can relate. With the printing services we offer at Polycase®, many customers are assuming that this printing must be done on the smooth / recessed cover option for the printing to turn out right. I want to assure you, this is not the case. Printing still turns out exceptional on the textured surfaces of Polycase enclosures. Below are some actual customer examples of printing on textured covers.

Polycase uses a resilient ink that is intended for electrical applications in an outdoor setting so the ink will not lose adhesion to a textured surface. In addition to the quality ink used, it’s applied with a double hit process allowing the text or graphics to appear brighter and more crisp on the plastic enclosure.

Questions or Comments? I’m all ears.

Locating Maximum PC Board Size for Electronic Enclosures

Polycase — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:33:44 +0000

At Polycase® our website is an information hub. We want to give our customers complete product information to help make their search for the right enclosure easy. And not only do we want to provide access to this information, we want to make it simple to find.

Sitting behind the select by size button that is accessible from the home page, we have listed Polycase enclosure dimensions (external LxWxH). The dimensions are sortable and listed in both standard and metric measurements. The dimensions are also listed t on each series page and individual product page, along with the weight of the enclosure.

Listed on the select by size page is the maximum PC board sizes for each enclosure – you may prefer to search for your enclosure this way. This measurement is very useful since it eliminates the need to analyze the engineered drawings for this information. These dimensions are also sortable and listed in both standard and metric measurements. Beyond the select by size chart, the max PCB size listing is visible again when you add a specific product to your cart, where it appears under the product description column. It allows you to confirm your enclosure choice for your application prior to your purchase.

Product Spotlight – The Jackalopee

Polycase — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:44:24 +0000

I’m in the midst of trying to plan a vacation for my boyfriend and me. I’m thinking some place tropical would be nice, Mexico perhaps, to escape the dreary Ohio winter weather. We try to get away at least once a year and our destination typically requires travel by plane, since it would be too time consuming for us to drive. But if your part of the 8.5 million households in the US that own an RV you probably travel quite often on the open road.

Growth amongst larger RVs, with their increased weight and size, has created a demand for a larger, more powerful vehicle to pull them. This demand created an emerging trend of utilizing commercially retired tractor units to hull the large RVs. There are two critical items needed to make this combination of tractor and RV possible: an air hitch and an electrical conversion module. Unfortunately, the two industries practice different standards which can mean poor quality and compatibility issues. This factor, paired with “rat’s nest” wiring from unqualified technicians created a need to do it better.

Szmyt ET Products recognized this need and created the Jackalopee, an externally mounted, easy-to-install electrical converter. Because the product needed to be rugged and waterproof the Polycase® DC-58F Gasket Series was chosen with a clear cover. The clear cover option allowed for the circuit board LED’s to be observed straight through the cover without any additional openings in the box, allowing it to remain waterproof. For more information about the Jackelopee or to purchase, visit http://ethitch.com/id2.html.

Questions or Comments? I’m all ears.

Polycase AccesSeries Part III: VM Series Boot

Polycase — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:34:51 +0000

Polycase’s VM Series enclosures are designed for your handheld or battery operated applications. The three sizes of the VM Series are each available as a two AA, single 9V or no battery option – so regardless of your application we have a VM enclosure right for your project.

For added protection we offer the VM Series silicone rubber boots. The flexible, silky silicone boot makes the VM Series easy to grip and is available in 3 bright, identifiable colors: blue, red and black. The VM-24 boots fit all VM-24 enclosure combinations, the VM-35 boots fit all VM-35 enclosure combinations and the VM-36 boots fit all VM-36 enclosure combinations. As with all products we offer, drawings are available right on the product pages for your convenience. And don’t forget you can reach us by phone or live chat M-F 8:00-5:00 EST or submit a contact us form 24/7.

Questions or comments? I’m all ears.

Polycase AccesSeries Part II: NEMA Flange Kits

Polycase — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:20:09 +0000

As mentioned in my prior post, a very popular line of enclosures at Polycase is our NEMA-rated Series, WA, WC, and WP. Each series offers 13 sizes of enclosures, 7 of which have optional molded on surface-mounting flanges. For the remaining sizes (excluding the WA-44, WC-44, and WP-44), we have a mounting kit accessory that can be paired with the enclosure to convert it into a surface-mounting enclosure.

The flange kit includes 4 brackets which easily attach to the back of the enclosure into pre-molded holes. We offer the WA-90 kit to match the WA Series which is molded in dark gray ABS plastic. And we also offer the light gray WP-90 kit that matches both our WC and WP Series polycarbonate enclosures. Both the WA-90 and WP-90 are molded in flame retardant ABS plastic and are a convenient option to quickly transform our plain NEMA enclosures into surface mounted applications. Dimensions for the flange kit are available here.

Questions or comments? I’m all ears.

Polycase AccesSeries Part I: Cable Glands

Polycase — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:57:52 +0000

A hot seller at Polycase is our NEMA-rated line of enclosures. We offer 13 sizes of enclosures across 3 unique series, the WA, WC and WP. The NEMA-rated enclosures, in combination with our CNC machining and printing services, make for one heavy-duty project box. However, are you aware once you make cutouts into the NEMA-rated enclosures, the enclosure loses its NEMA rating? Well, Polycase has a solution for you.

Polycase offers 7 convenient sizes of cable glands in our CG Series. Cable glands are required to maintain NEMA 4X rating where cables enter or exit a NEMA 1, 2, 4, 4X, 12 or 13 type enclosure. The 7 convenient sizes of cables glands we offer can accommodate cable diameters ranging from 0.118 inches through 0.945 inches. Assembly consists of a black molded nylon body, hex nut, cable nut, rubber gasket and a cable seal.

The available cable gland sizes with their corresponding cable range, mount thread, mounting hole diameter, and component dimensions can be found here.

Questions or Comments, I’m all ears.