Precision Sheet Metal Parts and Assemblies for UV Sanitizing Equipment

July 24th, 2020

Industry: Commercial Industrial Products
Product: Precision sheet metal parts and assemblies for UV Sanitizing equipment.

Project Overview
Force Fabrication Inc. continues production of several sheet metal details and support assemblies for a Southern California commercial manufacturer of UV sanitizing equipment . The build includes several different types of fabricated parts from simple sheet metal brackets to CNC machined parts, pop riveted assemblies, hardware installed, welded, powder coated, etc. Materials used include Aluminum 5052-H32, 6061-T6 and standard PEM engineering hardware and helicoils.

Military Production Run of Vacuum Brazed Assemblies for Unmanned Aircraft Requirements

May 1st, 2020

Industry: Military Ground Support
Product: Aluminum Machined, Vacuum Brazed assembles for drone/UAV production application. Complete assembly including all details and final machining, plating, helicoil installation and AS9102 first article inspection reports.

Project Overview
Force Fabrication Inc. continues production of several brazed assemblies for a Military contractor in Southern California. This specific build includes several processes, fixturing and inspection requirements. We pride ourselves in being the source for brazed assemblies with extremely competitive pricing, short lead-times and high quality product.

Awarded Machining Contract from California Telemetry Customer

August 22nd, 2019

Industry: Military, Aeronautical Telemetry Systems
Product: Radome support details and assembly.

Project Overview
We are proud to announce our support for a new customer that specializes in high performance telemetry systems. The prototype order for radome support details requires highly tolerance CNC machining, deburring, chem film, prime, paint and hardware installation of keenserts. The delivered product will include certificate of conformance, material and process certifications.

Force Fabrication Inc.- Completes Dip-Brazed Heatsink Build for Southern California Military Customer

August 16th, 2019

Industry: Military
Product: Dip brazed, Custom Heatsink

We are proud to announce our support for an ongoing Military program requiring custom heatsinks. In July and August, Force Fabrication Inc. produced over a hundred heat sink assemblies for a local communication company in Newbury Park, CA. The detail parts are machined, sides and tops along with fin stock that is brought in formed to spec. Dip brazing all details is the next operation along with post braze machining. Following jitterbugging and deburrring edges assemblies are chem-filmed per MIL-C-5541, Class 3. Final operations include helicoil installation and marking along with final inspection.

Purchase of new HAAS VF2 Superspeed CNC Mill to Support Existing and New Customers.

December 21st, 2018

In order to keep up with existing customer machining production and support new prospects we continue to invest in the latest technology. We recently purchase another new HAAS VF2 Superspeed CNC mill.

We perform every fabrication project with an intense degree of accuracy and quality, but it’s impossible to overstate the level of precision required when building materials to be used in a device produced by this client. It is of course a noteworthy effort to be able to work as an important contributor to the overarching cause of protecting United States interests, but it’s also a commendable personal achievement, and perhaps the best possible endorsement of our abilities, to have an elite level engineering and technology firm who can source any fabricator for their projects to choose Force Fab. To be selected to build any portion of an end-user device by this client is an important indicator that we’re performing fabrication services at an elite level—and this is our goal.

Sheet Metal Fabrication: Custom Telecommunications Chassis and Front Panels for Santa Barbara Customer

February 8th, 2018

Industry: Telecommunications, Broadcast, Radio and Networking-Electronic Enclosures

Product: Sheetmetal Electronic Enclosures, front panels; painted and silk screened.

Project Overview
As a custom sheet metal fabrication house, one of the cores of our operation is building enclosures for electronic devices. For logistical reasons, it’s practical for designers and manufacturers of sophisticated electronic equipment to outsource chassis builds. The nature of fabrication for a no compromise aluminum enclosure built to very close specifications and tolerances requires a purpose-built facility to handle the builds. Handing the chassis build over to ForceFab means that the client is receiving genuine high end chassis fabrication without investing heavily in fabrication equipment or personnel. In this case, the client was able to receive an ultra high end chassis build for a reasonable limited run cost without any of the long term operating costs of a fabrication house. Telecom is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States with a large demand for new and grey market equipment. For purchasing managers, it is important to buy in telecom products that will be highly reliable and will net a strong resale value. By using a premium chassis to house their product, our client sends a message to purchasing managers, retailers, and end-users, that this is a genuine high-end product.

Military Contract for Dip Brazed Electronic Enclosures and Machined Parts

May 24th, 2017

Industry: Military, Department of Defense

Customer: Prime Contractor to the Navy, DOD

Product: Rugged Computer Networking Chassis and Details

Project Overview
During our time in the fabrication industry, we’ve completed a large volume of enclosures, components, and assemblies intended for use in some capacity by the United States military. As a precision fabricator, being trusted with the creation of parts and critical components for military applications is the best possible endorsement of our skills and abilities. The term “Mil-spec” is synonymous with the best possible quality and most stringent standards. You’ll notice this phrase used in products or procedures outside of the military space, often to describe sophisticated electronics or other specialized equipment which is built to extremely high standards. We’re always pleased to receive production requests for projects like this, and we consider each of these projects to be continuous endorsements of our quality and precision capabilities. This particular production run was to craft a collection of rugged computer networking chassis and peripheral assemblies. The US military has extensive requirements for these kinds of components, and as demand for field-worthy housings and casings for sensitive electronics grows we expect to produce items like this in great quantities in the future.

Electronic Enclosure Build for Instrumentation Device | Oxnard, CA

February 28th, 2017

Industry:
Instrumentation, used in assorted industries and environments.

Intended Product for Component:
Sheet metal enclosures and machining for moisture measurement and control product.

Project Overview:
In February 2017 we completed a project producing a run of sheet metal enclosures including all peripheral machining processes for a client based in Oxnard, CA. This client operates in an interesting industry producing high sensitivity measurement equipment based in infrared reflectance and and radio frequency technology which is used in markets such as biomass, chemical, food processing, mineral mining, textiles, and numerous others. Our client produces a range of sensors designed to detect and measure moisture in a variety of real world applications. Detecting moisture can be critical if an organization is producing powdered materials, granular products, organic composites including wood or consumables, high viscosity materials like industrial oils, or crafting musical instruments which can be warped by excessive moisture. All of that is to say that our client’s devices find their way into an eclectic collection of organizations and operations. These devices are naturally designed according to their intended application, in some cases this requires the finished product to be fireproof, explosion proof, resistant to harsh environments, capable of complete sanitization, resistant to chemicals, and/or a variety of other properties.

As the best resource in Ventura County for precision machining, our role was to produce high quality sheet metal enclosures from a variety of raw materials to encase the client’s measurement devices. As you can see based on the end-user requirements of these products, these enclosures must be made to the absolute highest degree of quality and precision.

Enclosures for measurement devices made from 5052 aluminum

Raw Materials Used in Fabrication:
• 5052-H32 Aluminum
This version of aluminum is used in many of our projects for several reasons. It is stronger than other common aluminums, and is highly resistant to corrosion, even in ocean environments which corrode most metals. While some other metal alloys may have corrosion resistant properties, they may not necessarily lend themselves well to precision manufacturing due to malleability constraints. 5052 aluminum has the desired strength and resistance properties while still lending itself well to welding and fabrication techniques. This results in enclosures which can survive in the environments they operate it and can be produced to very close tolerances and exacting specifications. An aesthetically pleasing byproduct of 5052 aluminum is that it can be powder coated and polished to produce a very finished and expensive looking appearance fitting of the high end devices that are often protected within the enclosure.

• 6061-T6
• PEM Hardware
• Powdercoat paint

Parts Detail:
The build included helping the customer to design the sheet metal enclosure in a cost effective approach to manufacturing to keep the cost down. The enclosure included the sheet metal top cover welded assembly and the base chassis assembly along with associated CNC machined details.

Production Build for Camarillo Fiber Optic Test Equipment Company

January 23rd, 2017

Industry: Fiber Optics, Optical

Product: Test Equipment Chassis and associated parts and assemblies. Quarterly build schedule to customer requirements.

We recently completed a production build including test equipment chassis and adjacent parts and assemblies for a client in Camarillo who specializes in fiber optic test solutions. This specific project calls for a set number of test units to be produced on a quarterly schedule. Many of the machining and assembly projects we work on are for clients who build specialized electronic equipment including low voltage telecom related products, electronic equipment for medical applications, and electronic equipment for aerospace and aviation projects, so we have extensive experience in this exact area of fabrication.

The client on this project provides an array of fiber optic and telecom related products including a variety of fiber optic testing meters, light sources, converters, adapters, conditioners, analysis tools, and an entire suite of software applications designed to interface with the array of fiber optic hardware. What this client needed from us specifically was the build the following parts:

• Custom 1U chassis
• Rear panel
• Top cover
• Bottom cover
• Mounting brackets
• Guides
• Inner channels
• Base plates
• Front panel
• Back panels
We’re fabricating the structural pieces for the client’s fiber optic products; the enclosure / chassis and all of the adjacent pieces which are necessary to house and protect the product. The client is then able to install the electronics, circuit boards, and assemble a complete product which they can deliver to market.

Types of raw materials
5052-H32 Aluminum
6061-T6, Aluminum
PEM Hardware

Fabrication Processes involved
For users with firsthand experience in manufacturing, the fabrication process is well understood, but for the uninitiated it’s often surprising how many individual processes and procedures are required to produce an elegant enclosure and chassis. Each step is carefully conceived, mapped out, and executed with exacting precision. Because many of the products we help to produce are intended for mission critical applications for use in medical environments or military zone scenarios, every detail of the end product has often been designed to very stringent specifications. As a result, things which may seem like inconsequential details to laymen can in fact have very significant impacts on the product’s performance in real world scenarios. We’re a trusted fabrication resource because of our ability to consistently create parts, components, and assemblies within very close tolerances, to produce these pieces on time and within budget, and when necessary, to help the client determine exact measurements or other design features. This is part of what differentiates us from other machine shops in Southern California, and whenever a client continues to choose us for fabrications projects, particularly in cases where precision and accuracy are paramount, it’s a validation of the quality of our work.

Fabrication of LED lighting Sheet Metal Enclosures and Assemblies

October 19th, 2016

Custom Aluminum Enclosures For Unique Lighting Devices
We received a request recently from a client specializing in solid state lighting. They produce the kinds of lighting products that would be used in parking lots, gymnasiums and stadiums, auto dealerships, department stores, and theme parks. When a project requires powerful, high quality lighting solutions, this client is often contracted to produce custom lights. They were working on a project requiring LED lighting, and every LED light requires a custom enclosure to house the lights. Our role was to fabricate sheet metal enclosures each individual light, and create any peripheral assemblies and components necessary. Since this was for an outdoor and indoor lighting application, there are numerous parts that work in conjunction with the enclosures to allow for mounting on poles, housing power supplies, creating covers and shields for the lights, and numerous other fine detail pieces.

Detailed CNC Work
At a glance, creating enclosures may seem like a simple task. But when you consider that there are dozens of individual components required to make the pieces functional, and that each piece has very specific close tolerance specifications, it becomes clear that a great deal of planning, labor, and quality assurance processes are involved with creating even a utilitarian type of product such as an aluminum enclosure. The extent of this work is even more pronounced on more complex requests, but regardless of the project there is no simple fabrication task.