The manufacturer of stainless steel enclosures decided that it was time to significantly modernise the design of its portfolio, and as a result developed as well a new locking system for their control cabinets and housings. In addition, the compression latches were replaced by specially designed lifthandles.
The Italian company MPGAMMA has been designing and producing stainless steel cabinets and housings for electronic control systems for almost 25 years. Its customers span food & beverages, chemicals & petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, marine, as well as railways and telecommunications. As a high standard of hygiene is an essential requirement, it uses AISI 304L and AISI 316L stainless steel.
In the redesign project, the locking system of these housings was a critical element since up to now, the company had used compression latches with multiple interlocking points. However, the designers at MPGAMMA really wanted to replace this with a system of new generation lifthandles to open the cabinets faster and provide a better feel without sacrificing anything in terms of security.
Within a year, EMKA and MPGAMMA developed a new handle together for the design project. It seemed the requirements were broadly similar to EMKA’s 1390 standard lifthandle, although some adjustments were required, including adapting the mounting. In the first step, EMKA modified the model to the 25x150 and 25x68/14/68 cut outs. “This step presented a significant challenge to our team. First, all internal parts had to be identical to the standard model. Second, the new fastening points had to be located within the new cut out,” explains Roman Jung, the design engineer in the mechanical project development department at EMKA. In order to comply with these specifications, the gear wheel and the dish were changed to allow the handle to be installed using a new fastening plate and four screw-on domes.
In redesigning its own product range however, MPGAMMA also had a design-related adaptation of the handle solution in mind. This included shortening the handles at the top, extending the handles at the bottom and adapting the dish’s design. These changes were necessary to integrate a new slider cap into the handle. These slider caps are stamped at EMKA and subsequently clipped onto the dish, then secured by a clip.
Paolo Corvi, MPGAMMA owner, concluded: “The cooperation with EMKA on this project was again successful and straightforward. The experts from Germany responded to all our requests and could perfectly adapt the handles to the cut outs of the control cabinets and housings.” After the project was completed, MPGAMMA signed a supply contract with a term of at least five years.
The two companies have worked together since the 2000s.
