Sheet Metal Fabrication for Telecommunications

Telecommunications sheet metal fabrication at K-Display produces outdoor equipment cabinets, rack shelves, and antenna mounts. We build them from your drawings for telecom equipment makers and network builders.

Outdoor cabinets, rack shelves and antenna mounts for network equipment

Telecom equipment mounts in two places: frames with 19-inch or 23-inch rails in the central office, and cabinets at roadsides, cell sites, and building walls in the outside plant. Telcordia GR-487 sets mechanical and environmental criteria for outside-plant cabinets, including salt fog and wind-driven rain. An outdoor cabinet therefore takes galvanized, galvanneal, or stainless steel and a powder coat system chosen for the weather. In telecommunications sheet metal fabrication, K-Display supplies the cabinets, shelves, and mounts powder coated in-house, with hinges, locking handles, and hardware installed. They ship as welded stainless bodies, coated shells, or assembled cabinets.

Outdoor telecom cabinet with an offset sun shield, open door, rack rails and equipment shelves.

The shell keeps the weather out, and the rails inside carry the equipment. A shelf bolts to the rails at any hole in the pattern, so equipment height is a choice of holes.

What we make for telecommunications

Outdoor equipment cabinets
Cabinet bodies, doors with gasket lands, sun shields, and mounting rails for outside-plant electronics and power, welded in stainless steel and assembled with hardware in galvanized steel.
Equipment shelves and slide trays
Formed shelves and slide trays for 19-inch and 23-inch frames and cabinet rails, sized to the equipment footprint, with tie-downs and vent openings.
Rack-mount assemblies
Boxes and brackets with 19-inch or 23-inch mounting ears for the central office frame.
Antenna and radio mounts
Tilt brackets and remote radio unit mounts formed from galvanized or stainless steel, with bolt holes placed for the radio's pattern.
Junction and terminal boxes
Wall-mount boxes with cable entries and grommet openings for cable termination, formed to the box size you send.
Bulkhead and grounding plates
Bulkhead plates and ground bar mounting plates, cut and drilled for the studs and cable entries on your interconnection plan.

What telecommunications jobs require

Rack pattern
19-inch or 23-inch mounting, the hole pattern, and the rack-unit height of each shelf and rail.
Central office criteria
The equipment-space criteria the product is qualified to, such as Telcordia GR-63, and the load each shelf carries.
Outdoor cabinet criteria
The criteria the cabinet is designed to, such as Telcordia GR-487 or a NEMA type.
Mount interfaces
The radio's bolt pattern and the hole spacing of the support the mount attaches to.
Corrosion protection
Galvanized, galvanneal, or stainless steel for outdoor mounts, and the powder coat color, gloss, and system for cabinets.
Hardware and gaskets
Hinge, handle, and gasket part numbers with the quantity per cabinet, and the locations for studs, nuts, and ground studs.
A formed radio mounting bracket secured to a pole, showing its equipment attachment holes.

The bracket clamps to the pole with U-bolts on one face and takes the radio on the other. The bend between the two faces sets how far the radio stands off the pole.

How telecommunications work runs

  1. Cut and form from the flat pattern

    We laser cut and punch the cabinet bodies, shelves, and mounts, placing each radio bolt hole in the flat pattern so it lands correctly after the bends. We then press-brake form the parts and MIG or TIG weld the stainless parts.

  2. Hardware in, then powder coat

    We install self-clinching studs and nuts and ground studs, mask the grounding points, and powder coat in-house. Hinges and locking handles go on after the coat.

  3. Assemble and pack by site

    We fit gaskets, hang doors, and assemble shelves and rails, label each cabinet with your part number, and pack by site or by release.