# Custom Cable & Sensor Brackets

https://kdisplay.com/products/brackets-plates/cable-sensor-brackets

K-Display, a Chicago sheet metal fabricator, makes slotted sensor and switch brackets, cable clamp brackets, and cable carrier brackets from your component's mounting drawing. Brackets are laser cut and formed, hardware installed, bonding pads masked, and powder coated, then delivered loose or kitted.

## Overview
We build the bracket around the component it holds, cut and formed from stainless steel, aluminum, galvanized steel, galvannealed steel, or carbon steel. Self-clinching nuts and studs are pressed in, the bonding pad is masked, and the bracket is powder coated. Brackets ship loose or kitted for each machine variant. Sensor and cable brackets on a conveyor rail are also part of Conveyor Guards, Covers & Brackets, and a bracket that carries a housing or a panel off a frame is one of the Mounting Brackets.

## Process
- Laser cut the blank: We laser cut the blank with its slots and mounting holes from the component's mounting drawing.
- Form and fit hardware: We form the flanges and tabs and press in self-clinching nuts or studs, before or after forming depending on where they sit.
- Mask, coat, and kit: We mask the bonding pad and the threads, powder coat, and kit the brackets for each machine variant.

## Typical parts
- Sensor and switch brackets: Slotted right-angle, offset, and tab brackets that hold photoelectric, proximity, and limit devices at a set stand-off, with self-clinching nuts or studs where the back side has no access.
- Cable management brackets: Brackets that carry purchased cable clamps, saddles, and tie points and hold a cable's route along the machine clear of moving parts and hot surfaces.
- Cable carrier and conduit brackets: Brackets that mount an energy chain end, conduit clamp, or cable tray to a machine frame, with the slots and hole pattern the frame and carrier need.

## Design considerations
- Component mounting pattern: The sensor or switch maker's mounting drawing gives the holes, slots, and stand-off. A bracket cut to a different pattern leaves the device off its target.
- Slot travel and offset stiffness: A slot holds a position only while its fastener clamps, and a long offset in thin sheet flexes under the sensor's weight and its cable's pull. The setting then drifts.
- Sensing face and clear zone: Some inductive sensors need a metal-free zone around the sensing face, and the bracket sits beside the head. Bracket metal inside the maker's zone changes how the sensor responds.
- Cable diameter and bend limit: Clamp size follows the cable's outside diameter, and saddle radius follows the maker's minimum bend radius. A saddle tighter than that radius strains the cable.

## Related pages
- [Laser Cutting](https://kdisplay.com/capabilities/cutting-forming/laser-cutting)
- [Sheet Metal Forming & Bending](https://kdisplay.com/capabilities/cutting-forming/forming)
- [Hardware Installation](https://kdisplay.com/capabilities/finishing/hardware-installation)
- [Powder Coating](https://kdisplay.com/capabilities/finishing/powder-coating)
- [Panels & Covers](https://kdisplay.com/products/panels-covers)
- [Electrical Enclosures](https://kdisplay.com/products/electrical-enclosures)