Custom Front Panels & Bezels
Custom front panels and bezels hold the display, switches, connectors, and legends where the operator reaches them, and fasten to a chassis, a housing, or a 19-inch rack. K-Display makes them from sheet metal to your component drawings.
Front panels and bezels we build
We build front panels, faceplates, and bezels from aluminum, carbon steel, and stainless steel sheet, with display windows, switch and connector cutouts, and mounting holes. They ship bare, powder coated, screen printed with your legends, or with self-clinching studs and standoffs installed. Powder coat is applied in the color, gloss, and texture you name. We also build the Chassis & Card Cages that a panel fastens to.
Two patterns share this panel: openings for the parts the operator uses, and holes that fasten it to the chassis. Measuring both from one datum keeps the face and the box behind it in register.
Panels and bezels we make
- Instrument and equipment panels
- Flat panels that hold the display, switches, indicators, and connectors of a controller, meter, or instrument.
- Bezels and faceplates
- Frames that surround a display or a control group, formed with returns and mounted to a housing or chassis.
- Rack panels
- Blank, cutout, and vented panels in rack units, with the mounting hole pattern of the rack rail.
The face the operator sees
- Display window
- A display window has to sit in the zone between the module's active area and its seal. Cut to the outline, it shows the seal; cut inside the active area, it clips the image.
- Cosmetic face
- Tooling marks, scratches, and fastener witness marks show on the face the operator sees. A mark that passes on a hidden face is a visible defect on this one.
- Coating build-up
- Powder coat builds up inside holes and countersinks and on threads. A countersunk head that sits flush on bare metal stands proud once the panel is coated, and a connector hole can close on the body that fills it.
- Legend detail
- Coarse powder coat texture softens fine type, so the finish sets how much detail a legend holds. A legend that crosses a bend, a hole, or an edge is interrupted there.
Order of work on the panel
Legends are printed after the coat cures, so the print lands on the surface the panel keeps.
Openings and returns
We laser cut or punch the panel with its windows, cutouts, and mounting holes, and form the returns and flanges on the press brake.
Hardware, masking, and coat
We press self-clinching studs and standoffs in from the back, mask the holes and threads that must hold size, and powder coat the panel.
Legends and packing
We screen print the legends, apply labels or decals where small type needs a smooth surface, and pack the panel bare, coated, marked, or with hardware installed, with the face protected.
Check the finished cutout
An opening can have the correct center position and still reject the selected device. Review its full outline, any locating notch, the retention method, and the thickness after coating together with the component drawing.
The locating tab engages the notch to keep the switch from turning; the nut clamps it against the panel. Cutout shape and finished panel thickness therefore belong in the same component-fit check.
What to send for a front panel quote
- Panel drawing
- Model or 2D drawing with material, thickness, cutout pattern, and fastener part numbers.
- Component drawings
- Mechanical drawings for each display, switch, indicator, and connector, with its retention method and the panel thickness range it clamps.
- Finish
- Coating color as RAL, Pantone, or sample, gloss and texture, the cosmetic face, the grain direction on a bare face, and whether critical dimensions apply before or after coating.
- Legends
- Artwork at its current revision, ink color, and whether the legend is screen printed, labeled, or decaled.
- Rack details
- Panel height in rack units, the hole style from the rack or chassis drawing, and EIA/ECA-310-E if your rack follows it.
- Run size
- Quantity per release and the delivery date.