# Custom Machine Housings & Covers

https://kdisplay.com/products/panels-covers/machine-housings-covers

K-Display, a Chicago sheet metal fabricator, makes machine housing panels, top shrouds, and removable covers with mounting tabs from your frame drawings. Panels are laser cut, formed, and powder coated, with shroud seams welded and latches, handles, and studs installed, labeled for each machine.

## Overview
We build a machine's exterior: formed side and end panels, top shrouds, and removable covers, with mounting tabs that tie them to the frame and set the gap between panels. Panels are cut and formed from carbon steel, galvanized steel, galvannealed steel, stainless steel, or aluminum, powder coated in the machine's color, with latches, handles, and self-clinching studs installed, labeled as one panel set per machine. A cover that hinges or lifts off for service belongs to the exterior; a panel closing off a moving mechanism is one of the machine guards & access panels, and a conveyor drive cov…

## Process
- Cut panels and fold edges: We laser cut each panel with its vents, cutouts, and mounting tabs and form the returns and folded edges on a press brake.
- Weld seams and press in hardware: We weld shroud seams in carbon steel, stainless steel, or aluminum and press self-clinching nuts and studs into the inside face before any coating.
- Mask, coat, and fit latches: We mask the tab faces and threads and powder coat the panels, then fit latches and handles and label each machine's panels.

## Typical parts
- Formed outer panels: Side and end skins with returns, cutouts for shafts and cables, and vent patterns for machines that run warm.
- Top shrouds: Formed shrouds over the upper machine envelope, in one piece or split so each half comes off alone.
- Removable covers: Lift-off and hinged covers with latches or handles installed, fitted to the folded edges that seat them.
- Mounting tabs and frame brackets: Tabs and brackets that tie the exterior to the frame and hold each panel at its position.

## Design considerations
- Frame datums and panel gaps: Panels that locate from each other pass each edge's variation to the next, so the gap drifts along the run. Tabs cut from the frame's reference put every panel on the same starting point, and the gap stays even.
- Cosmetic faces: Powder coat leaves a cut edge, weld bead, or tooling mark visible through the film. We keep welds and hardware to the faces you do not mark cosmetic, apart from a handle or latch you locate on one, and deburr the edges of the marked faces.
- Fastener access: A driver cannot reach behind a formed flange once the panel is on the frame. Each nut sits on the inside face of the panel, and its screw is driven from the outside face.

## FAQ
**Does K-Display fabricate machine housings & covers?**
Yes. K-Display builds to customer drawings and reviews the complete manufacturing route around the approved requirements.

**What should the RFQ include?**
Send the current files, revision, material, quantities, interfaces, finish, hardware, assembly, inspection, packaging, and delivery requirements.

**Who owns design and certification?**
K-Display manufactures to the approved package. Product design, engineering, safety, ratings, testing, listing, and certification remain with the explicitly responsible party.

## Related pages
- [Sheet Metal Forming & Bending](https://kdisplay.com/capabilities/cutting-forming/forming)
- [MIG & TIG Welding](https://kdisplay.com/capabilities/welding/mig-tig-welding)
- [Hardware Installation](https://kdisplay.com/capabilities/finishing/hardware-installation)
- [Powder Coating](https://kdisplay.com/capabilities/finishing/powder-coating)
- [Frames & Weldments](https://kdisplay.com/products/frames-weldments)
- [Electrical Enclosures](https://kdisplay.com/products/electrical-enclosures)