What Does "Industrie PC Gehäuse" Mean?
"Industrie PC Gehäuse" is German for industrial PC enclosure (or industrial PC chassis/casing). It refers to the housing that protects the internal components of an industrial computer — the motherboard, processor, memory, storage, power supply and I/O connectors — so that the system can survive harsh factory, warehouse, outdoor cabinet or vehicle environments instead of a climate-controlled office. An industrial enclosure is not just a box: it defines how the PC is mounted, how it is cooled, how much dust and moisture it can resist, and which connectors are exposed to the field wiring.
Key Specifications to Look For
Industrial enclosures are usually specified along a handful of measurable axes. The table below summarises the properties that matter most when comparing one housing design with another.
| Property | Typical Options | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Material | Aluminium alloy, SECC/galvanised steel, stainless steel | Heat dissipation, corrosion resistance, weight |
| Cooling method | Fanless passive heatsink, fan-cooled, hybrid | Dust ingress, noise, maintenance interval |
| Ingress protection | IP20 (cabinet), IP50, IP65/IP67 (sealed) | Washdown, dust, coolant splash |
| Mounting | DIN rail, wall/VESA, desktop, rack | Panel space, cabinet layout, vibration |
| Operating temperature | 0–50 °C, −20–60 °C, wider on request | Unheated plant floors, outdoor kiosks |
| Expansion / I/O cut-outs | COM, LAN, USB, GPIO, HDMI, antenna holes | Number of field devices you can connect |
| Power input | 12 V or 19–24 V DC, wide-range DC, terminal block | Vehicle, solar and battery-backed sites |
Because heat is the main enemy of a sealed housing, enclosure design and thermal design go together. A fanless aluminium chassis uses the case itself as a heatsink, transferring processor heat to the outside air by conduction and natural convection. This removes the single most common point of failure in a factory PC — the cooling fan — and prevents dust from being pulled inside the unit.
Mounting and Protection Options
DIN rail mounting suits control cabinets and machine panels where the PC sits alongside PLCs, relays and drives. Wall or VESA mounting is common for HMI and signage positions, while rack or desktop formats are used in server rooms and lab benches. Sealed IP-rated versions add gasketed lids, cable glands and waterproof connectors for food processing, packaging and outdoor telecom cabinets, where washdown or hose-directed water is a daily reality.
Where Industrial Enclosures Are Used
Industrial PC housings appear wherever a desktop tower would fail: CNC and metalworking shops with metal dust and coolant mist, textile and paper mills with airborne lint, food and beverage lines needing hygienic washdown, logistics and cold-storage sites with wide temperature swings, transport and telematics installations with constant vibration, and renewable-energy or water-treatment cabinets that are unmanned and powered from DC. In each case the enclosure decides the service life of the electronics inside it.
Thinvent's Industrial PCs and Enclosures
Thinvent builds its own fanless industrial enclosures in-house, so the chassis
