What is an industrial PC? Part 1: The metal housing

13.11.2019

In our short but sweet series about the stars of our product catalog, we will be looking at what makes industrial PCs what they are. This is because industrial PCs (also known as “IPCs”) must fulfill special requirements in order to be considered as such. In the first part of our 5-part blog series, we look at enclosures. Let’s go!

The housing: The armor of our industrial PCs

A key point in which hardware for "consumers" differs from hardware for professional use is the housing. Unlike consumer PCs, which are predominantly protected by plastic housings, industrial PCs are characterized by solid metal housings. This ensures that the PC remains efficient even in harsh environmental conditions, such as those found on construction sites, in emergency vehicles or in large machines. When designing the housings, special attention is paid to ensuring that the housings are as resistant as possible to dust and other fine particles. But even in damp conditions, the mainboard, CPU, RAM and hard disk must be protected by the housing, just like by a suit of armour. Especially with actively cooled PCs, i.e. computers in which fans are installed, this resistance plays into the hands of service life. The metal housing is a must, especially for industrial PCs with passive cooling, i.e. fanless systems. We would like to explain why this is the case using our RUGGED GTX 1050 Ti as an example.

spo-comm par excellence: The RUGGED GTX 1050 Ti

Our RUGGED GTX 1050 Ti is a good example of a combination of robust appearance and passive cooling system. The question of why a fanless design is based on a metal housing is easily answered: Metal conducts heat, plastic does not. Conductor tracks made of copper ensure that the heat generated in the computer housing is conducted to the outside. So-called cooling fins, which are located on the top of an enclosure, then dissipate the heat generated to the environment. Especially with a graphically powerful IPC such as the RUGGED GTX 1050 Ti, there can be a high level of heat development in the housing. A well-designed and flawlessly functioning fanless cooling system is therefore essential.

Did you know?
Mini PCs with a passive cooling system are considered to be particularly durable!

To summarize: Metal housings are so great because

they give the industrial PC robustness,
make the systems resistant to dust and moisture (only applies to passively cooled systems),
because they enable passive cooling of the PCs,
because they can more easily release the heat generated inside the computer into the environment,
because they make the systems more durable.

Any questions? Or perhaps you are looking for a suitable industrial PC? Our consultants will be happy to help you make the right choice!

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