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12/5/2016

Fabricated Metals Perspective: Enclosures for PTC equipment

By Don Curtsinger, vice president of sales

Fabricated Metals (FM) builds top quality aluminum and steel enclosures to house the signaling equipment required for PTC systems. Our instrument, communication and PTC houses or enclosures can be furnished in a variety of sizes with any number of door arrangements. Our instrument houses are constructed to meet your specifications and can be customized for any job or project requirements.

FM’s communication houses are built with all-welded construction and can be manufactured from aluminum; 12 GA or 14 GA hot-rolled steel; galvanized steel; galvanneal; stainless steel; or Cor-Ten® steel. Walls are constructed of interlocking modular insulated panel sections with all seams sealed. Inside walls have vertical channels with keyholes for mounting shelves, mounting boards, wire chases, and tag boards.

In 2015, the company stepped up production to meet the unprecedented demand from railroads rushing to meet the mandated deadlines. We experienced a 50 percent increase in orders from our largest customers. It presented real challenges for our production team to keep up, but we didn’t let any customer down. The aluminum and steel houses and cases needed for PTC are similar to those required for older railroad signal technologies, but may be modified to house additional equipment or equipment in different configurations.

Our company can efficiently modify basic designs to get the railroad customer the exact configuration they need to stay current with PTC regulation. The engineering team takes the requirements from the customer and translates them into precise drawings. These requirements vary by customer and specific application.