New Age Enclosures - are they still in business?

[Howardlong]

Folks

Regarding "New Age Enclosures" https://www.newageenclosures.com/

While preparing for final assembly of a batch re-run, unusually, after 16 years, one part is proving elusive in any quantity: the enclosure. I usually purchase through either Mouser or Digikey, but they're out of stock (I bought the last dregs of Digikey's already today). RS in the US has 25, but I need hundreds. Part number is P3A-260906U.

All pointers so far are that the OEM is kaput: parts of their website, including their webshop, are non-functional, and the one phone number I have for them +1 855 462 3625 says it's disconnected. An email I sent to their customer services just got bounced.

If they are gone, I guess an option is to have the enclosure fabricated by a third party, but I have absolutely no idea how to even get started on that. I woudn't trust myself with the CAD. Respinning the board for a different enclosure is a possibility, but I have a lot of investment already tied up in assembled boards, so getting a compatible enclosure is my first port of call.

Suggestions greatfully received!

[floobydust]

"New Age Enclosures, a division of Alltec Integrated Manufacturing, Inc."
"March 2025 – Aerospace injection molding company Alltec Integrated Manufacturing of Santa Maria, CA was recently acquired by the North American division of Clayens, a global manufacturing and plastics firm based in France."
“Alltec was a great strategic [addition] to that effort because one of our areas of focus for growth is aerospace and defense. And Alltec, although it was a relatively small company compared to the scale of Clayens, brought a lot of key customer relationships and some really good core business that we can grow from,” Douglas Constable, CDO of Clayens N.A. said."

You can try track down where the injection moulds went. It's all about those.

[Howardlong]

"New Age Enclosures, a division of Alltec Integrated Manufacturing, Inc."
"March 2025 – Aerospace injection molding company Alltec Integrated Manufacturing of Santa Maria, CA was recently acquired by the North American division of Clayens, a global manufacturing and plastics firm based in France."
“Alltec was a great strategic [addition] to that effort because one of our areas of focus for growth is aerospace and defense. And Alltec, although it was a relatively small company compared to the scale of Clayens, brought a lot of key customer relationships and some really good core business that we can grow from,” Douglas Constable, CDO of Clayens N.A. said."

You can try track down where the injection moulds went. It's all about those.

That doesn't bode well.

TBF, the injection moulds gave variable quality over the years. It wasn't at all unusual for their to be various issues with the finished product that we had to work around in production, whether it be finsihing aesthetics or simple fit.

[mikeselectricstuff]

3D print them?

Maybe send the drawings to a Chinese manufacturer for a quote for soft tooling - might be viable.

[mikeselectricstuff]

"New Age Enclosures, a division of Alltec Integrated Manufacturing, Inc."
"March 2025 – Aerospace injection molding company Alltec Integrated Manufacturing of Santa Maria, CA was recently acquired by the North American division of Clayens, a global manufacturing and plastics firm based in France."
“Alltec was a great strategic [addition] to that effort because one of our areas of focus for growth is aerospace and defense. And Alltec, although it was a relatively small company compared to the scale of Clayens, brought a lot of key customer relationships and some really good core business that we can grow from,” Douglas Constable, CDO of Clayens N.A. said."

You can try track down where the injection moulds went. It's all about those.

That doesn't bode well.

Well at least they've gone _somewhere_ and not just disappeared...
As it's already quite big for something to hang off a USB port, maybe put the assembled boards inside a bigger enclosure with a  little type-C sub-board or captive cable?

[Howardlong]

"New Age Enclosures, a division of Alltec Integrated Manufacturing, Inc."
"March 2025 – Aerospace injection molding company Alltec Integrated Manufacturing of Santa Maria, CA was recently acquired by the North American division of Clayens, a global manufacturing and plastics firm based in France."
“Alltec was a great strategic [addition] to that effort because one of our areas of focus for growth is aerospace and defense. And Alltec, although it was a relatively small company compared to the scale of Clayens, brought a lot of key customer relationships and some really good core business that we can grow from,” Douglas Constable, CDO of Clayens N.A. said."

You can try track down where the injection moulds went. It's all about those.

That doesn't bode well.

TBF, the injection moulds gave variable quality over the years. It wasn't at all unusual for their to be various issues with the finished product that we had to work around in production, whether it be finsihing aesthetics or simple fit.

It turns out Alltec emails are bouncing too, and their advertsied phone number is disconnected, although I had an automated response from a web enquiry. Neither New Age nor Alltec websites have https on them. I've left a web enquiry on Clayens' website, but no response as of yet, either human or automated.

[Howardlong]

"New Age Enclosures, a division of Alltec Integrated Manufacturing, Inc."
"March 2025 – Aerospace injection molding company Alltec Integrated Manufacturing of Santa Maria, CA was recently acquired by the North American division of Clayens, a global manufacturing and plastics firm based in France."
“Alltec was a great strategic [addition] to that effort because one of our areas of focus for growth is aerospace and defense. And Alltec, although it was a relatively small company compared to the scale of Clayens, brought a lot of key customer relationships and some really good core business that we can grow from,” Douglas Constable, CDO of Clayens N.A. said."

You can try track down where the injection moulds went. It's all about those.

That doesn't bode well.

Well at least they've gone _somewhere_ and not just disappeared...
As it's already quite big for something to hang off a USB port, maybe put the assembled boards inside a bigger enclosure with a  little type-C sub-board or captive cable?

The dongle form factor for the device was a USP. The target audience is still largely wedded to USB A, where they're used extensively on RPis. I hasten to add that today's purchasers aren't the device's original target audience.

I'm minded to move to extruded aluminium which I'd imagine can be cut to exactly the right length, and use PCB end plates [I wonder who came up with that idea? ;-) ]. The board might be a bit tight for the board slides as some parts are mounted reasonably close to the board edges, I'll have to do a fit check.

I've tended to avoid extra daughter boards or other assemblies as they tend to add substantially to the end cost.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I'm minded to move to extruded aluminium which I'd imagine can be cut to exactly the right length, and use PCB end plates [I wonder who came up with that idea? ;-) ]. The board might be a bit tight for the board slides as some parts are mounted reasonably close to the board edges, I'll have to do a fit check.

Custom ali. extrusions - last time I looked, the tooling is fairly cheap ( can be sub 1K) but there is a minimum "pull" in at least the tens of kilos.

A quick look on Alibaba shows lots offering custom ali extrusion with MOQ around 100 so could well be worth a look.

BTW I recently noticed that aluminium PCB endplates are similar or cheaper than PCB at JLCPCB - looks slightly more professional.
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