Shelding material - what is the best?

[ChrioN]

I want to sheld a piece of electric equipment from the rest of them. I was thinking of using a metalplate between. What is the best metal: lead, copper or aluminium?

[Groth]

What are you trying to shield? And what do you want to shield it from?

[superart]

I assume you want to shield it from RF.

A piece of metal sheet would work, but a piece of metal mesh would work better.

By encapsulating the piece of equipment with metal mesh, you in essence are creating a faraday cage arround it.

The best material to use, depending on the size of your application, would be either chicken wire or the screen they use for screening in balconies and windows (but make sure its metal and not nylon).

Aluminum or copper works best, but pretty much any metal would work.

It would help if you told us your application and any size/shape restrictions you have. The faraday cage idea will only work if you are able to completely encapsulate your piece of equipment.

Also, do a google search on faraday cages and RF shielding.

[killernoodle]

There is a brass fabric mesh that works great... but why?

[ChrioN]

Its a power conditioner (PoCo), with rfi-filter and stuffs. its 1HE rackmountable thing. And I got a rack. And I got delicate audio equipment in the bottom of the rack, and the power conditioner in the top. I don't want a solution with an earthed chickennet or such. I just want a plate between the PoCo and the rest of the rack. So I wonder what material is good. I might go with a 1-2cm thick aluminiumpiece due to its good weight-characteristics. That would work fine right?

And while I'm at it, where can I buy these shelding "socks" online?:

[superart]

If your going for cheap, why dont you just wrap the power conditioner in aluminum foil?

If you want fancy looks, get som cheap metal mesh,
http://aswexpress.com/discount-art-s...art-supplies/3

and put a layer arround all sides of the power conditioner. trust me, this will be much better than just a plate of metal in between the two.

The actual material itself doesnt matter much, as long as its conductive.

[ChrioN]

superart: Thanks alot! Im very green in electrics.

[superart]

Is this a commercial power conditioner or are you trying to build it yourself?

if its a fairly good commercial product, they genneraly take care to protect against RF interference. In fact, they have to according to FCC regulations.

If you are building it yourself, make sure to use a metal enclosure, which initofitself, should be enough, but if you want to be really sure, you should do the mesh thing. The important thing when doing the farday cage is that the mesh itself should not make contact with the metal enclosure. You could paint the enclosure, and afix the mesh on top of that. Also make sure that the mesh is covering all sides of the enclosure for maximum effectiveness. And at joints, you want to make sure the mesh is overlapping a little.

a pattern like in my crappy paint drawing would be good.
the enclosure slides into the open "mesh box" then the 2 "C" looking pieces go over the openings, then the "tabs" on the box cover an inch or so of the "C" pieces.....if that makes sense. basicly just make sure all of the mesh is physicly touching and that there are as few openings as possible. Preferably none.

[ChrioN]

Its a factorymade one:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--FURPLPLUSD

very good writing though super