Mechanical Engineering at Oxide [chapter images]
Oxide mechanical engineers Doug Wibben, Brooks Willis, Elliott Donlon, and Ben Williams discuss scaling manufacturing for the Cosmo rack, focusing on simplifying sheet metal assembly by replacing PEM fasteners with extrude-and-tap features and redesigning cable management after a field failure. The team details how they transitioned 3D printed components, such as SSD blanks and air shrouds, into injection molded and thermoformed parts to manage costs at volume, while maintaining aesthetic and thermal performance. They also explain how adding rivets to weld interfaces streamlined the fabrication process without compromising structural integrity, enabling faster production rates for hundreds of racks.