Reconciling Ingress Protection and Thermal Management in Sealed Motor Enclosures for Low-Cost Delta Robots

Low-cost Delta robots manufactured using additive manufacturing technologies are becoming increasing prevalent in educational, research, and light industrial environments. Despite their advantages in terms of cost and flexibility, these systems are typically designed for clean indoor conditions and therefore have limited protection against dust, humidity and water splashes. In particular, the motor enclosure that houses the wiring and internal electronic components often exhibits a low Ingress Protection (IP) rating, restricting operation in harsher or semi-industrial environments.

Improving enclosure tightness to achieve higher IP levels, such as IP54, inevitably reduces natural ventilation and limits heat dissipation. This issue is especially critical because the internal electronic components dissipate residual heat of approximately 5 W, while the enclosure is predominantly made of plastic materials with low thermal conductivity. As a result, increased sealing may lead to elevated internal temperatures that compromise motor reliability, continuous operation, and long-term durability.

To address this trade-off, the present work focuses primarily on CFD-based thermal modelling to reconcile ingress protection with effective thermal management. The methodology includes mechanical redesign of the enclosure in 3D CAD, estimation of internal heat sources, and detailed CFD simulations using ANSYS Fluent, considering steady-state and transient conjugate heat transfer. Several enclosure configurations corresponding to different strategies for achieving equivalent IP ratings are analysed, and multiple thermal enhancement hypotheses—such as modifications to materials, geometry and heat-spreading features—are evaluated and quantitatively compared using CFD.

While the core of this work relies on detailed CFD modelling, simplified experimental measurements are performed to obtain indicative temperature levels and to support the interpretation of the numerical trends, rather than to provide full model validation.

The results aim to identify enclosure design solutions that maintain high IP tightness while ensuring acceptable operating temperatures, enabling the deployment of low-cost Delta robots in more demanding environments without compromising thermal safety or manufacturability.