Sabtu, 26 Mei 2018

Understanding What Road Cases Are All About

By Jason Hamilton


Road cases refers to a certain kind of shipping container that is designed specifically for protecting lighting and audio production equipment, motion picture equipment, and musical instruments. There are many other pieces of equipment and instruments that are shipped using road cases. The instruments are usually sensitive and need extra protection to prevent damage. The protection is necessary when the equipment is being moved from one place to another or mishandled.

The containers are also addressable by other names with the most common names being roadie case, ATA case, and flight case. Different professionals in the entertainment industry make use of the containers. It is possible for one to have many of these containers based on the amount of equipment to be moved.

Panels joined by metal extrusions or plastic are used in making most of these containers. Usually, panels with two layers are used to make a case. Fiberglass or ABS laminate are normally employed in making the outer layer. A middle layer of cabinet-grade plywood is then adhered to the outer layer. About 3/16 to 1/2 inches is the thickness of the middle layer.

Some of the cabinet-grade plywood in use include maple, poplar, or birch. These two layers together make the laminate panel. In high-grade cases, the laminate layer is made using composite materials. The inside of the case has shock-absorbing filler. There are different kinds of fillers, including polyethylene and polyurethane foam. The filler has cavities that are shaped in the same way as the instrument that is supposed to be placed inside the case.

Also, the case can be mounted with panels or racks instead of shock-absorbing filler. These panels or racks hold the instrument in position inside the container. Besides being fitted with shock iinsulators, racks or panels are attached to the walls of the case. Stamped sheet steel cases corners are applied in reinforcing the corners of cases. Nickel, chrome, or zinc finishing is applied on the corners.

Prior to the production and distribution of these containers to buyers, it is mandatory that they are tested. Among the tests carried out are, impact or drop, penetration, vibration, water resistance, stackability and vibration tests. From the mentioned tests, drop tests, stackability and vibration are the most emphasized. A case weighing 50 pounds when stacked up will be dropped 160 times from a raised platform of 30 inches during drop testing.

A drop test comprises 40 corner drops from a level of 36 inches above ground and 80 edge drops from the same height above ground. For 100 pounds of weight this height is cut-down to 21 inches, whereas for 150 pounds the height is slashed to 18 inches. With increase in gross weight of each case comes a resultant decrease in height.

The stackability test involves placing a weight of 135 kg on each face of the container for 24 hours. The penetration test involves dropping a 6 kg weight on the weakest point on the case from a specific height. Each test is meant to achieve a given result and for every test, no damage is allowed. For ease of transit, casters are incorporated into the containers.




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