Shipment in flight cases:
Make sure that the equipment is inside the supplied cloth bag or in a soft plastic bag, before
adding any other protection or placing it in a flight case. This will protect the equipment from
intrusion of wrapping materials and scratches etc.
To prevent high impact loads on equipment inside a strong flight case, a layer of at least 6 cm
of impact shock absorbent material is needed all around the equipment, and at least 6 cm in-
between equipment. Suitable materials are :
•
Closed cell polythene foam
•
Expanded poly-styrene foam
•
Self expanding Polyurethane foam in plastic wrap
Unsuitable materials are (unless these materials are used as a secondary filling of voids):
•
extruded polystyrene foam
•
paper or carton
•
polyether foam and other soft ply-able foams
•
foam peanuts
The shock absorbent foam material should also have some voids and should not fit too well
around the equipment too. It should allow some setting and deformation. (see the box-shaped
amplifier in the sketch below.
To prevent damage the locks and clamps and corner reinforcements need to be strong enough
to remain closed even if a part of the flight case is damaged. After each use check the
condition of the corner reinforcements and locks and clamps. Replace when damaged.
Even though it is has a limited effect on the treatment by carrier personal, it is necessary to
have clearly visible “fragile” markings on the outside of the flight case. The carrier must be
informed that they are handling sensitive equipment. Place a 25G (yellow) shock-watch label
on a paper or plastic sheet against the equipment.
Pictures help to support a claim and prevent costs, and the effort is very limited. Set the
camera so the date shows, and make sure that the date is correct. Take pictures of the equip-
ment in the fight case when successively protecting from the visible equipment till the ready
and marked flight case Make sure to have a picture of the shock-watch label too.
It is actually more difficult to protect the equipement in a flight-case because the hard outer
shell can cause high peak accelaration levels on the equipment inside.
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