Transport and packing cases

An object in transit faces every physical risk at once. It is dropped, jolted, vibrated for hours, taken through temperature changes far faster than a building ever produces, and handled repeatedly by people who did not choose to work with collections. A packing case that addresses only one of these is a strong box, not a conservation case.

Shock

Shock is a short, high acceleration event: a drop, a knock, a forklift setting the case down hard. The response is isolation, meaning the object does not move rigidly with the case.

In practice this is layered. An inner support holds the object without pressure on vulnerable areas. Around it sits a cushioning layer whose material and thickness are chosen for the object’s weight, since foam that is too stiff for a light object transmits shock almost undamped, and foam that is too soft for a heavy one bottoms out. Around that sits a rigid outer case.

Case-in-case construction, an inner case suspended within an outer, is the usual arrangement for anything valuable, because it adds a second isolation stage and a second thermal barrier.

Vibration

Vibration is continuous, low amplitude and often overlooked. Over a long road journey it can loosen joints, abrade surfaces in contact, and cause cumulative movement in anything not positively restrained.

The mitigations are different from those for shock: restraint so that nothing can move relative to its support, and attention to the frequency range the vehicle produces, since a cushioning system can amplify vibration at its resonant frequency rather than damping it. This is the point at which specialist advice is worth paying for on a valuable object.

Climate

A sealed, well-insulated case is a slow-moving microclimate. The insulation buffers temperature; the seal plus conditioned silica gel buffers humidity. Together they mean the object experiences a fraction of the change the outside of the case does.

The critical procedure is at the destination. A crate that has travelled in a cold vehicle and is opened immediately in a warm room will condense moisture directly onto the object. Acclimatisation, leaving the case sealed until its contents have reached room temperature, is not optional, and for a large case it takes considerably longer than people expect.

This is also why an unsealed case is worse than no case in some circumstances: it provides thermal lag without a moisture barrier, which is the exact combination that produces condensation.

Monitoring the journey

What is not recorded cannot be discussed afterwards, and transit is where disputes arise.

Shock indicators on the outside of the case, set to a threshold, are visible to handlers and record whether a defined impact occurred. Their deterrent value is real.

A shock and tilt logger inside records magnitude, direction and time, which distinguishes a single drop from a rough road and, crucially, records when it happened.

A climate logger inside records temperature and humidity through the journey and through acclimatisation, which is the evidence that the case did its job.

Download and review all of it before the crate is opened. If something went wrong, the condition check afterwards should be looking for it specifically.

The parts of the journey that actually cause damage

Most transit damage happens at the ends: loading, unloading, and moving between the vehicle and the building. The mitigations are unglamorous.

Fit handles and specify a case weight two people can manage, or specify pallet handling and make sure a pallet truck exists at both ends. Mark the case with orientation and lifting points in a way that survives weather. Establish who at the receiving end is expecting it and where it goes on arrival. Confirm the route into the building, including whether the lift is large enough, before the vehicle leaves.

A condition report with photographs before packing and after unpacking closes the loop, and it is the single most useful document if anything is disputed.