Touring Exhibition Case 1200mm by 600mm by 1000mm High with a Flight Crate in Gallery White Lacquer

A case built to travel, for a horizontal touring case for works on paper, which is the most fragile thing anybody tours. It comes apart into a flight crate without tools and goes back together in about twenty minutes by two people who have never seen it before, which is the actual specification.

A vitrine is a box that has to disappear. Everything we do to one is aimed at that: low iron glass because ordinary float glass has a green cast that shows on every edge, mitred and polished glass corners rather than an aluminium post, and a base sized so the glass sits proud of it rather than inside a visible rebate. The unglamorous half is the part that keeps the object safe. Dust gets in through the base, not the top, so every case here has a gasketed base and a felt sealed door, which is the single biggest thing you can do for anything that has to stay clean for ten years.

Specification

• Dimensions: 1200mm wide by 600mm deep by 1000mm high assembled
• Display surface: internal display area 1170mm by 570mm
• Construction: aluminium framed carcass with replaceable panels, and a foam lined birch ply flight crate
• Finish: 18mm moisture resistant MDF sprayed in a two pack polyurethane to RAL 9010, which is the white almost every gallery in the country paints its walls
• Load rating: 180kg on the deck
• Levelling: four M10 levelling feet with 20mm of travel, recessed so nothing shows and nothing catches a toe
• Security: museum lock, plus tamper evident seals for the road
• Delivery: in its own flight crate, on a pallet, kerbside or to the loading bay
• Weight: approximately 132.0 kilograms including the crate
• Build time: about 20 minutes for two people, tool free
• Crate: birch ply with foam cradles cut to the glass, castors fitted
• Panels: replaceable and repaintable on the road, and two spares are supplied
• Glass: laminated as standard, because toughened glass that breaks on tour ends the tour
• Instructions: a laminated build sheet lives inside the crate lid
• Crate external size: 1400mm by 850mm by 800mm

What you get

• The case, knocked down
• A foam lined birch ply flight crate with castors
• Laminated glass in a fitted cradle
• Two spare face panels and a touch up kit
• A museum lock, two keys and a pack of tamper evident seals
• A laminated build sheet fixed inside the crate lid

Setting it up

The base arrives flat packed and the glass arrives assembled in its own crate. Build and level the base first, then two people lift the glass on. Do not lift a glass case by the top rail. The gasket seats itself under the weight of the glass, so leave it for an hour before you load the case and check the door line again after a day.

Specifying it

Size the case to the object plus the space around it rather than to the object. A rule that works well is a clear 100mm at the sides and 150mm above for anything under half a metre, and more for anything a visitor will walk around. Think about the door before you buy: a hinged door needs swing space and a lift off top needs two people and somewhere to put a large piece of glass. If the case will hold anything light sensitive, take the UV filtering glass, and keep the light level at 50 lux for works on paper and textiles and 150 lux for oil, wood and most other things.