5. Materials Used

The wood used in construction is laminated birch plywood at 7mm or 9mm thick. With many cases this base material is foil-covered; there is a range of colours for you to choose from. Professional cases may also be coated with anti-slide varnish (at 10% surcharge).

Another material which may be used are PVC sandwich slabs, which are not solid but constructed with hollow chambers. The reason or advantage is that this material weighs about 30% less while offering the same degree of stability.

Depending on the type, the edges and closures come with bands of various widths: 22mm (ECO), 25mm (Live), 30mm (Profi) und 35mm (Road case). The bands are riveted to the wood slabs. Road cases feature recessed rivets, which is a great advantage with cases in constant use and in cramped conditions. For even more stable cases and racks you may want to use carriage bolts instead.

Of course the corners must be fitted to the respective case size. Our production facility takes care of that automatically.

Regular and butterfly latches are available. Butterfly latches are available in SMALL, MEDIUM and LARGE, in addition, you can have a loop attached to allow the use of a padlock.

Handles of various desings and in various metarials are available. Folding handles are available in SMALL, MEDIUM and LARGE and with or without handle dish.

The standard caster has a 100mm diameter. We have used 80mm casters, too, but they have not stood the test of intensive use on the road. Just think of the cobblestone streets you have to push the cases along, that's a real test of endurance.

We should mention the fact that every set of casters can carry a maximum weight of 450kg. Basically, you will collapse a long time before these casters will give out :-). Alternatively, if you so wish (and pay a little surcharge) we can mount a set that is certified for 650kg.

The racks for mounting the 19" devices are generally stepless and feature an embedded square nut. "Live" and "Profi" racks feature stepless rack mounts with rubber keders, which hold the embedded hexagon nut in place. Compared to the punched mounts, these have the advantage of being better able to absorb shocks. If your amp is fixed to a punched mount, for example, and the case is set down ungently or even dropped, the weight of the amp pulls at the mount. This effect is amplified, unfortunately, by the leverage effect. The mounting depth of the amp is the lever here. This quickly results in several Newtons of force being exerted. In a stepless mount, the amp is merely lowered a little in such cases.

Five foamed materials, each 120mm thick, are used for padding. They are glued inside the case to cover the entire interior surface. The density of the foamed material and the thickness of the padding is adjusted to the equipment to be stored in the case (a video projector, for example, should be protected by padding somewhat softer than that for a guitar). You can have thicker padding if you want, but this quickly translates to a higher price.

In special cases, for example mic cases, the so-called inlays may also be exactly cut out to meet the shape of the instrument. Evidently, the dimensions must be given faithfully to enabe us to do so. But there are also standard measurements which the manufacturer has used many times previously.

Of course, there are a wide variety of further options with which to outfit your rack. Among them are rack stands, service hatches, fan strays, connector bands/trays, telescopic handles, corner mount castors, hinges, feet, and many more.