Shockmount Rack Cases

[jexjexjex]

HI Gang

 

I'm on the hunt for new cases for my Betapacks.

 

Flightcasewarehouse have some rather natty looking 4U shockmount cases on their site at £100 each, but I can get standard rack cases for £69.99.

 

Given that mostly I tend to travel with my packs anyway and can make sure that they're treated well, are the shockmounts worth the extra?

 

Ideas and thoughts please.

[paulears]

For a betapack, I doubt it. They're quite heavy and pretty tough - something designed with people battering in plugs in mind isn't that fragile. Shock mount cases are great for more fragile kit - or perhaps things like computers that actually have bits inside that can get bounced out of their sockets. They're also larger, of course - so sometimes this can be important too.

[justincase]

I would agree with paulears thoughts and would also suggest standard style racks for your Betapacks - and enjoy the cost savings to boot.

[Brian]

Generic shockmount cases don't work.

 

To properly absorb any shocks the resilient mounting must be matched to the load. Too stiff, or too small a load, and you may as well not bother.

[justincase]

To add to Brian's correct comments. A foam lined rack will work in extreme instances by providing an area to absorb impact, bit like a crumple zone, g forces with be reduced by the foam absorbing some of the force.

 

To give better protection a full shock mounted system is required, but this adds considerable cost, which will need to be balanced against how critical the equipment, expected/ required life expectancy (technology moves quickly these days) and of course budget.

 

Shock mounting an item has two sides. First is to remove vibration. The main vibration found in touring is from the thousands of hours equipment spends in a truck, so mounts need to be 'tuned' to remove the main frequencies found in road movements (to stop equipment literally vibrating to bits) which all our suspension racks are.

 

Second part of equation is shock, the g forces that are acceptable to the equipment. For this we need the equipment's G Fragility rating. If an item is prone to faults by shock it is usually supplied with a G fragility rating, the larger the G force needed to cause breakage, the less protection necessary from shock and vibration. For instance, an item with 20 G fragility will suffer damage when subjected to a force 20 times that of normal earth gravity. For this shock critical equipment, we like many other case companies offer racks with standard ranges for example 15-30 G rating, 40-70, 50-80, 40-80 and 80-120 G etc. as well as custom solutions.

 

Weight is requested if we do not know the equipment, in the entertainment industry we have a good idea a lot of the time (after 30 years manufacturing case in this area), because as Brian rightly points out this important factor is needed in the equation to allow us to use the correct number and type of mounts.

 

So Brain is perfectly correct, but s I said earlier, all this adds to the price and depending on it's intended use, may not be cost effective or even a necessary solution in many instances. If in doubt I would suggest seeking advice from a professional case manufacturer.

[TonyMitchell]

FCW = great company to deal with, good products & great value... BUT IMHO their sleeved racks aren't one of their better products. We had one a few years ago, which when loaded with heavy amplifiers (3 or 4 big macrotechs), the bottom foam became almost completely squashed and the inner sleeve had an annoying tendency to shift itself forward, the only way to rectify being to lay the rack on its back.

 

 

We recently purchased one of these steel framed shock racks from FCW, the concept seems good, far superior to the sleeved rack... although I'm not going to intentionally push a rack of D12s off a taillift to test it!

http://www.flightcasewarehouse.co.uk/music...sp?groupID=5855

 

Tony