Say no to donuts!
June 8th, 2009Every once in a while, a crate will pass through our warehouse with those air-filled plastic feet, each in the shape of a torus with one flat side, such as Skid-Mates by Hardigg Cases. They come in several densities to support different loads, indicated by a color code. These “donuts” are occasionally used in lieu of skids in the art shipping industry (more often in the general shipping industry), presumably to add that extra bit of cushioning between the crate and the floor, or to create forklift access for loads shipped without pallets or custom skids.
For each plastic-footed crate that comes and goes without incident, one or more have shown up with a crushed or missing foot; sometimes more than one. An incomplete set of feet obviously makes for an unstable crate. Those aren’t much fun when they are tall, thin and six hundred pounds or more. This can be especially serious for anything that shouldn’t be tilted, much less rocked back and forth throughout its transit. For this reason, I like to keep a few different types of donuts around the crate shop. When a crate passes through with such a problem, I simply slap a new one on wherever it is needed.
That said, I am of the opinion that plastic donuts have no place in custom art crating. By “custom” I mean crates that you design and build to unique specifications; as opposed to prefab crates and pallets for, say, a beer bottling plant. Any crate that doesn’t pack an artwork sufficiently on the inside is in trouble before it’s built, and needs to go back to the drawing board. Why not design an adequate crate and then add a little extra cushion to the outside? Because that can easily lead to taking the donuts into consideration when designing the interior packing in a crunch. Such a thing might never occur to you or me, but somebody out there is doing it right now because they are on a budget and in a hurry. If your custom art crate needs donuts under it, you’re doing it wrong. There are better ways to give your shipment multiple and separate levels of cushioning.
But donuts are not merely unnecessary on a good art crate. There is a reason or two not to use them. As I mentioned before, they come with different load strengths so that you can take the crate’s weight into account when balancing the sturdiness needed with a bit of cushioning. But what if your crate with well-balanced donuts is dropped on one edge or corner, temporarily putting all of the weight on fewer donuts? Or what if another company’s crate is stacked on top of yours? Or two more? It would seem that the feet of higher densities would be the safe bet in terms of avoiding donut failure, but that would often as not eliminate most of the cushioning for which you have chosen to use them in the first place. However unlikely the scenarios above might sound, the fact remains that I see at least one of a set crushed more often than not.
Even when none of the donuts are damaged and they are doing their intended job, the exterior cushioning they provide can cause a tall and heavy crate to feel unsteady before any of the feet leave the floor. If a transport is not properly loaded with this in mind, it leaves the crate free for all kinds of motion during transit. Hollow feet designed for specific load ranges can always be exposed to unexpected and adverse conditions during shipping.
Finally there is the potential for damage of a more violent kind. In contests with forklifts, donuts always lose. Wooden skids can also be knocked off by wayward forks, but only if the crate is too heavy to be pushed away by the forks (or it is pinned in place by something like a wall), and if the skid is also broadsided by the shock. But in most cases wood skids are placed perpendicular to logical forklift access; giving a full-length beam of solid wood nowhere to go. So the shearing of a properly assembled wood skid is relatively uncommon. Custom skids also look better, as they can be designed as a solid, seamless part of the crate rather than just being pinned on as an afterthought.
In my opinion, donuts go with coffee – not fine art shipping.
Tags: adverse conditions, air-filled, art crate, art shipping, color code, crate, cushioning, custom art crating, custom skids, densities, donut, donut failure, general shipping, interior packing, load ranges, loads, pallets, plastic feet, skids, torus, unstable crate, warehouse, wooden skids
September 16th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I beg to differ (well sort of). My comment is one that I think is frequently appropriate. In many cases problems associated with a product or material have more to do with its application than it’s inherent merits. I have been in the field for a while in both commercial and institutional capacities and while I have seen everything described above associated with skidmates I a have also seen them used very successfully. In fact put in a few years back in the day in the New York office of FAE and saw more art crates come through in a couple weeks than most fine arts services providers will see in a year.
In my view it is the human element – knowing how to use your tools and materials – that makes the difference.
For instance I know that the Getty has used skidmates successfully for many years and it is not because they are cutting corners on their interior padding ( sometimes 3″ sorbethane between inner and outer containers).
Yes I have seen missing donuts, crushed, pierced, and loose donuts, but I have also seen handles set at 40″ hieghts, skids on twelve hundred pound crates that were made with skids 1/2″ too long or placed 1/8″ too close to allow for pallet jack use as well as a hundred other abominations.
My main clearly positive comment on skidmates is to say that my favorite function for their use is storage pallets. Double up some ply so that it has a nice thin flat top and then throw on 5 skidmates and you have a really effective, fast and efficient storage pallet that will minimize shock (because the object is not in a crate after all) and fork evenly up to a high shelf if need be.
My two cents worth. You have a killer website by the way and really sound crate designs from what I can see and I am not known as a generous person when it comes to this kind of stuff. Good work. I will make every attempt to check in on your blog in the future. The blog in itself is a contribution to the profession. Ashley
May 28th, 2010 at 5:54 am
Very awesome read. Honestly!