Sometimes things need a little more protection than just simply being placed into a box. This could be due to a fragile surface or an irregular shape, or perhaps extra protection is required from accidental damage. In this situation foam inserts can help offer the extra level of protection.
A made to measure bespoke box is the first step in protecting treasured collections and objects. Preventing unwanted movement inside the box is a good start to prevent damage. Adding a layer of foam into the base, or top and base, of the box offers the contents extra protection from potential damage.
What foam is best for box inserts?
If you are going to use a foam insert in your box then it is important to choose a foam that itself will not cause damage. Many commercially available foams are not 'inert'. Inert means the material is chemically stable and will not react with other substances (your collection!). Foams that are not inert can cause all sorts of problems and really damage anything they are touching. Here are a few issues that a poor quality foam can cause:
As you can see it is important to be selective over which foam you choose. A poor quality foam will cease to offer protection and will eventually be a source for damage.
The foam we use for our made to measure box inserts is Plastazote LD45. This is an inert foam that is used widely in museum storage and display applications. It is safe to use with your valuable collections for long-term archival storage.
How do you make a foam box insert?
It's really easy to do this on Boxsite.co.uk, simply enter your internal dimensions and choose the colour and thickness of the foam that you require.
The foam we offer can be cut with a good quality craft knife, if you need to cut shapes out of the sheet it can be acheived without any special tools. You might choose to cut shapes from an top layer or layers and have an uncut sheet beneath to protect an object. Plastazote can be securely glued using a low melt glue gun.
We are also able to cut custom shapes from Plastazote foam. To do this we would require 1:1 scale drawings in a vector PDF format, a minimum number of sheets may apply. If that is something you are interested in, contact us here.
How to order a box to acommodate your box insert
The important thing to remember is that you will need to add the thickness of your foam insert to your desired internal dimensions.
For example, you would like a box that fits a book which is 200mm W x 300mm L x 25mm H, and your foam insert is 12mm thick. Your box internal height would need to be 25mm+12mm, we also recommend an extra 3mm to ensure a good fit | 25mm + 12mm + 3mm = 40mm.