Equipment Cases With Foam: 5 Crucial Facts About Foam
While the exterior of our custom cases provides a high level of impact resistance, we also design custom foam inserts for each case. Equipment cases with foam inserts provide a higher level of protection, ensuring that each of your components is as safe as possible. Here’s a quick look at foam in general, and some specifics about our foam inserts.
1. Foam Is A Thermoplastic
We create each of our cases using high-density polyethylene for the exterior, a highly durable, lightweight and impact-resistant thermoform plastic. When you order equipment cases with foam, this custom foam interior also is created from a thermoform plastic. Virtually all thermoform plastics, whether they are foam or rigid materials, are recyclable. So, while your custom Bel-Air Case is meant to last for many, many years, it’s nice to know that all of the components, inside and out, are recyclable.
2. Many Companies Provide Only Pick & Pluck Foam
There are quite a few companies out there advertising their equipment cases with foam, but many of these companies provide their clients with pick & pluck foam rather than a custom foam insert. This means that once you receive the case, you are responsible for plucking away bits of foam in order to create cavities to hold your equipment or components.
3. Pick & Pluck Foam Is Not Ideal
There are several reasons why we recommend avoiding pick & pluck foam interiors. For one thing, this isn’t a truly custom interior, and it’s highly possible that you will end up plucking away a bit too much foam and not really protecting your items adequately. This type of foam also tends to break down rather quickly, so it has a short lifespan. Additionally, you will be paying for a big chunk of foam, but you probably will use less than half of the foam you receive. Why pay for foam that you end up just tossing in the trash bin?
4. Custom Foam Is Your Best Bet
At Bel-Air Cases, we never use pick & pluck foam for our equipment cases with foam. You can either opt for a case with a foam insert or a case with a custom foam insert with cavities designed to fit every centimeter of your products or components exactly. We only use the highest quality foam materials to create our case inserts, and these materials, provide an extra layer of protection and impact resistance for whatever you need to place in your case.
5. Foam Insert Options
As stated above, some of our clients want a case with a basic foam insert, providing an extra layer of protection, but not customized for specific pieces of equipment or products. However, we can go well beyond a basic insert and can handle highly complex interiors with dividers and interior doors. To learn more, go to our Case Options page, which showcases a few pictures of our highly customized foam interiors. This page also highlights our many color options, as well as the wheels, handles, hinges, latches and feet we can affix to many of our cases.
For more than 50 years, it has been our goal to provide our customers with the highest quality custom cases at affordable prices. Whether you need equipment cases with foam inserts, heavy-duty shipping cases, expo cases or something else, we can create just what you need. Contact at us at any time via phone at (866) 235-2472 or you can click on the Contact Us page and fill out our quick contact form.
The Equipment Carrying Case: Which One Do You Need?
At Bel-Air Cases, we can create a custom equipment carrying case for virtually any project. After all, we are the makers of the original vacuum-formed equipment case and throughout the last 50 years, we have crafted cases for lighting equipment, medical equipment, camera equipment, military equipment and much more.
Before you order a custom equipment carrying case, it is important that you understand the different types of cases that we offer. Of course, each case is completely customized to hold your unique products, but the way you intend to use the case will determine the type of case that best fits your needs.
Light-Duty Carry Cases
If you need an attractive, lightweight equipment carrying case to hold non-delicate gear or sales kits, our light-duty cases are an ideal match. While these cases are protective, they are meant to hold products and equipment that won’t be shipped or transported as luggage.
These handy cases can be used to hold items such as medical supplies and equipment, diagnostic and testing equipment, home electronics, computers and computer accessories, musical instruments and other items that will be toted by hand rather than being handled by mail carriers or baggage handlers. While these cases are very lightweight, we can add optional hardware to the cases such as a rigid wheels and a telescoping handle to make it easier to transport your gear. We also can add a built-in combination lock or a key lock for extra security.
Medium-Duty Carry Cases
If you need something a bit more durable, that can handle occasional transport as luggage, our medium-duty cases might be a good option. Again, these cases are very lightweight and ideal for a wide range of non-delicate and semi-delicate items, as well as sales kits, medical kits, electronics and so forth.
Heavy-Duty Carry Cases
If you do have items that often are shipped, either through various mail carriers or as airline luggage, we highly recommend that you consider a heavy-duty case for your custom equipment carrying case. These heavy-duty cases are among the most durable and lightest in weight transport cases available for purchase. Our heavy-duty cases meet ATA 300-Category 1 specifications as well as MIL specifications. You also can add wheels and telescoping handles to make it easy for you to wheel your case around an airport or a convention center or wherever you need to take it.
Shipping Cases
As the name suggests, this type of equipment carrying case is designed specifically for products that are transported frequently as luggage or freight. These cases also are ideal for any type of delicate equipment, whether or not you intend to ship this equipment frequently. This might include computers, video equipment, commercial tooling and other highly fragile items. These cases are designed with protective corner bumpers and it is these bumpers that absorb impact rather than the case hardware or the items inside the case.
Expo Cases
If you attend a variety of trade shows and conventions throughout the year, our expo cases provide you with an easy way to transport and protect all of your convention gear. Our expo cases are designed specifically to store and transport all of your graphics materials, banners, displays and other items that might not fit into a “regular-sized” case.
Again, this type of equipment carrying case is quite lightweight, and we certainly can add wheels and many different types of handles to make it as easy as possible for your team to move equipment across a vast convention center. We also can customize the cases with a specific color and add your company name or logo to each case to ensure that everything is easy to identify.
No matter what type of equipment carrying case you might need, the team at Bel-Air Cases can create it. Our custom cases also feature custom foam inserts designed specifically for your components or products, providing an extra layer of protection. If you need one case or 100 cases (or more), contact us today and we will get started on your equipment case project.
Custom Carrying Cases: 6 Products That Need Bel-Air Cases
While off-the-shelf cases might be fine for some items, custom carry cases and custom shipping cases are essential tools of the trade in many industries. At Bel-Air Cases, we’ve been designing high-quality cases for more than 50 years for clients from a wide range of industries. Here’s a quick look at just a few industries that would benefit from our custom carrying cases.
1. Audio & Video Equipment
If you are a musician or a filmmaker, keeping your gear safe and protected is crucial. Our custom carrying cases and shipping cases can protect your precious equipment. We recommend using our medium-duty or heavy-duty carrying cases and heavy-duty shipping cases. These durable cases can handle the rigors of transport and shipping with ease. While these heavy-duty cases provide maximum protection, yet they are still lightweight and easy to maneuver.
2. Medical Equipment
Our medium-duty and heavy-duty custom carrying cases are ideal for many different types of medical products. This includes medical supplies as well as any type of equipment. We will design custom foam interiors to protect every component of your equipment. We never use diced foam as this does not provide adequate protection. Your products and equipment are simply too valuable to trust diced foam. We recommend opting for heavy-duty carrying cases or heavy-duty shipping cases if you often ship or transport your medical equipment.
3. Lighting Equipment
Our made-to-order cases can meet virtually any application that requires the protection of your sensitive light equipment. We will construct custom interiors that feature a combination of dividers and foam cavities to ensure that your product is well protected but also easy to package.
4. Military & Aerospace Equipment
We can build custom carrying cases that meet just about any military specifications. The U.S. Military, as well as leaders in the military fulfillment and aerospace industries, have trusted Bel-Air cases for decades to hold a wide range of equipment.
5. Trade Show Components
Our custom carrying cases also include expo transport cases, which provide an ultimate level of protection for your trade show equipment and displays. These custom carrying cases are designed specifically to transport wider and thinner items, and can withstand the rigors of airplane travel and shipping. Add your custom logo to each expo case to ensure that all of your cases are easy for your staff to identify.
6. Sales & Marketing Displays
Our custom expo cases also are a great choice for items such as point-of-purchase displays and any other type of sales or marketing display. If you have a sales pitch and need an expo case that can protect and carry all of your marketing materials, presentation visual aids, charts, maps and any other type of graphics or artwork, our custom expo cases are a perfect choice.
These are just a few types of equipment and items that our Bel-Air custom carrying cases can protect and transport. Just about every carrying case we make can be customized with a telescoping handle and wheels, making transport a breeze, no matter what your case contains. Our heavy-duty carrying cases, shipping cases and expo cases are ideal for any product frequently transported from place to place, handling the rigors of airplane travel and shipping with ease.
If you need any type of custom carrying cases, head to our homepage and click the “Request A Custom Quote” tab. A representative will contact you shortly, take down some information and provide you with a free quote for your unique project.
Custom Plastic Cases: 4 Reasons Why You Need Our Cases
Whether you need rugged shipping cases to transport equipment across the world or small custom carrying cases for your sales team, we can design any type of custom plastic cases that you might need. But why choose our cases? Here are four compelling reasons why we believe Bel-Air cases should be your first choice.
1. The Protection Factor
There are many different types of custom plastic cases on the market, but few rival the durability of Bel-Air cases. Our rugged, heavy-duty custom shipping cases and heavy-duty custom plastic carrying cases can withstand the rigors of transport and shipping with ease. Heavy-duty cases are ideal if you need to ship delicate items or heavier items that weigh more than 30 pounds.
In addition to heavy-duty cases, we also design medium-duty and light-duty custom plastic cases. Medium-duty cases are ideal for demo and sales kits and as OEM cases for items weighing between five and 40 pounds. Light-duty cases are our most affordable option, perfect for items weighing from about five pounds up to 20 pounds.
As a side note, don’t let the word “plastic” fool you. The materials we use are extremely impact-resistant and durable. The shells of our custom plastic cases are vacuum-formed out of high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, and this type of thermoform plastic has many advantages. HDPE is highly durable, lightweight and affordable, and it even offers good chemical and moisture resistance.
2. Customization: Inside & Out
At Bel-Air Cases, we can customize every inch of your cases, inside and out, and we offer more options and features than any other thermoform case company. For instance, we offer a variety of hardware options, including several types of wheel and handle options. You also can select from several types of hinges, latches and feet.
Our standard case colors are silver and black, but we also have several optional stock colors, including white, yellow, orange, red, olive, green and blue. In addition, if you need custom plastic cases in a custom color, we may be able to provide color-matching services. We also can add graphics and logos to the exterior of your cases, as well as engraved plates and custom decals.
For the interior of your case, we will provide you with custom foam sets. We never use foam slabs or diced foam, as we believe these simply don’t provide an adequate level of protection. Aside from the protection factor, custom foam sets are simply a nicer way to display your items or products, and for many of our clients, aesthetics are an important factor.
3. Affordability
Because all Bel-Air custom plastic cases are made-to-order, it would be impossible for us to simply list prices somewhere on our website. Each case we build is unique, designed to the exact specifications of the product or parts that will be protected and transported by the case. Once we discuss your project in detail, we will be able to provide you with a free cost quote.
That said, our custom plastic cases are highly affordable. While you won’t walk out the door with a custom case for just $50, we probably won’t be charging you $1,000 for a single case either. Generally, our cases range from about $120 up to about $500, depending on the size of the case as well as the style and classification of the case, such as light-duty, medium-duty or heavy-duty. The type of foam insert you need also can affect the cost of the case. Obviously, a larger heavy-duty case will be more expensive than a small, light-duty case, but we strive to create high-quality custom plastic cases that are as affordable as possible.
While off-the-shelf cases might seem like the most affordable option, these non-custom cases don’t provide the level of protection that Bel-Air custom cases provide. Saving a bit money means nothing if your items or equipment aren’t protected adequately.
4. Experience Counts
We’ve been creating custom plastic cases for more than 50 years, and we set the standard for case manufacturing. In fact, we are the original innovator of vacuum-formed equipment cases and over the years, we’ve created custom plastic cases for a myriad of industries. Our areas of specialization include the creation of custom cases for audio & video equipment, medical equipment cases, lighting equipment cases and military & aerospace equipment cases, but we can design cases for just about any type of equipment or product.
If you are in the market for custom plastic cases, give us a call at any time. You also can request a custom quote through our website. Simply head to our Contact Us page or click on the “Request A Custom Quote” tab on our homepage.
Customizing Plastic Cases to Support Your Branding
In order to brand your business effectively, it is vital to understand who you are as an organization and how you want the consumer to view you. Once you have decided those things, you can make an informed decision about your logos, color choices, packaging and product specs. For the most effective branding possible, it is important to have visually appealing products and logos that capture the attention of your audience.
Good branding is not just simply an advertising strategy or marketing procedure you learned in school. It is a necessity because it is a key to the success and longevity of your company’s future. At Bel-Air Cases, this is something we strongly believe in and understand. That’s why, in addition to offering high quality, protective custom plastic cases, we offer something else of equal importance.
What is that? It’s the opportunity to use our cases to your best branding advantage. Bel-Air Cases encourages customers like you to customize the plastic cases you purchase from us with a variety of graphics and molded-in logos. Examples of these include:
- Size and Color Specifications
- Engraved Plates
- Custom Decals
- Molded Company Logos
By customizing your Bel-Air Cases product, you can make it align with your branding objectives and still maintain its highly professional appearance. We offer these customized options on any case we manufacture – and if you have questions regarding the customization of your case, our customer service department will be happy to answer them.
Browse through our various selections of styles and colors, and let us make the perfect custom plastic case for you. Call us today at (866) 235-2472 to see how we can help you!
Protect Your Trade Show Materials with Trade Show Cases
Presenting your company at a trade show can be a critical first step to increasing visibility and credibility. Trade shows provide a powerful platform for acquiring new customers, reaching out to your existing clientele and showcasing new products. Putting a face to the company is essential for establishing your brand as reliable and trustworthy.
Your booth will tell your potential clients a lot about your company and your presentation needs to be professional. Your banners and poster, TV screens and other visual aids, sales and marketing displays and other trade show components require special care to ensure that your investment in these materials last a long time. Transporting these materials properly can be a daunting task without the right trade show cases to keep them safe. And just think, with the right equipment to hold and transport your materials, set up and tear down will become easier and more organized.
Bel-Air Expo Travel Cases are made of high density polyethylene plastic for strength and impact resistance that will not only survive the rough treatment they will get at the airport or in shipping facilities, they’ll exceed your expectations at protecting your wares. Built with a sturdy spring-loaded steel handle and featuring durable nylon straps with tough plastic buckles and set atop built-in 3″ skate wheels with a metal housing, our trade show cases were built for convenience, ease of use and exceptional performance that will last many years to come.
With different sizes and shapes, you are sure to find the perfect case to fit your particular needs. From shallow and small to larger equipment options, our team has put together a line of trade show cases to fit all your transportation needs.
Not sure what you need? Call or email and we’ll be happy to help!
Custom Medical Device Cases
Throughout the medical and pharmaceutical industries special medical devices are used constantly, and the need to transport these expensive devices is critical. At Bel-Air Cases we are consistently tasked with manufacturing specific made-to-order cases so that those in the medical profession can ship and transport devices without worry of breaking or damage. In pharmaceutical cases we are often required to build cases that can withstand temperature changes, so that sensitive material can be shipped without fear of damage. These cases need to be visually appealing while being fully functional at the same time. We build shipping and transportation cases for all situations. Including expensive medical devices for sales representatives, implants, and emergency medical services (EMS) case solutions. At Bel-Air we follow best practices in the engineering of custom transportation cases and we are equipped to engineer and build literally for any situation.
At Bel-Air we pride ourselves on designing, building and delivering the best custom medical cases. We’ve been satisfying the needs of medical and pharmaceutical professionals for over 50 years. All of our medical shipping cases are manufactured using high density polyethylene plastic which provides strength and impact resistance. We build in molded bumpers for unsurpassed medical devices protection. We mold-in ribs and channels for stacking stability when multiple cases need to be stored or shipped. Our cases can withstand temperatures from -80 degrees F to +180 degrees and we have nearly limitless custom options available to satisfy the unique needs of our clients. At Bel-Air Cases we’ve worked with the top brands in the medical community and we’d love to help you with your custom case needs.
Understanding Polyethylene Plastic
Polyethylene, the largest volume thermoplastic polymer used in the market today, is considered the work horse of thermoplastics. Some polyethylenes are flexible, others are rigid; some have poor impact strength, others are virtually unbreakable. At Bel-Air-Cases we manufacture our made-to-order cases using high-density polyethylene also referred to as HDPE.
The benefits of using HDPE plastic for our cases is vast. It has several properties that make it ideal as a packaging and manufacturing product. It’s stronger than standard polyethylene, acts as an effective barrier against moisture and remains solid at room temperature. It resists insects, rot and other chemicals. HDPE also creates no harmful emissions during its production or during its use by the customer. Also, HDPE leaks no toxic chemicals into the soil or water.
HPDE is also extremely lightweight, due to the density of the material. This not only makes the manufactuing of our cases faster and easier, but it also makes transporting lighter. The low weight combined with the many options that high density polythene is available in, make it an ideal choice for creating custom cases for our customers.
Key Benefits of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
- Abrasion resistant
- Stress crack resistance
- Specially designed machined shapes and profiles
- High tensile strength
- Excellent energy absorption
What Is Thermoforming?
Bel-Air-Cases uses a process called thermoforming to produce high-end custom cases. Our expert staff will assist you with designing, customizing, and selecting options to build a truly custom “made-to-order” case.
We use vacuum forming and thermoforming which is the ideal solution for producing heavy duty carrying cases.
During the vacuum forming process, plastic sheets become heated until they are malleable enough to form around a mold. It is a simple process that produces resilient, lightweight, and seamless case shells quickly and efficiently.
Our vacuum formed case shells are produced individually components that leave the process as the intended product, or occasionally as a substantial part of the intended product; these parts are good substitutes for sheet metal or fiberglass materials due to enhanced durability and higher strength-to-weight ratios.
The vacuum forming process is one-sided; meaning the finished part’s shape and detail are both on one side. Advantages of vacuum forming include less expensive tooling, fast turnaround and easier maintenance and modification as compared to an injection molding process.
We use thermoforming to form thermoplastic sheets into three-dimensional case shells. Thermoforming requires a relatively low level of forming pressure, so tooling can be constructed rapidly and less expensively compared to other molding processes. Fast cycle times, combined with automated sheet-feeding equipment, allows Bel-Air-Cases to provide rapid turnaround of our cases.
We utilize a combination of automated, manual, and digitally controlled equipment to fabricate parts composed of polyethylene, polycarbonate, high-impact styrene, and several other materials.
We focus on product quality and durability. Tight control of the materials and processes we use allow us to build the highest quality cases for your unique needs.
To learn more about our processes please give us a call at (866) 235-2472 or send an email to info@bel-air-cases.com.
What is Vacuum Forming?
Bel-Air-Cases specializes in using vacuum forming to create high-quality cases. In this process, cut sheets of plastic are heated in ovens which use ceramic or gas heaters with zone controls to maintain an accurate measurement and control the sheet temperature.
The sheet is then placed over a mold and a vacuum is applied, pulling the sheet into the shape of the mold, creating vacuum formed molds. This process is popular for large parts such as the truck bedliner seen in this picture. Vacuum forming usually offers the lowest tooling costs and quickest delivery of tooling, compared with traditional processes.
Vacuum Forming Allows Bel-Air-Cases A Range of Possibilities
Our specialty in the vacuum forming and thermoforming process allows us to specialize in customization the customization of thermoplastic cases for a variety of industries. Our expert staff of engineers who can help with the design process, complete customization, and selection of options to best match your needs.
What sets our process apart is the ability to manufacture complex patterns and shapes, uniqie to your specific needs. With rapid turnaround time on vacuum formed cases, a range of size options, and a commitment to product quality, we strive for optimal performance in our services. Quality is a top priority for Bel-Air-Plastic cases and it shows in every step of our process, from careful control of the raw materials we use to process parameters that allow us to match individual needs for each of our customers.
Connect with Bel-Air-Cases to learn more about how we can help you with your project.
If you are interested in learning more about our “made-to-order” cases, simply give us a call at (866) 235-2472 or send an email to info@bel-air-cases.com. We look forward to speaking with you!