Detailed Product Description & How to Use This Product

The Strongbox is an extremely fast, easy to use, safe, and reusable method for shipping fine art. It takes less than five minutes from start to finish packing a painting of any value for shipping anywhere in the world and has been approved by all the major air and ground carriers for transporting fine art even with glass. The outer shell is constructed of either a 500lbs double wall or a 350 lbs single wall corrugated material, depending upon the size. The initial testing with Fed Ex showed the deeper containers were a little more vulnerable to collapse. Then as the years have past and artwork has grown exponentially, we continued the 500lbs double wall just because of the vast expanse of space. Inside there are three layers of polyurethane foam. 

Poly-foam is spongy, yet still dense foam and is the most shock absorbent material we have found to date. The top and bottom layers of the convoluted foam give it the peaks and valleys and allows the artwork to remain suspended when it rests on these peaks. This suspension effect is what makes our containers suitablefor shipping glass because it diverts the shock away from the pressure points of the frame. The middle layer of foam fills the center of thecontainer and is perforated into small 1" cubes. 

All you do to prepare for shipment is open the container, remove the top layer of foam, and lay your artwork in the center of the middle layer of "perf-pak" foam. Then take a marker and mark around the four corners of the frame, remove the art and tear out the perforations within the parameters you outlined and this will create a window for your piece to custom fit to the container. Instruction sheets are included in each Strongbox and will suggest tearing one row smaller if any of your marks fall inside the center of any of the blocks. It's always best to tear one smaller rather than larger because the foam is spongy and it will give and this will allow it to hug it in place that much tighter. The main objective is for there to be absolutely no room for the artwork to move in any direction once the container is sealed. However, after you've pulled the foam back and placed the artwork inside, if the outside window of foam begins to bulge or bow a great deal go ahead and tear off one row at a time from the length and width until it's snug, but satisfactory. After you've torn out the middle layer, all you do is place the top layer of foam back on top (peaks facing inside) and close the container. It has self closing tabs similar to a giant pizza box, but you will want to tape the lip shut in insure nothing will open the container in transit. Many of our clients also tape the sides of the Strongbox, which I encourage. This will just create a much tighter environment, which is a good thing, especially when shipping heavy mirrors or mosaics. 

The Strongbox also is available with an ABS plastic "puncture guard liner" which provides the pack with same puncture resistance of 3/8" plywood without the weight of actually having to use wood. We sell approximately 60% lined to 40% unlined. They both have the exact same shock protection, which is usually what causes trauma during a shipment.