[Nhcoll-l] Compactors in collections

[Douglas Yanega]

On 12/14/21 7:58 AM, Ann Bogaerts wrote:
> Hello everybody,
>
> We wish to renovate our herbarium with 4 milj. specimens and we want 
> to get some feedback from other institutions who already renovated or 
> renewed their collection buildings.
>
> One of our main questions is the use of compactors yes or no? So what 
> is your opinion about this? How much space do you save using a 
> compactor and how is it working with this kind of system? For which 
> collections do you use it?
>
> We are really interested in the do's and don'ts and it would also be 
> nice if you could send us a picture of the compactors you use.
>
Briefly: our insect collection went from regular static insect cabinets 
to a compactor system in 2002. It almost doubled our storage capacity 
(instead of 7 aisles and 8 rows of cabinets, we now have 2 aisles and 13 
rows of cabinets). That bought us a few decades' worth of expansion.

Liquid storage cabinets are in the static units to either side, and and 
microscope slides are in a narrow shelving unit in the middle; the 11 
movable compactor units are only for cabinets of pinned specimens, and 
operated manually. In 18 years we have not needed any repairs, which is 
a far better track record than electric-powered compactor systems. 
Insects on pins are fragile but not as bad as people might think; we 
routinely ship specimens using postal delivery and only rarely 
experience significant damage.

The MAJOR caveat for compactors has to do with design and execution: we 
had to literally breathe down the necks of the people from the compactor 
company because they kept screwing up the blueprints and specs for the 
hardware dimensions in very minor ways, and there were also issues with 
pouring a layer of concrete on top of an existing floor. To illustrate 
how subtle but devastating a mistake can be, one of the things they 
didn't account for was that both sides of each moving unit had a knob 
that could be pulled out to engage the brake on that side. Those knobs 
stuck out an inch when fully retracted. We have two aisles, and each was 
calculated on the blueprints to be about 36 inches wide, and there are 6 
moving compactor units on one side and 5 on the other. They failed to 
realize that their calculations had *excluded the knobs*, which 
subtracted 2 inches of space per unit. Had they proceeded with the 
installation as planned, the aisle on one side would have been only 24 
inches, and only 26 inches on the other, which isn't even enough space 
to open the cabinet doors. I caught this mistake and had them machine 
the knobs an inch shorter so they retract almost flush with the side, 
instead of projecting; they are a little tricky to pull out, but at 
least we can work in the aisles. They similarly failed to account for 
the three inches in height that were added by the wheels of the 
undercarriage on the compactor units, but I didn't catch that mistake, 
so the tops of some cabinets would have run into some low-hanging 
ceiling ductwork that we had expected to be clear. We had to rebuild the 
ductwork before all the cabinets could be installed.

I advise anyone planning compactors to stay very actively engaged during 
the design process, and don't trust the contractors to get every little 
detail right. Be very wary in particular about the precision of 
dimensions, and maybe plan a few extra inches here and there if you can.

Peace,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20211214/b510ffde/attachment.html>