Packaging

Packing carries out what packaging prototyping established: it is not something improvised at the end of the cycle but an operation with defined materials, a defined sequence and checks of its own. On pieces with a visible finish it is also the last chance to look at the product before it disappears into a crate.

The materials in contact come first. Every surface has its incompatibilities: adhesive films that leave residue on fresh paint, foams that emboss soft surfaces, papers that hold moisture. The shop rule is simple — whatever touches the piece must have been tested on that finish, not generically considered protective.

Then there is mechanical restraint. The piece must not move inside the packaging: damage does not come from a single impact but from micro-vibration repeated over hundreds of kilometres, which wears the protection away exactly at the bearing points. Restraint goes on the points that carry load, never on visible surfaces, and the weight is distributed so the package can be stacked if the shipment requires it.

Good packaging also tells you how it opens. This way up, lifting points, the order in which components come out, a list of what is inside: on site the person opening is almost never the person who ordered, and an ambiguous opening causes more damage than an awkward journey. Where pieces leave knocked down, component identification and assembly documentation travel with the package.

The final check is that what has been packed matches what was ordered, package by package. It is a mundane step and it remains the most effective way of avoiding the worst phone call: the one where a piece is missing from an installation that has already started. The count is done by two people, against a written list, and it closes the order: from there the piece is no longer in the shop's hands, and it is the last moment when a mistake still costs little.