Exhibit Relocation
Services Include:Welding, Custom Fabrication, Fossil Mounting and Rigging.
Our specimen and exhibit relocation services involve exhibit dismantling, rigging, crating and shipping, and re-assembly.
RCI has dismantled and relocated numerous permanent exhibits including some of the world’s most spectacular fossil mounts. We develop an end-to-end relocation plan with our clients to ensure the safe relocation of their prized specimens and exhibits.
Large Specimens often require extensive planning before the specimen is ever touched. The planning stage allows us to figure out what equipment, techniques and precautions will be taken to ensure the safest possible relocation of the specimen. When moving large heavy specimens point load may need to be taken into consideration to determine if the floor will need to be reinforced or if the load can be safely distributed over it by spreading the load over a greater area. Another issue that can present itself in large specimens is deflection or stress caused by handling. In this case we would construct a steel support frame around the specimen to be moved. If any of these concerns are present we use a licensed engineer to develop a relocation plan with our staff and the client. This plan is to make sure that the move takes place with the minimal amount of risk possible to the specimen, building, and people present.
RCI has also developed a vibration isolation system for moving small specimens. This system utilizes the existing collection drawer or a new one and can be adapted to any manufacturer’s storage system. First the specimen is securely packed in the drawer and then placed in our storage system. This allows the storage cabinet to be secured to the truck while still allowing the anti-vibration component to work independently and limit the transfer of vibration or movement from the truck while in transit.
We have moved complete collections such as the ichnology collection at Amherst College. This particular collection required us to move over 300 individual trackways that weighed from 40lbs to 8000lbs. It involved taking the trackways from the basement of the Pratt museum to the new museum. In the new museum we designed and created a new storage system using steel frames that travel on linear motion bearings. The use of linear motion bearings allows museum staff to move the large trackways with ease and reduce the vibration or stress on the trackway itself.
At both the CMN and ROM we relocated several large plaque mounted specimens. The largest of these was an Edmontosaurus that was over 30’ long and 12’ high weighing in at over 20,000lbs. The specimen had to be lowered 3’ and then moved to another wing of the museum. Once in the newly restored wing it was raised and secured to a steel frame that was designed and fabricated at RCI.