Safety Steps Before Putting Electronics In The Moving Truck
If you're relocating an office or moving to a new home with a lot of electronics in tow, you can't just treat everything like a box of fragile goods. It's not enough, as fragile objects are often individual pieces that can be treated one-by-one. Electronics sometimes have moving parts inside a chassis that can be just as dangerous to open as it is to throw it onto a moving truck. Here are a few issues to consider when moving electronics to a new location, along with ways to solve the problem.
Moving Parts Can Snap And Split
Many people make the mistake of padding the outside of a computer and assuming that everything is safe. You're just protecting the chassis with outside padding, which is redundant. The chassis/case is there to protect the inner-workings of the computer. Although many case styles are decorative and need protection to keep certain embellishments safe, this does nothing for everything inside the computer that makes the system work.
Computer cases are designed to stop impact from feet and hands, and to protect computers from most accidental water spills or accidental nudging. However, on a moving truck or even a plane, some components either become projectiles or breakable boards. Expansion cards such as sound cards or video cards are two major risks. These devices are thin boards that stick out of a computer's motherboard slot and can be broken when too much force causes the video card to shake. The cards project from the motherboard, but they're not flexible enough to withstand a lot of upward or downward force. A big enough bump in the right direction and the cards can snap at the data connectors.
It's cheaper to buy a new card than to get it repaired at this point. To be safe, it's best to have a technician remove any parts that protrude more than 3 or 4 inches. Only a trained professional with anti-static equipment should perform this job. Place the parts in anti-static bags and pack the components as separate fragile goods.
While inside the computer, the technician should also make sure that all components are securely tightened, but not so tight that the screws and bolts are cracking the components.
Anti-Static Protection
In addition to handling any smaller components with anti-static protection, devices that have exposed connectors or inner electronics should be protected against static electricity while moving.
For devices with thin metal traces--or many chips, such as processors--a jolt of static electricity may as well be a lightning strike. Static is surprisingly strong and simply dissipates as a slightly painful sting or noticeable annoyance on human skin, but the electricity can burn out chips and traces. It's not a lot of damage at all, but traces are constantly getting smaller and more precise. A small change can be devastating.
Ask a local moving services professional for anti-static packaging. This means not only getting boxes and storage bags with anti-static protection, but also avoiding static-generating cloth and other tools used to make moving easier. There are alternatives, and it's your responsibility to let the moving team know what they need to bring a few days before the move.
Contact a moving professional to outline your moving needs and to discuss household/office goods packing concerns.