Export crating for fabricated metalwork is not a generic exercise. A crate is built around the shape it carries: the length, the bends, the flanges, the places where the load can be taken. A box that would protect a flat plate will let a long bent tube flex and rub itself through its own wrapping.
That is why a supplier who packs regularly will ask what the part is before quoting the packing. The answer determines the internal structure, and the internal structure determines whether the part arrives in the condition it left in.
Movement is the enemy. A part that can shift inside its crate will do so at every handling point, and the damage is cumulative: a scuff becomes a polished patch, a polished patch becomes a dent at a flange. Blocking the part against the crate walls, rather than filling the void around it, is the reliable approach.
Soft fill alone compresses under load and lets the part settle. Blocks, cradles and ties that follow the geometry of the part hold it where it was placed. Where a tube is long and light, support it at intervals so it cannot sag or whip.
Brushed, polished and heat-coloured surfaces mark easily, and a mark on a visible exhaust tip is a return whatever the structural condition of the part. Wrap the finished faces first, then build the support around the wrapping rather than pressing the support against bare metal.
Keep wrapping materials that can trap moisture away from bare steel, or use a barrier that keeps water out entirely. A crate that breathes slightly is better than one that seals damp air against a surface for the length of the journey.
An exhaust section with a bend at one end and a flange at the other behaves like a lever. Any load applied at the free end is multiplied at the joint. Cradles placed near the ends, with the span between them kept short, do more for the part than any amount of padding at the tips.
Flanges deserve their own protection because they are flat, machined and easy to distort. A flange bolted to a temporary face, or backed by a rigid plate, keeps its shape. A flange hanging free in a crate is the first thing to arrive out of true.
A crate is handled by people and machines that do not know what is inside. It will be lifted, stacked, tipped and set down hard. It may sit in the rain, in a hot container or in a cold hold. Designing for the ordinary case and ignoring the awkward one is how most transit damage happens.
Joints, fixings and base runners take the load, so they are the parts to overbuild. The base in particular should be able to be dragged as well as lifted, because at some terminal it will be.
Mark the crate on more than one face, with the same information repeated, so a label lost to weather does not remove the identity of the contents. Note the weight and the lifting points where they can be seen. If the part must stay upright, say so on the crate rather than in the paperwork.
Pack a small envelope of documents inside, protected from damp, and tell the receiver it is there. When the crate is opened, the packaging should come away without a knife going near the part. Buyers ordering fabricated components often keep the crate for a later journey, and a crate built to carry exhaust pipework usually survives being used again.
