Magnetic closures for containers

Carol Clausen <carol_clausen [at] occshost__nlm__nih__gov>

>I recently saw some phase boxes that were held closed by two strips of
>magnetic tape...
>Has anyone used this tape on phase boxes and portfolios, and what has
>your experience been?

Over the last 15 years or so The National Library of New Zealand have
used a variety of phase box designs. The chosen method of closure was,
initially, to attach self adhesive velcro buttons directly to the board.
When this proved ineffective, due to the adhesive drying out, a modified
version was introduced using Mylar strips that had the velcro buttons
attached. The idea being this would prevent the adhesive drying out.
Unfortunately it didn't, in fact other problems associated with the
design and use of the Mylar were encountered.

We have now re-designed our phase boxes to take account of all the past
short comings and in particular to get away from the use of pressure
sensitive adhesive. To overcome the problem of using a suitable and
permanent closure. An extra flap has been added to the fore edge side of
the box and plastic dome fasteners are put onto it, using a treadle
machine. On the inside of the box a flap has been added to ensure that
the fasteners don't come into contact with the foredge or spine of the
book. There is no significant difference in construction time between
this new method and the previous costs of dome fasteners is only a few
cents per box after an initial outlay of under US$500 (approx) for the
machine and dies. Our tests show that the fasteners and flap will
with-stand more opening and closing than the average box is ever likely
to get i.e. in excess of 500 times.

David Ashman
National Library of New Zealand
PO Box 1467
Wellington
New Zealand
04-4743-000 x8864
Fax: 04-4743-035

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 7:85
                  Distributed: Wednesday, May 25, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-7-85-006
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