Start with the equipment, not the case
Every good flight case begins as a sketch around the equipment going inside it. That's not a marketing line — it's the difference between a case that protects gear and one that lets it move.
Before specifying anything, document four things about the equipment:
— Exact dimensions with all permanent peripherals attached. Add 5mm tolerance on each side for foam compression.
— Weight and the position of its centre of gravity. Heavy items off-centre demand reinforced internal fixings.
— Connection points that need access. Power inlets, network ports, antennae — does the case open in the right places?
— Operating environment between gigs. Some kit can be transported powered down; some IT and broadcast equipment cannot.
Once that's documented, the case design follows. Skipping this step is the most common reason cases fail in the field — they were specified to fit a piece of equipment, but not to protect it as it actually moves and operates.
The structural decisions that matter
Panel construction
The wall material defines almost everything else about the case — its weight, its impact resistance, its lifespan. For touring use, 9mm hexa-laminate is the standard. It's a hexagonal phenolic-coated plywood that resists crushing, tolerates moisture, and absorbs impact across its surface rather than concentrating it at a point.
Lightweight cases use thinner laminates — typically 6.5mm or 7mm — paired with structural reinforcement to recover the strength lost to thinner panels. They're noticeably easier to lift, which matters more than you'd think over a 60-show tour with two-up loading. The trade-off is a slightly shorter lifespan in the most punishing applications.
Extrusions and corners
Aircraft-grade aluminium extrusions wrap every edge of a properly built case. They do two jobs at once: they take the impact when a case is dropped onto a corner, and they keep the case square when it's stacked under load in a truck. Cases without extrusions don't survive serious touring — the corners crush, the panels lose their geometry, and within a year the lid no longer closes properly.
Corner pieces are equally important. A reinforced steel corner block at every junction means the impact energy from a drop is distributed into the extrusion rather than the panel.
Latches and hardware
Recessed butterfly latches are the touring industry standard for two reasons. First, they sit flush with the case body, so they don't catch on adjacent cases when loaded into a truck. Second, the butterfly mechanism applies even closing pressure across the gasket, which keeps the seal consistent over thousands of open-close cycles.
Surface-mounted latches — the kind you see on cheaper cases — protrude, snag, and lose their alignment within a season. A touring case with the wrong latches is a case that will need to be repaired before its second European run.
Foam and internal protection
Fully foamed interiors are non-negotiable for valuable equipment. The foam type matters: a CNC-milled tray of cross-linked PE foam holds its shape for years, where a softer convoluted foam will compress in months. For sensitive equipment, a layer of softer foam over a denser base layer gives both shock absorption and long-term shape retention.
Custom CNC foam inserts cost more than off-the-shelf alternatives, but they reduce the total transit risk in a way that pays for itself the first time they prevent damage.
The mistakes that cost the most
Three errors come up repeatedly when production companies are reviewing cases that have failed:
1. Specifying for what's inside today, not what'll be inside next year
Equipment changes more often than cases do. A console that lives in a flight case for a decade will go through three or four hardware iterations. The smart specification leaves room — both physically and in the foam design — for sensible upgrades. Modular foam systems make this easier than they used to be.
2. Underspecifying for the actual handling
Case specs are usually written assuming careful handling. Real handling is two crew members, a sloping ramp, late at night, in the rain, after a 14-hour day. The case needs to survive that, not the showroom version.
3. Treating the case as a commodity
The cheapest case will always be the cheapest case. It will also be the one that fails first, costs the most to repair, and creates the awkward conversation with the tour manager. Premium flight cases are typically two to three times the cost of budget alternatives, and they last fifteen years instead of three. The maths is straightforward.
When to specify a custom case versus stock
Stock flight cases are excellent for standardised equipment: a 19" rack, a moving head light, a popular DJ controller. The economics of mass production work in the customer's favour, and the consistency means crews already know how to handle them.
Custom cases are essential when the equipment is expensive, irregularly shaped, or critical to the show. For a £40,000 console, a £25,000 broadcast camera, or a one-of-a-kind piece of stage scenery, custom is the only credible option. The premium over stock is small relative to the value of what's inside.
As a rough rule: if the equipment costs more than the cost of three high-quality flight cases, specify custom. The protection improves dramatically and the case becomes part of the equipment's working life rather than a generic shipping container.
Working with a manufacturer who builds for touring
The flight case industry is not a single market. There are case makers who serve the consumer music sector — DJs, hobbyists, semi-pro musicians — and there are manufacturers who build for professional touring, F1 paddocks, broadcast crews, and high-end live event production. The difference shows in every detail of the finished case.
At Nomad Casing, we've been building cases by hand in Britain since 1961. Most of what leaves our Market Harborough workshop is bespoke — designed around a specific piece of equipment, tested against the real handling conditions of the customer's work, and engineered to last decades rather than seasons. We work directly with production companies behind some of the largest live tours in the world, where the consequences of a case failing are measured in delayed shows and damaged reputations.
The conversation about a custom case usually starts the same way: tell us what's going inside, where it's going, and how it's going to be handled. From there, the engineering decisions almost make themselves.
Specifying a flight case for an upcoming tour or production?
Talk to our team about what you're protecting and how it moves. We'll design a case around it. → TALK TO THE TEAM