[Taxacom] Compactus and gain in storage space

[Alastair Culham]

Do check the floor will take the extra load!  Compactors save space but also increase the weight on the floor substantially.

Alastair (RNG)




On 31 Jan 2012, at 02:41, "Rabeler, Richard" <rabeler at umich.edu> wrote:

> Doug gives a very good explanation of how one might approximate such a gain.
> 
> When we installed a compactor at the University of Michigan Herbarium quite a few years back, we gained 75% measured in the # of additional standard cabinets that could now be placed in that space.  In our case, 16 standard aisles were replaced with 4.
> 
> Rich Rabeler, MICH
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] on behalf of Doug Yanega [dyanega at ucr.edu]
> Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 5:50 PM
> To: TAXACOM at MAILMAN.NHM.KU.EDU
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Compactus and gain in storage space
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> Anybody know more or less what percentage gain in storage space there is
>> when converting traditional closed herbarium cupboards for a compactus
>> system, assuming that the compactus will have more or less the same
>> dimensions as the original cupboards?
> 
> This is easy to calculate: the primary function of a compactor system
> is to eliminate the aisles between storage units. If you plan to
> retain the same storage units, then the space you will gain is almost
> exactly equal to the space occupied by the aisles you will lose (if
> installing a single continuous bank of compactor units, then you'll
> keep only one aisle from the original N, and lose N-1). Only a few
> inches are needed between adjacent closed compactor units. The wider
> the aisles relative to the storage space, and the more of them in the
> original floor plan, the bigger the percentage gain in space. Since
> those are variables depending on the kind of storage units, and
> quirks of architecture, there is no good "rough" number one can use
> to generalize, though I can't imagine it would ever equal or exceed
> double (i.e., 100% increase) the original capacity (that would
> require that *over* half the original floor space was empty aisles).
> Figures that high are generally only possible when either additional
> floor space is included in the compactor "footprint" or when the
> storage units themselves are replaced with more space-efficient units.
> 
> Peace,
> --
> 
> Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
> Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega
> phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
>              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
>   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
>         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
> 
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