Types of Large Format Storage
Now that you’ve bought your large format printer, your ink, and your paper, you’ll need somewhere to store all your creations. Plan chests are large format chests of drawers, made from either wood or metal, designed to store A0 or A1 documents.
Your art, designs, and plans are stored flat in wide horizontal drawers, and slide on runners.
If you’re part of a small volume business, a small plan chest with 6 drawers could suit your needs, while a big plan chest would have 12.
Material Comparison
In basic terms, wooden plan chests are lighter and cheaper.
Metal is stronger but significantly heavier. An A0 6 drawer will be around 200kg if made of metal, while wooden would be around 120kg.
At the largest end, an A0 10 drawer metal is 235kg, while an A0 12 drawer wooden is around 214kg. Neither option is particularly lightweight, and they can come fully assembled and installed for you, but if weight or bulk could be issues for your organisation, then wooden is the way to go. Most plan chests come with lockable casters, however, making them easy to move if needed.
Our wooden plan chests have drawers which can be removed completely, whereas metal ones are fixed in place. Make sure you get the large format storage setup which suits your needs.
It could be that in a school, making sure pupils can’t take out a drawer by accident and spill equipment everywhere would lead you towards a metal unit, which would also stand more punishment. However, an office could lean towards a wooden plan chest that’s more in keeping with the room’s aesthetic, and removing the drawers could lead to greater accessibility.
Security Options
Any plan chest should come with the option for locks. When searching for a chest, decide whether you need keys in groups mastered to a single key, or with a unique key for each drawer.
Depending on the access levels of each employee and the nature of the documents, you might decide that no lock is necessary at all.
Specialty Types of Large Format Storage
The Fearon Plan Chest has label slots as standard. It’s also lockable as standard, but with one key for the whole plan chest. This should be enough for many organisations.
It’s metal and comes with an option for raised legs of a custom height, which can fit it around other worktops, or to create storage space underneath.
This wooden plan chest comes with steel legs as standard to elevate it off the ground. It has fewer drawers, but you can keep items below the raised portion.
