A road case, commonly referred to as a roadie case, is a shipping container

Shipping container

A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes...

 specifically built to protect musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

s, motion picture equipment, audio and lighting production equipment, properties

Theatrical property

A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is an object used on stage by actors to further the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger props may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table. The difference between a set...

, or other sensitive equipment when it must be moved between locations, or frequently thrown around by airport baggage-handling personnel. A large number of varying-sized road cases can be built to outfit the needs of an entire touring production company

Production company

A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...

, or custom designed individually for a specific industry or product.

The term is mostly used in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and implies that the case is primarily for road based travel, unlike a flight case. The term originates from its use for storing and shipping band equipment while the musicians were on the road. The singular term can be used interchangeably with ATA case and flight case.

History

The history of road case design is based on an airplane parts packaging specification. It was designed by airline packaging engineers. The specification is ATA 300 Category 1. IATA is The International Airline Transport Association located in Washington, D.C. and consists of members of Boeing Airlines, Airbus, Fed-Ex, American Airlines, United Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines. ATA 300 Cat 1 cases are designed to withstand 100 trips and Cat 2 containers are rated for 10 trips. The original design required the cases to be white, so they would not be left on the airport runway when loading cases at night time. The first ATA 300 Cat 1 spec was published circa 1960.

Construction

Most road cases are constructed of three main layers. An outer layer of laminate

Laminate

A laminate is a material that can be constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. The process of creating a laminate is lamination, which in common parlance refers to the placing of something between layers of plastic and gluing them with heat and/or pressure, usually with an...

 known as ABS acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene is a common thermoplastic. Its melting point is approximately 105 °C ....

, which is adhered to a middle layer of lightweight 3/16" to 1/2" cabinet

Cabinet (furniture)

A cabinet is usually a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors or drawers for storing miscellaneous items. Some cabinets stand alone while others are built into a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood or, now increasingly, of synthetic...

-grade plywood

Plywood

Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...

 such as birch

Birch

Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...

, poplar

Poplar

Populus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar , aspen, and cottonwood....

, or maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

. High grade cases are made from composite material such as Plasti-Clad. Inside the case, an internal shock-absorbing layer such as polyurethane

Polyurethane

A polyurethane is any polymer composed of a chain of organic units joined by carbamate links. Polyurethane polymers are formed through step-growth polymerization, by reacting a monomer with another monomer in the presence of a catalyst.Polyurethanes are...

 or polyethylene

Polyethylene

Polyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...

 foam is adhered to the walls of the middle layer with negative space

Negative space

Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real"...

 removed that corresponds to the exact shape of the component which it is preserving. The edges and corners of road cases are further reinforced with aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 angle bar or extrusion

Extrusion

Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed or drawn through a die of the desired cross-section...

s, and form-fitting metal case corners which are cast and often coated in zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

 or nickel

Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...

. Caster wheels

Caster

A caster is an undriven, single, double, or compound wheel that is designed to be mounted to the bottom of a larger object so as to enable that object to be easily moved...

 are often built into or attached to the case for ease of transit. Major manufacturers of road cases are Calzone / Anvil and Encore case companies. Transit case

Transit case

A transit case is a hard sided case intended for protecting defined contents during transportation. In some forms, the interior is filled with foam which has pockets molded or cut into it that equipment specifically fits into...

s differ from road cases in that they are typically made of molded

Molding (process)

Molding or moulding is the process of manufacturing by shaping pliable raw material using a rigid frame or model called a pattern....

 plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

 in the case where waterproofing is a concern; manufacturers such as Pelican and Storm sell plastic road cases that can be outfitted with a custom foam interior. All road cases, wood or plastic, may be further customized to suit any application; for example by adding a power adapter and a computer fan

Computer fan

A computer fan is any fan inside, or attached to, a computer case used for cooling purposes, and may refer to fans that draw cooler air into the case from the outside, expel warm air from inside, or move air across a heatsink to cool a particular component...

, certain equipment may operate while on the road without leaving the protection of the road case.

Uses

Typical uses for road cases on tour are wardrobe, hair and make-up, catering, rigging, backline, sound, lights, video, production and carpentry. Road cases got their name because they are usually used by touring entertainment companies that need to take their show out 'on the road'. Road cases configured with rackmounts are widely used on the road for pro audio, lighting, sound recording and video. Other applications include motion picture production, military, sports, medical, rental and staging. Road cases are also called ATA Cases, Reusable Shipping Containers, Custom Cases, and Flight Cases.