Insect Showcase And Cabinet Lab Equipment Manufacturer, Supplier and Exporter in India

Insect Showcases, Cabinets and Storage

Storage is conservation

1. Pests: the drawer seal is the most important specification on the page

Dried insect and plant material is food. Museum beetles and their larvae, and booklice in damp conditions, eat dried specimens, and an infestation that goes unnoticed through a long vacation can reduce a collection to pin-holes and dust. We have been shown collections built over twenty years and lost in one season.

What prevents it, in order:

• Drawers and boxes that actually seal. Not a close fit - a seal. This is the one specification worth paying for in this range, because every other precaution depends on it, and it is the one that is hardest to add afterwards. Ask how the drawer closes and whether the cabinet is designed as a sealed system.
• A quarantine routine for everything that comes in. Nothing joins the collection directly. Standard modern practice is to freeze new material in a sealed bag for a period before it goes into the cabinet - the cold kills eggs and larvae, it leaves no residue, and it needs no insecticide and no permit. A domestic chest freezer is adequate for a teaching collection, and it is the cheapest piece of conservation equipment a department can own. Allow the bag to come back to room temperature before opening it, so that condensation forms on the bag and not the specimen.
• Inspection, which means looking for the right thing. The sign of an active infestation is not usually a visible beetle - it is frass: a small heap of fine dust directly beneath a pinned specimen. Teach whoever looks after the collection to look under the specimens, and to check two or three drawers every month rather than all of them once a year.
• Isolate a suspect drawer immediately - bag it, freeze it, and inspect its neighbours. An infestation spreads between drawers in the same cabinet.

2. Humidity: steady matters more than low

Damp brings mould on specimens and labels, corrosion on pins, and limp, relaxed specimens that lose their set. But the more common failure in practice is cycling rather than high humidity: a room that is air-conditioned on weekdays and switched off at weekends takes the collection up and down every week, and that movement does more damage than a consistently slightly-humid cupboard.

So: choose a cool, dry, stable location over an impressively conditioned one that is only conditioned part of the time; use sealed drawers with a desiccant where the climate requires it, and check and regenerate the desiccant rather than assuming it works forever; and keep collections off outside walls and away from floors that can flood.

3. Light: display duplicates, never unique specimens

Insect colours fade with light, and some fade quickly - pigment-based colours in particular. Labels fade too, and a faded label is a lost specimen in every sense that matters. The curatorial rule is simple and worth adopting in a teaching department: the collection lives in the dark, and only duplicates go on display.

A glass-topped showcase cabinet is for a display set that you are prepared to see deteriorate - an entrance hall, a corridor, an open day - and the research or reference material stays in closed drawers. If you have one specimen of something, it does not go in the window.

4. Handling: unit trays, and a drawer that stops

• Unit trays - small trays sitting inside the drawer, each holding a group - mean that specimens are moved a tray at a time rather than individually. It is the single biggest reduction in handling damage available, and it also lets the collection be rearranged as it grows without touching a pin.
• Drawers that pull out fully and stop, rather than pulling all the way out and tipping. Ask about the runner and the stop.
• Never pass a pinned specimen hand to hand. The tray is put down and the next person picks it up - the same rule as for blades, for the same reason: the handover is where things are dropped.
• Keep a pinning block, forceps and spare pins with the cabinet, so that a loose specimen is re-secured properly rather than pushed back by hand.

The label is the specimen

This deserves its own section because it is the point on which a teaching collection most often fails to become a scientific one. A pinned insect with no data label is worthless beyond decoration. What makes it a record is the label beneath it: where it was collected, when, by whom, and in what habitat.

• Write labels in pencil or a permanent, water-resistant ink, not in ballpoint or water-based ink.
• Pin the label under the specimen, on the same pin, so that the two cannot be separated. A label in the bottom of the drawer belongs to nothing.
• Label at the moment of collection, not afterwards - the field data is what cannot be reconstructed.
• Keep a register with the drawer numbers, and treat it as the collection's catalogue. Collections outlive the staff who built them, and the register is how the next person knows what they have.

For the field equipment that gets material back in good condition - presses, a vasculum, storage boxes - see dissecting and microtomy tools; and for the alternative that needs none of this care, embedded specimens are sealed in resin and immune to pests and humidity, with their own limits set out on that page.

The rest of this listing: sample and laboratory storage

Several records here are not entomological at all, and they serve a different buyer:

• Cabinets for boxes of sample tubes, specimen cabinet trays, sample containers and racks for blood sample tubes are clinical and analytical laboratory storage. The specifications that matter there are different: the tube diameter and rack pitch, whether the rack is autoclavable, chemical resistance, and whether the cabinet can be cleaned down. Tell us the tube size and the material requirement and we will quote against those rather than against a general description.
• A pass-through cabinet is a transfer hatch between two rooms of different cleanliness, used so that material can move without people moving. It is a different product family again - the questions are interlocking of the two doors, whether it is static or ventilated, and the surface finish - and we have flagged it as belonging elsewhere in the catalogue.
• Bell jars and a plastic drop box are general laboratory items that happen to be filed here.

We have recommended that the listing be split so that an entomology buyer and a clinical laboratory buyer each see their own range. In the meantime, say which you are and we will send the relevant part.

What to tell us when you enquire

• Whether this is an entomology or herbarium collection, a clinical sample store, or both.
• For a collection: how it will grow, so the cabinet can take standard drawers and unit trays as it does.
• Whether a sealed drawer system is required - we would recommend specifying it explicitly.
• Whether a display showcase is wanted as well as closed storage, and where it will stand relative to windows.
• Your climate and whether storage will be in a continuously conditioned room.
• For sample storage: tube diameter, rack pitch, autoclavability and chemical exposure.
• Destination country and the route into the room - cabinets are large.

Related ranges in this branch: preserved specimens, bioplastics, dissecting and microtomy tools and microscopes and slides. The full biology lab equipments and educational lab equipment categories list the rest.

Frequently asked questions

What is the single most important thing in choosing insect drawers?

That they seal. Dried specimens are food for museum beetles and their larvae, and an infestation can destroy a collection over one long vacation. A close fit is not a seal, and sealing is the hardest thing to add afterwards - every other precaution depends on it. Ask how the drawer closes and whether the cabinet is designed as a sealed system, and treat that answer as the specification.

How should new specimens be treated before they join the collection?

Quarantine them. Standard practice is to seal new material in a bag and freeze it for a period before it goes into the cabinet: the cold kills eggs and larvae, it leaves no residue and needs no insecticide. Let the bag return to room temperature before opening it so that condensation forms on the bag rather than the specimen. A domestic chest freezer is adequate and is the cheapest conservation equipment a department can buy.

How do we know if we have an infestation?

Look underneath the specimens. The usual sign is not a visible beetle but frass - a small heap of fine dust directly below a pinned specimen. Inspect two or three drawers every month rather than everything once a year, and if you find frass, bag and freeze that drawer immediately and inspect its neighbours, because infestations spread within a cabinet.

Is a humid room or a fluctuating one worse?

Fluctuating, usually. Cycling between conditions - an air-conditioned room switched off at weekends - moves the specimens every week and does more cumulative damage than a consistently slightly humid cupboard. Choose a cool, dry, stable location over an impressive but intermittent one, use a desiccant in sealed drawers where the climate needs it, and check and regenerate the desiccant rather than assuming it lasts.

Can we display the collection?

Display duplicates, never unique specimens. Insect colours fade with light and so do labels, and a glass-topped showcase in a corridor is a place where specimens deteriorate. Keep the reference collection in closed drawers in the dark, put a display set in the showcase, and accept that the display set is consumable. If you have only one specimen of something, it does not go in the window.

Why does the label matter as much as the specimen?

Because the data cannot be reconstructed. A pinned insect with no label is a decoration; with a label giving place, date, collector and habitat it is a record that can be used. Write labels in pencil or permanent water-resistant ink, pin the label under the specimen on the same pin so the two cannot be separated, label at the moment of collection, and keep a register against the drawer numbers - collections outlive the people who build them.

Key takeaways

• Specify drawers that seal. Pests are the commonest cause of a lost collection, and sealing cannot be retrofitted.
• Quarantine incoming material by freezing it in a sealed bag, and let it warm before opening.
• Look for frass under the specimens, a few drawers every month.
• Stable beats low. A steady cool dry cupboard beats a conditioned room that is switched off at weekends.
• Display duplicates only. Light fades colours and labels permanently.
• The label is the specimen. Permanent ink, pinned beneath it, written in the field, and a register against drawer numbers.

About this page

Ray Export is a manufacturer and exporter of laboratory, scientific and educational equipment based at Plot No. 449, HSIIDC Industrial Area, Saha, Ambala, Haryana 133104, India. Enquiries: [email protected], +91-9817319615.

Written by Palak Mall, Senior Content Writer. Technically reviewed by Arvind Kumar, Lab Equipment Specialist, 12+ years in laboratory and testing instrumentation. Last updated: 17 October 2026.

Notes on this listing, published rather than hidden: the category is named for insect display while half its contents are clinical and general laboratory storage - a cabinet for sample tube boxes, specimen trays, sample containers, racks for blood sample tubes, a pass-through transfer cabinet and bell jars - and we have recommended that it be split so each buyer sees their own range. Several product names are written as slugs with hyphens between the words ("Specimen-Pass-Through-Cabinet", "Plastic-Drop-Box") and two begin in lower case, which suggests they were imported from a URL rather than typed; all are being rewritten. The conservation practice described here is general curatorial practice rather than a claim about a particular product; drawer sealing, tray systems, dimensions, materials and all other specifications will be confirmed in writing on the quotation. Verify them before tender submission.