How many seal points does a Scene Kit need?

Answer: Three covers the front gap, the rear thread and the handle root. With two you pick one of the first two, and the chain loses a direction.

Can the zone sizes be changed for our own contents?

Answer: Yes, but move the seal slots too. Every 10 mm change in a zone shifts the dogleg about 8 mm; leave it and the routing crosses a rib.

Should zone codes be moulded or printed?

Answer: Mould the codes, print the serial. Marks at 6 mm cap height survive 50 wipes, while a serial changes with every order and is printed late.

Why is the signature pad inside the lid?

Answer: Seals sit outside, signatures inside. Opening the case leaves the previous record readable, so one inspection does not wipe the handover history.

Police Evidence: Scene Kit Zoning and Sealing

Quick answer: A Scene Kit needs four fixed zones, three seal points and a four-field signature pad; moulded in one pass, they keep a handover check under 90 seconds.

How a Scene Kit splits into four zones
Seal points: three through-slots and a routing rule
Zone numbering on the body
The four-field handover pad
Empty-kit return: count, reset, restock
FAQ

1. How a Scene Kit splits into four zones

Zoning a Scene Kit is a coordinate problem before it is a foam problem. On a 455 × 330 × 170 mm shell the four zones take 78% of the floor and leave 22% for ribs and finger gaps. Cut those rectangles into the mould and every seal slot inherits the grid, so later batches never re-measure.

Zone sizes follow the largest outline of the contents, not a count of items. A takes long tools at 210 × 150 × 60 mm, B boxed parts at 120 × 90 × 55 mm, C flat records at 300 × 120 × 40 mm, D bottles at 100 × 100 × 80 mm. Ribs sit 4 mm below the rim, so fingers clear the way in and the stack clears the contents.

Zone	Floor (mm)	Depth (mm)	Body detail
A	210 × 150	60	3 mm EVA, 6 mm radii
B	120 × 90	55	Wrapped rib, 2.2 mm wall
C	300 × 120	40	Lid strip 5 mm from edge
D	100 × 100	80	3.2 mm wall, 2 mm step

Base wall is 2.8 mm, lid 2.5 mm, corner radius 12 mm. At 18 kg the floor deflects 1.5 mm at most; past that the ribs touch the contents and the zone grid stops meaning anything for that case.

2. Seal points: three through-slots and a routing rule

A seal point is what turns a closed case into a checkable one. The case body carries three single-use points: across the front latch gap at 4 mm, through a rear threading hole at 3 mm, at the handle root at 3 mm. All three go on in one run with consecutive numbers, so a break shows which side opened.

Scene Kit opened flat with egg-crate foam in the lid, three foam recesses holding bagged items, two front latches hanging open, grey body

The detail that matters is a through-slot, not a dimple. A through-slot in 2.8 mm wall takes 25 kg of pull; a dimple splits at its root at minus 20 °C. Drops follow the MIL-STD-810H procedure at 1.2 m over 6 faces, 3 edges and 1 corner, ten times, no crack at the mouth. JUNZHIJIA chamfers that mouth 0.8 mm so a cord does not fray.

Routing stays 15 mm off the hinge axis, which carries 0.3 mm of axial play; a seal tight to it shears within a dozen cycles. One 8 mm dogleg in the run leaves the two cut ends unequal, visible without a gauge.

Slot	Position	Width (mm)	Order	Break signature
S1	Front latch gap	4	First	Two loaded spans
S2	Rear thread hole	3	Second	Angled cut
S3	Handle root ear	3	Third	Load at ear

Keep 60 mm between slots so one tool cannot cut two at once, and radius the floor 0.5 mm so load spreads.

3. Zone numbering on the body

Marks are moulded into the inner wall at 6 mm cap height and 0.4 mm relief, 8 mm in from the zone edge. The code runs A1 to D4, sixteen positions, matching the last four digits of the outside serial.

Contrast between mark and case at least 4.5:1, white on dark grey.
Print survives 50 wipes with anhydrous ethanol.
Serial is eight characters in a 20 × 8 mm clear area.
Number field stays 6 mm clear of any seal slot.

Moulding and printing do different jobs. Zone codes travel with the tool and never shift between batches; serials travel with the order and are unique per case. Both sit on the plastic. Labels lift in cold, and a lifted label takes traceability with it.

Reuse is why the codes are moulded: when a returned Scene Kit is reassigned, the marks stay and only the serial is reprinted, so old and new records join on one number. A case keeps one trace line for its whole life.

4. The four-field handover pad

The pad sits inside the lid as four recesses, 60 × 18 mm at 0.6 mm depth, so a triplicate form lies flat without curling.

Scene Kit close-up of a black EVA insert with two long cut recesses, fine-grained foam surface, ribbed wall edge and hinge knuckles at left

The four fields go to release, receipt, witness and seal check, capped at 12, 12, 10 and 12 characters. Seals sit outside, signatures inside, so a record survives the first opening; that split is the only audit trail a case body offers on its own.

Field	Records	Cap	Copy
Release	Name, staff no., time out	12	First sheet
Receipt	Name, staff no., time in	12	Second sheet
Witness	Name, unit	10	Third sheet
Seal check	Last 4 digits, 3 seals	12	Case label

Depth has a floor as well as a ceiling. At 0.6 mm a triplicate on 0.1 mm paper lies flat; below 0.4 mm the third copy takes pen pressure through.

The field order follows the handover: release, receipt, witness, seal check, fixed because the lid gives 0.15 m² of flat surface.

5. Empty-kit return: count, reset, restock

Return handling is three checks; the body helps by placing each where a handler sees it.

Counting looks at slot mouth and hinge: a chip over 0.5 mm retires the case, a pin offset over 0.5 mm needs a new pin. Resetting looks at ribs and padding: EVA compressed below 80% of its original thickness is swapped. Restocking opens 10% of the batch and compares each case number with the log.

Stacking stops at three high. A loaded Scene Kit weighs 18 kg, so the bottom case carries 54 kg and its lid ribs deflect 0.8 mm, which recovers; at four high they take 2.1 mm and stay there, and a sagging lid no longer holds the pad flat.

Conclusion

Judge a Scene Kit on three body details: whether the zone grid is in the tool, whether the seal points are through-slots clear of the hinge, and whether the signature recess reaches 0.6 mm. With all three, four zones, three seal points and four fields hold a handover check under 90 seconds.