After my apprenticeship I joined the maintenance Dept as a Machine Tool Fitter and after a few years progressed to the Reliability Engineering Dept who responsibility was to look after the long term maintenance, refurbishment and upgrade of all types of machine tool from small lathes, multi spindle lathes, milling machines, all types of grinders including centerless, cylindrical and surface.
A factory was set up to supply parts to America until a manufacturing facility was established in the USA, when the American plant was up and running the UK plant was shut down, as the machinery was not very old it was all stored for future use and to help with the preparation all of the machine tool manufacturers, mostly European came in and cleaned, changed lubricants and sprayed all metal surfaces with anti corrosion wax they were then shipped to a storage facility, an old aircraft hanger and it was my job to finish the storage which involve laying a damp proof layer on the floor then placing a heavy gauge plastic sheet large enough to completely enclose the machine, more padding so as not to damage the plastic sheet followed by the machine, the plastic sheet was then covered over the complete machine and sealed with welding guns to turn the sheet into a bag. Before sealing up completely several large bags, weighting several pounds, were placed inside and then the bag had as much air as could be removed was sucked out and the bag sealed completely.
I spent nine months in total in the hanger and I received up to four machines every day for approx 200 days not including weekends and when I left the site the first machines put in were still in good condition with the plastic still tight, any that had leaked were resealed once we had found the original leak.
I dont know what happened to the machines as I left six months later.
Martin P