Hapag-Lloyd’s steel floor containers allow heavier cargo

The container is 100 percent recyclable and is touted to need repairs less often than one with a wooden floor.    Hapag-Lloyd has developed a steel floor container, which will allow more weight to be transported than conventional wooden floors containers, said David Piel, the company’s senior manager for special cargo.
   A 20-foot steel floor container can load 7.6 tons per meter (T/M) compared to 4.6 T/M that can be loaded into a wooden floor container of equal size, he said.
   “The difference is even greater with the 40-foot box,” Piel said, according to a Feb. 1 article on the German-based company’s website. “While the wooden floor can withstand a load of 3 T/M, the steel floor can withstand twice as much.”
   The steel floor container’s tare weight is also about 150 kilograms lighter than the conventional boxes.
   There are up to 66 lashing rings in a 20-foot steel floor container and up to 100 lashing eyes — on the floor and ceiling longitudinal rails and the corner posts — on the 40-foot containers. All lashing rings in steel floor containers must be rated with approximately 2,000 kilogram pull load, which is double the 1,000 kilograms for rings on the floor and quadruple the 500 kilograms per lashing on the upper rails on wooden floor containers, he said.
   The steel floor also prevents residue from previous loadings, he said, and the slightly wavy floor shape keeps cargo from sitting in any moisture if liquids have escaped or condensation has formed.
   The container, which is made entirely of steel, is 100 percent recyclable and its stability can be guaranteed over its entire service life, Piel said.
   “What’s more, the floor wears away much more slowly, which means that it needs to be repaired less often and that doing so requires less effort,” he said. “This, in turn, means that fewer resources are used and that less effort is needed to clean it.”