Shipping Containers Blog

Archive for the ‘Shipping Container News’ Category

CS Shipping Containers are absolutely delighted that the Aces Basketball Team based at Stoke Mandeville have asked them for a bespoke shipping container to house their specially adapted wheelchairs when not in use.

The team have chosen a 20ft container to have an extra wide door with a ramp to make accessibility for the wheelchairs as easy as possible. The specially angled wheels are slanted for stability, manouevrability and speed so that the games are fast and furious.

Their coach, who has been out to Beijing this year, is hopeful that some of the members of the Aces will be able to take part in the London Olympics 2012!

We can’t wait to take another photograph when the shipping container store is in use in about a month’s time - and hopefully stay and watch the Aces in a match so we can cheer them on!!

What on earth does a shipping container have to do with the Internet?   It does not seem like an obvious combination.  Large , industrial steel containers designed to be able to move cargo easily about the world don’t seem to have anything to offer the highly technological world of the Internet.  Yet, the very versatility and inherent strength of these containers mean that they do have a part to play.

Most of us have heard of the Internet Archive.   It was set up as a giant internet “library” which allows people to view any page on the internet from 1996 to the present day.   It is primarily meant as a resource for researchers, scholars and historians as it allows permanent access to all internet content.  An amazing undertaking.  Yet it doesn’t stop there.   The Internet Archive has now been expanded so that it also records programmes from tv channels worldwide, as well as films, music etc.

All that information - some 3,145,728 GB of web pages at the present time (and growing) - needs to be housed securely and  Sun Microsystems developed a modular infrastructure that is housed in a customised enclosure known as a Petabox.   Still with me?   Because now we get to the relevant bit.   These Petaboxes are packaged into a 20ft shipping container.  Why a shipping container?   The very construction of these units make them ideal for storage containers.   They are made of highly rust resistant and strong corten steel, are designed for easy transportation, and can be easily stacked like lego as the archive grows.   They can be insulated and modified to maintain ideal climatic conditions for storing data.  In short, shipping containers make ideal data centres as they allow them to be both secure and self contained.

Currently, it is an amazing fact that what is one of - if not the largest - digital archive in the world is housed in a 20ft shipping container.  Other companies such as Dell, Microsoft and Google, to name but a few, are also using shipping containers to house their own data centres in various locations around the world - some even off shore.  A whole new use for shipping containers.   Whoever would have thought that combining cutting edge technology with steel shipping containers could be so successful?

I got quite a shock this morning when on BBC Breakfast they announced that they were going to be following the progress of a 40ft shipping container as it journeyed around the world! Not something I was expecting - and I am afraid that in my shock I spilt the milk going into my cornflakes - but what a great idea!

Not many people realise that because of shipping containers making transportation so much easier and cheaper, prices of all sorts of things from cars to toys, electrical equipment to clothes have been reduced. Prior to shipping containers items to be transported used to be of all different sizes and take up odd spaces on ships and require individual handling. The whole beauty of making all shipping containers the same size, or a derivative thereof, the equipment used to transport them - whether ships, lorries, cranes, trains etc can all be standardised. This makes the whole business of delivery cheaper by far and far less labour intensive. It has suddenly become more cost effective, for example, for a garage to order in cars as and when it needs them rather than keeping a whole lot in stock. This saves them a huge financial outlay in buying terms, let alone the costs of keeping the cars on site, and the price of the end product, in this case the car, to the consumer is cheaper as a result.

The box being followed by the BBC has just been sprayed and is setting off empty to Scotland where it will fill up with whiskey before being shipped to Shanghai. Declan Curry will be following its progress in a series which will have updates throughout the year when anything interesting happens.

We will, of course, keep you updated as to the shipping containers progress as well! Though, hopefully the next time it appears on the tv I won’t spill the milk going onto my cornflakes!!

CS Shipping Containers are proud to have supplied Med Aid with a shipping container to transport medical equipment to Africa.

Med-Aid is a UK based charity that provides hospitals in the developing world with good quality, useful equipment no longer needed by hospitals in Europe.  The truth is that each year hospitals in the UK dispose of surgical equipment that has been superseded by the latest technology but compared to what is available in Africa it is often far superior.

Med Aid uses shipping containers to send this equipment out to Africa.  They check that it is working and that the doctors and nurses require it. In this way for the cost of transportation, items that would become landfill waste goes to save lives.

If you think you might be able to help, or know of someone who might, then please contact them.  They always need financial contributions towards the cost of shipping the equipment. For more information email Tim Beacon email hidden; JavaScript is required or visit their website at www.medaid.co.uk.

Earlier this month Hurricane Gustav threatened to hit New Orleans.  The city was evacuated in preparation.  Everyone held their breath.

The American Red Cross prepared Shipping Containers in readiness.  They planned to use them as storage for all the equipment and provisions that would be needed to cope with the fall out from Gustav.

In the event, although the 20ft containers were still needed, Hurricane Gustav lost its momentum over the Gulf of Mexico, and ended up being classed as a Tropical Storm instead.  New Orleans survived.

Yet shipping containers are used in many other emergency situations throughout the world.

In Australia and New Zealand the steel containers are often used to provide temporary secure housing that is easily transportable and infinitely adaptable.

In China this year after the earthquakes they used shipping containers to provide storage, office and housing.

Whilst we get excited about the amazing things that Architects do with shipping container conversions, such as the Containart Pavillion we featured yesterday, it can be easy to forget how the adaptability and the easily transportable qualities of a shipping container can be used in their most basic form to help out in a crisis.

CS Shipping Containers have been asked to make a shipping container conversion which will provide a workshop and tool store for the RSPB at The Lodge reserve in Sandy.
The 30ft shipping container will help the RSPB by providing a much needed extra facility on their site and proves just how versatile shipping containers can be.

The Reserve Management Team are “really excited to be getting a purpose made workshop at last”. The container conversion will allow the RSPB to maintain chainsaws and brushcutters, mend nest boxes, assemble gates and signs, and store the tools they use to look after 200ha of woodland and heath on the reserve.

If you would like to help them meet their costs, please send a donation made out to RSPB to:
RSPB The Lodge Nature Reserve
The Gatehouse
Potton Road
Sandy,
Beds SG19 2DL

Shipping containers were used as platforms for a spectacular firework display to mark Liverpool’s transition from European Capital of Culture 2008 to a European Culture Capital.

Shipping Containers at Liverpool Firework Display

The firework display, held on 10th January 2009, was produced by Walk the Plank who hired the specialist containers in the form of 20ft collapsible flat racks from CS Shipping Containers. Everything had to be delivered within a very tight schedule to Liverpool Docks. Here the flat racks were converted into platforms from which the fireworks were mounted before being lifted on to boats straddling the Mersey and set off to much excitement.

Fireworks on shipping container flat racks

The display was watched by over 35,000 people who had no idea of the logistics behind the spectacular display.

Flat racks are generally used for transporting awkward shaped loads that will not fit inside the 8ft width of a ordinary shipping container. Examples of loads the containers would be used for would be heavy machinery, boats etc. On collapsible flat racks the two ends of the rack fold flat into the middle making it easier to transport multiples on one lorry when the shipping containers are not in use.

20ft collapsible end flat rack

Shipping Containers as part of such a spectacular firework display? It is amazing what uses shipping containers can be put to!

Shipping Containers are, as we have discussed in previous posts, ideal for use in emergency situations.  They are frequently used in Australia and New Zealand for emergency housing and the Red Cross in America used them extensively in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.

Flooding

The floods in North Lancashire and Cumbria mean that many people are going to be looking for emergency container storage for household items.  Most firms will guarantee their containers to be wind and watertight, and as shipping containers are designed to withstand marine conditions they are ideal for storage after the storms and flooding that happened at the weekend.  Offices and site accommodation in the form of conversions made out of shipping containers are also likely to help out local businesses.

20ft container

10ft container

Obviously, the storage containers will not be needed for long periods of time so container hire is an option that should be considered.  Often insurance companies will organise this for their clients.  If you are looking to hire a container yourself, you should remember that the initial invoice will normally be for the first period of hire (normally a month) together with the delivery and collection haulage.   Therefore if the haulage was £150 the first invoice would be for £150 x 2 = £300.

Condensation solutions are also available in the form of moisture traps and additional security  can be provided through lock boxes and insurance approved CISA padlocks.