Page 20 - Port of Hamburg | Port of Hamburg Magazine 1.2022

■ CONTAINER WORLDS
Many lashing points help in securing large and and heavy goods.
steel floor. Initially, this was used for special cargoes and hazardous goods. “Details are often decisive for securing cargo,” says David Piel. “One crucial aspect is that cargo must be secured irrespective of the floor material. Nowadays though it is somewhat unlikely that on opening a container door, you’d still find a wooden floor.” All sorts of different flooring materials such as bamboo, plastic, OSB or steel in fact, can be used.
Today’s stability targets mean increased use of steel. Envi- ronmental protection has be- come more important. One question comes up frequent- ly: How sustainable are the materials used? A box with a steel floor that will one day be scrap can be recycled one hundred percent. One with a wooden floor is different in that it contains glue.
A steel-floor container is suit-
able for cargoes of all types. They contain no chemical additives and last longer than boxes with wooden or bamboo floors. In 2013 Hapag-Lloyd included them in
their permanent repertoire – initially mainly in the seg- ment of 20-ft standard/special containers. Use of wooden beams plus lashing belts is the best method of keeping cargo in its place inside the container. An- ti-slip material enhances friction and is used in con- tainers with steel floors.
MORE LASHING POINTS FOR SECURING CARGO
“Numerous heavier point-loads can be loaded per running metre. This makes the steel-floor particularly interesting for such heavy loads as machinery,” ex- plains David Piel. For com- parison: A 20-ft wooden floor can take 4.6 tons per metre, the same box with a steel floor, 7.6 tons. The dif- ference is still greater with a 40-ft container, where a wooden floor can tolerate three tons per metre, a “In addition, there are more lashing points than with the wood-bamboo hybrid version, so that lashing cargo can be done efficiently.”
20 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | June 2022
steel one, twice as much.
© Hapag-Lloyd
© Hapag-Lloyd