Important innovations are in container management
By Staff -- Purchasing, 4/9/1998
Most of the significant innovations in bulk packaging today are not coming in product design. Certainly, container manufacturers have been improving their products, especially by adding new features that allow them to be used by customers with more specialized needs. But the most significant innovations in bulk packaging are actually coming in the way the containers are supplied and managed.No longer is the container supplier out of the loop once the package has been sold. Most manufacturers are providing container-management systems. Suppliers that don't offer these services now, soon will. In some cases, suppliers can mold a container-management program to fit a buyer's needs. Example: At Van Leer, container collection and trip leasing are supported by Van Leer's ContainerNet management system.
Some management programs utilize "leasing" arrangements. As part of Hoover Materials Handling's Trip Lease program, Hoover maintains ownership of the intermediate bulk containers (IBCs). Case in point: Vinings Industries, a specialty-chemical manufacturer, selected Hoover's Repaltainer IBCs to transport biocides for the paper industry. They chose to lease the containers on a per-trip basis. Vinings receives from Hoover the exact number of containers needed. The company ships in the IBC, and after the container is emptied, Vining's end customer calls Hoover, and the IBCs are taken away at no charge. Hoover cleans, refurbishes, and tests the containers according to United Nations (UN) specifications. They are then put in inventory for future use. Repaltainer is supported by Closed Loop Packaging Plus, a total container management program which offers servicing, collection, global recycling, and disposal. The benefit to buyers is clear--a container-management program allows the customer to be concerned only about the product, not the container.
Some container suppliers have the logistics aspects of the management program already built in. TNT Container Logistics, for example, offers a complete line of pallet-based reusable, collapsible IBCs, and a huge logistics and transportation network.
These types of container-management programs can benefit buyers significantly, because they allow flexibility in meeting changing shipping needs, reduce packaging waste disposal, eliminate maintenance, and reduce inventory and storage costs.
Design innovations still important
But producers continue to work on new product designs. These advances provide users with increasingly improved containers. Van Leer Containers, for example, has introduced the UniCUBE IBC. It is UN-rated and Department of Transportation (DOT) approved for hazardous and non-hazardous materials. This new IBC is available with either a Banjo ball or Van Leer piston valve which work in conjunction with the design of the container's base to optimize drainage.
There also have been some developments in flexible intermediate bulk containers (fibcs). Traditionally, bulk bags are manufactured square and tend to round out when filled with product. Atlas Bag has designed a new baffle bag which is manufactured square and stays square--even when filled with product. Interior adjacent corner baffles in the bag form right angles with windows, allowing product to flow into the bag's corners. With product allowed into the corners, the bag holds its square shape.
B.A.G Corp. has introduced a container to compete with metal drums, fiber drums, and boxes. Flexdrum containers are collapsible, providing optimum use of shipping and storage space at a lower cost than most drums.
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