Material Handling Equipment - Industrial and Systems Engineering

3. LOAD FORMATION EQUIPMENT12. Intermodal containersReusable container used to unitize and protectloose discrete itemsEnables a load to be handled as a single unit whenit is transferred between road, rail, and seamodes of transport; e.g., the container can beunloaded from a cargo ship and loaded onto atruck as a single unitIt is not as common to use intermodal containersfor airfreight transport because of aircraft shapeand weight restrictionsStandard outside dimensions of intermodalcontainers are: 20 or 40 ft. in length; 8 ft. inwidth; and 8, 8.5, or 9.5 ft. in height; less 8 in. oflength, 5 in. of width, and 9.5 in. of height todetermine the inside dimensionsTypical sea transport costs per 40-ft. container are: $3000–4000 from Japan to the US westcoast, $4000–5000 from Singapore to the US west coast, and $2500–3500 from Europe to theUS east coast; transport costs for a 20-ft. container is 70% of the costs of a 40-ft. container 713. Strapping/tape/glueUsed for load stabilizationStraps are either steel or plasticPlastic strapping that shrinks is used to keep loads frombecoming loose during shipment14. Shrink-wrap/stretch-wrapUsed for load stabilizationAllows irregular loads to be stabilizedIn shrink-wrapping, a film or bag is placed over the load andthen heat is applied to shrink the film or bag; manual orautomatic; most shrink-wrap applications are being replacedby stretch-wrappingIn stretch-wrapping, a film is wound around the load while thefilm is stretched; as compared to shrink-wrapping, stretchwrappinghas lower material, labor, and energy costsStretch-wrap machine13