What’s an Intermodal Container? Why That Name?

An intermodal container is a portable storage box compatible with travelling on various modes of transport. These include railways, ships, low-bed road transporters, and even cargo aircraft. They usually shift between different transportation modes via container depots. Hence, they also need to be compatible with lifting and moving gear in these facilities.

This flexibility requires a degree of standardization virtually unrivalled in any other industry. Standard 6-meter and 12-meter intermodal containers can be stacked many times high on ships and in container handling yards. This makes them arguably the densest storage facility anywhere.

Intermodal Container History: Longer Than You Thought

People have been carting luggage securely in suitcases and boxes for ages. From the 1830s onwards railways were carrying simple containers that loaded onto horse-drawn carts using cranes. These were simple, rectangular timber boxes ideal for transporting bulk materials especially coal.

The military was already using container solutions for transporting weaponry by the time WW2 erupted. However, intermodal container standardization really only took off in 1951, when the U.S. and European nations met in Switzerland to consider the possibilities of standardized container transport.

This meeting led to the introduction of ‘roller containers’ in various configurations capable of loading on rail, truck or ship. Various innovations followed in quick succession. These new developments included corrugated steel containers with skids and lifting rings, stackable versions, and lighter-weight materials.

Full Standardization Arrives in 1972

By the early 1970s shipping containers were travelling globally, although to the frustration of operators there were still various versions. Finally, the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization intervened with a global standard for the safe transport and handling of what became known as the universal intermodal container.

This regulation required that every shipping container have an approved ‘safety plate’ recording age, registration number, dimensions and weights, as well as its strength and maximum stacking capability. There was considerable resistance from traditional dock workers although eventually, sheer logic had its day.

The Second Life of Intermodal Shipping Containers

The stresses and strains associated with an intermodal container stacked ten times high are immense. Rigid safety standards condemn these storage boxes long before they are actually worn out. We saw the opportunity to recycle them for other, creative purposes.

The Almar Container Group supplies standard and purpose-adapted intermodal containers for beneficial reuse in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. Tell us what you need and we’ll make it happen soon. We have applications for training rooms, ablution facilities, temporary offices, permanent homes and so much more.

Request a quote

Freezer Containers Give You the Benefits of Mobile Cold Rooms

Maintaining product at the optimum temperature is essential in the food and medicine industries. Operators know they need to avoid thawing or defrosting at all costs. Or else they have to dispose of their damaged product in accordance with national safety rules.

This discipline applies equally to when the goods are in transit. Handling freezer containers outside the controlled zone must be kept to a bare minimum, and goods must be carefully restacked on arrival. Much value can be lost during handling. Everything may be ruined during a lengthy grid outage.

Hence wise operators back their stainless-steel freezer and chiller rooms with standby petrol and diesel generators. However, their thundering sounds are not conducive to enjoying quiet conversations in upmarket restaurants and hotels. Supermarket chains are coming to the same conclusion: site them elsewhere.

The Solution is Converting Shipping Containers to Freezer Containers

A gleaming stainless-steel chiller room or freezer room is not a stand-alone structure. Refrigeration engineers design them as rooms-within-rooms meaning you first need to build your structure and then install your cooler room.

After that, you are stuck with your location. Although you could theoretically dismantle the insulated panels and reassemble them elsewhere. However, your costs are racking up all the time. Moreover, we have had some chefs tell us the panels never work as well the second time around. They are concerned about residue building up in the joints.

What We Do Instead to Save You Money and Time

We convert 6-metre and 12-metre intermodal shipping containers into freezer containers and cool rooms. After we line them with new, industry-standard ceilings, walls and floors, they can do temperatures as low as -18ºC on 380 volts. However, if you only need a cold room running at say +5ºC we can achieve this with 240 volts.

After you apply power and allow the room to cool down, you have a cold room or freezer room as good as any regular one. We can say that with confidence because we use the same insulating materials. Moreover, we have a jump on the rest because our freezer containers are portable.

That’s right! Our converted shipping containers are as good as having freezer rooms and cooler rooms on wheels. One seafood wholesaler loads his portable freezer container directly from trawlers moored alongside wharves.

Then he takes it back to his depot on a flatbed with a lifting crane. That way he has perfect control over his frozen stock at all times!

Request a quote

20ft Container: 6.096 Metres Long with a Second Life

We have to be precise about the length of every 20ft container we supply. That’s because they have to fit on top of each other and squeeze easily into tight spaces. There were freight containers in the UK in the 1830’s for transferring coal from railways to horse-drawn carts.

However they only really took off in the 1950’s after the U.S. Army developed rigid steel containers with lifting rings. Hence container lengths measure in feet not meters.

The Advantages of the Intermodal 20ft Container

The 20ft container is the smallest in the standard range. Thus this container design is popular for transporting goods to locations with less sophisticated lifting and carrying equipment. We call them intermodal containers because they can travel in different modes of transport.

There are other names for these amazing devices that can travel by ship and rail and truck. These include cargo / freight container, iso container, shipping / sea / ocean container, container van, sea can, or just container.

How a 20ft Container Adds Value to a Warming World

Every ounce of energy we use contributes to greenhouse gas, and humans are currently causing too much of it. Moreover, the same applies to building construction. Our lightweight 20ft containers are in aluminium because this considerably reduces lifting and transportation costs. Moreover when their intermodal days are over they find other uses as transportable buildings.

The Secret Life of a 20ft Intermodal Container

A 20ft container becomes a habitable building when we add a door and window and fit it out. Moreover being lightweight aluminium makes this a fairly easy task. The attachment points on all eight corners simplify transport by ship and rail and truck, and even cargo airplanes. As a consequence, our engineers are able to assist with these cost / time saving projects:

Are These the Most Amazing Second-Life Containers Ever?

Qatar is building a modular, demountable soccer stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This 40,000-seater is rising from the desert immediately southeast of Doha on the Persian Gulf. The modified shipping containers sit within a steel framework creating the perimeter wall and tiered seating.

A variety of reinforced 20ft container versions and larger types will have pre-installed stairs, concessions, and bathrooms. This uses fewer materials, creates less waste, and leaves a lighter carbon footprint. They can move the Ras Abu Aboud Stadium to its first legacy location when the games are over. A renewable soccer stadium, who would have thought of that…

Request a quote