New type of railway container debuts

[bikkuri bahn]

Logistics company Senko of Osaka, with several partners including J-TREC (former Tokyu Railcar) has developed a 31ft. container for intermodal use equipped with an "auto floor" (motorized roller equipped floor), an industry first.  The auto-floor allows faster unloading of cargo, with staff no longer needing to enter the interior of the container to access loads.  Senko is aiming to promote this container in rail freight traffic use to further encourage "modal shift".

 

pdf with picture of container:

http://www.senko.co.jp/ja/ir/pdf/20121128_201.pdf

 

picture of interior:

http://response.jp/article/img/2012/11/29/186000/501097.html

 

auto floor in operation on a Hino Ranger truck:

[miyakoji]

Would that push the cargo right into/onto another vehicle or container?  I see that motorized floor pushing the cargo right out on the ground when someone gets distracted 

[KenS]

Perhaps the real intent is to roll loads to the end of the container where they can be picked up by a forklift, without needing to make the container structure strong enough to bear the weight of a forklift plus the contents (you'd think the weight of the rollers would make that uneconomical though).

[Jace]

Various kinds of moving floors in trailers have been around for years. For example, for about 15 years, the express side of Fed Ex in the US has had a fleet of trailers with them for handling air cargo containers. These floors are roller pneumatic - there are bladders under each roller track. Add air and the roller tracks raise about above floor level, allowing the containers to be rolled in and out by hand. Remove the air, the rollers drop below floor level and the containers sit tight. Somewhat more similar to the floors in the Senko container are the 'walking floors' used mainly for bulk commodities like wood chips and trash.

 

The main benefit of these floors is that you don't need pallets to get the load in and out. Pallets take up space, so no pallets means more payload. One common alternative to pallets are slip sheets. Here again, you maximize the cube of the trailer/container but handling is slower and somewhat more difficult. The big disadvantage of a moving floor is of course cost, both initial and over time for maintenance.   

[Lawrence]

Moving floors have been around in the UK for a while now, they are often used to 'shuffle' off loads of green waste at biomass plants.  I believe Stobart use them