How To Select The Right Container Liner
Businesses all around the globe dealing in goods and products have a common requirement, which is utility for the storage and transportation of their products. It is for this reason that; a large amount of investment is made by different organizations behind these utility requirements from time to time. These utilities generally reflect storage or transportation containers that are used by the organizations to fulfill their need. However, despite such a huge volume of investment being made by organizations behind containers for storage and transportation to the safe keeping of their goods and products, it often ends up in major challenges for the organizations. This in turn pushes the organizations to incur financial losses or put in additional financial resources or other resources to rectify the mistakes. In a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts in 1992 under Dr. K.M. Hopkins and S.V Ramachandran published in the scientific literature of Transportation research published by Oxford Press, it was discovered that all of these challenges that are faced by organizations about transportation and storage of goods are directly proportional to 2 major factors they are natural potency and product differentiation. This highlights that all the major challenges faced by the organizations in the storage and transportation of products come from natural tendencies like, heat, rainfall, cold, moisture, etc. factors, or due to chemical imbalance and differentiation of the product stored in the container, which it is not compatible to.
These identified challenges usually happen and are faced by the organizations majorly because of the wrong choice of containers selected and bought in by the organizations for storage and transportation of their products. To avoid such challenges in the long run and safeguard businesses from financial losses or engage more additional resources for a single job of transportation and storage an organization needs to select the right container liner for their product.
However, despite this common understanding of compatibility requirements for product storage and transportation using container liners, mistakes still happen because of a lack of knowledge and information. To cover the gap and update information and knowledge let’s take a look at all the things we should know and be aware of to select the right container liner!
What are Container Liners?
Container Liners are utilities made up of many different types of materials that are ideal for the storage and transportation of goods and products. Container liners can be used for the transportation of products even beyond the borders of the country through shipping while ensuring the safety of the product across natural calamities and changes while being compatible with the necessities of the product. Production of container liners from variant materials makes it the ideal utility for storage and transportation of all types of goods including, solid, liquid, and gas. This highlights the wide variety of propositions that container liners bring in for industries in terms of storage and transportation of products.
Basic Things to Keep in Mind While Selecting Container Liners
When an organization wishes to invest in container liners for storage and transportation of products four basic factors should be always taken into consideration, they are:
- Natural Potency
- Types of Product
- Compatibility of Product and Container
- Type of Liner
The details of each of the factors will help us understand how these factors can contribute to the selection of the right container liner.
Natural Potency
The natural potency takes into account all the possible natural calamities that might stand as challenges during the storage or transportation of products. This includes rainfall, salty weather from sea voyages, storms, sunlight, etc., which may act as a barrier for the products in the transportation or storage process. It is because of these natural potencies the products that are stored or transported using containers often get soiled or damaged due to lack of proper safety barriers. This lack of safety barriers occurs from the inability of the organization to predict the right natural exposure of the containers on storage and transportation, it is because of this reason many times organizations often invest in the wrong container liners, or select ones that cost less than the others, without even evaluating the possible challenges of natural potencies. This in turn affects damaging the products stored inside the containers. It is for this reason, that evaluating the possible exposure of the container and its content to natural potency is extremely important for the organization. Based on this evaluation selecting the ideal container that can fight against natural potency is the right approach to choose a container, as it can handle the hazards of nature and protect the products from possible disaster situations about natural potency threats.
It is because of these reasons it is important to evaluate the weather conditions that the product may be exposed to be critically important before selecting a container liner.
Types of Products
Every industry selects its container liner based on the type of products it handles. This is because the container selection process based on product type defines the capability of the container to extend the overall life of the product stored or transported using the container. However, many times due to a lack of knowledge or to encourage financial gains organizations often invest in the wrong types of containers, which often result in possible hazards from and to the product in the future depending on the type of product. One such example is the American Zing Recycling Corp. Settlement, as a consent decree dated 02/09/2010. In this case, the organization used second-hand food-grade containers available at a second-hand cost price to dispose of waste products, instead of using waste disposal-grade containers. This resulted in damaging the environment including drinking water and air surrounding the disposal area. This indicates that choosing the right container as per the type of industry and product is critically important for an organization, to prevent hazards from and to the product stored or transported using a container liner. It is because there are clear distinctions and differentiation between Agricultural product containers, Food grade containers, chemical grade containers, mineral grade containers, waste disposal grade containers, and other container liners set as per industrial standards based on government norms.
To avoid lawsuits, financial losses, and unwanted engagement of resources along with damage to and from the product stored and transported using container liners, it is extremely important to select the ideal container liner based on the types of products being handled by the organization.
Compatibility of Product and Container
Once the type of product for transportation and storage is identified by an organization, and evaluation has been made for natural potencies, an organization needs to identify the best type of container liner that meets the compatibility requirement of their product. Identification of compatibility is of high importance because identical grades of containers can be manufactured from different materials or differences may vary in the thickness or build of the container, which in turn directly impacts the product stored inside the container. It is for this reason selecting the ideal container based on compatibility and courses of action it provides along with the primary function of storage and transportation plays a crucial role in selecting container liners. For example, Thermal liners are manufactured from woven fabric and met pet with reflective laminate hung inside the container, to protect the cargo from temperature fluctuations, making them ideal for the transportation of wine and beverages. This is because the change in temperature within a container liner can impact the quality of the wine. Similarly for a food-grade product like sugar safety standard liner is ideal as it prevents the item from moisture and also reflects chemical compatibility, which indicates safeguarding the product from damages that may happen because of a reaction between the container and the product inside.
In the light of evidence related to compatibility and its importance, it is evident that while selecting a container keeping in mind the compatibility factor is of prime importance as it can directly impact the quality of the product when stored or transported in the container.
Type of Container Liner
The final decision of choosing the right container liner is thoroughly based on three factors identified earlier conjoining at a single selection point. There are many variants of container liners available where only one or two will meet all the three specific requirements that are important for its success in your business. It is for this reason studying in detail each of the container liners is extremely important so that as a business you don’t miss out on any one of the important factors.
Variant of Container Liners
The various types of Container Liners Available to select from are:
- Standard liner
- Safety liners
- Metalized/Aluminum liners
- Thermal liners
- Barrier liners
- Conductive liners
- Filled-In liners
- Elastomer liners
- Woven Polypropylene Liners
- Wet hide liners
Other than this variant of liners available in the market to select from for storage and transportation some other secondary factors should be taken into account when deciding the type of container liner, they are Design, Container Liner Style, Loading Mechanism Size of the Liner, Loading and Unloading type of the container liner. The details of each type of container level consideration details are as follows:
Design
The design of the container liner is thoroughly dependent on the type of design that meets your other primary requirements identified earlier. There are many designs available in the market when selecting a container liner that might meet your organizational requirements:
- Top filling
- Full access cargo liner
- Mail box discharge liner
- Fish tail discharge liner
- Triangle-shaped bulk headliner
- Zipper loading box container liner
- Fluidizing head bulk liner
- Rapid flow bulk liner
- Form-fit disposable container liner/Trailer liner
- Airbag, venting system -depends on liner application and filling material.
- Bulkheads with wooden/ steel tubes/barless / integrated WPP or PE fronts
Depending on the type of product that needs to be stored or transported the design selection is critical as it can contribute to an easy handling process.
Container Liner Style
The container liner style is another major factor that contributes to the process mechanism of a container. There are many variants of styles available based on your requirements and the place of operation style of container liner holds the primary function of input of our products. It is because of this reason depending on your place of operation choosing from the different styles holds the key to making the process of operation easy or difficult. The style variants available are:
- Typical liner & bulkhead systems
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End-fill liners – These are supported with wooden/steel & fabric bulkheads/ integrated fabric fronts supported by steel bars Filling and discharging sleeves are normally located off-center to enable better balance while loading products as one door is kept closed for additional support.
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In another variety of liner bulkheads, full-width triangular discharge is used to eliminate the need for corner boards.
- Top-hatch systems for easy loading of product
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Discharge at the lower end ensures complete unloading of the product. This kind of bulkhead is normally used in Thermal Liners and allows for forklifts to move right through the container making it easy for unloading.
Based on the type of style you have selected for your business, the loading mechanism will vary. It is because of this reason selecting a style that meets your operational area is important in defining success.
Loading Mechanism
Though this mechanism of container is thoroughly dependent on the style and operational area of a business it plays a huge role in contributing to the operational process. There are four types of loading mechanism possible they are as follow:
- End Fill
- Top Fill
- Wide Access Open Top
- Wide Access Open End
These mechanisms contribute to the process of loading and unloading as well as making the operational process of the container liner easy or difficult.
Loading Type
Loading your product safely into the container is the most important part of the entire container usage process because if products or goods get tampered with or damaged during the loading process, the overall outlay and investing in the best container liner can all go to waste for the organization. It is for this reason type of loading based on product and place is extremely important for an organization. There are three types of loading to select from:
- Conveyor Loading
- Top Loading
- Pneumatic Loading
It is based on the type of container style and mechanism loading type will depend on along with product and place, based on which selecting the ideal container that can support the type of loading is pivotal to define success.
Unloading Type
Similar to Loading if while unloading the product goods get tampered or damaged the overall outlay and investing in the best container liner can all go to waste for the organization. It is because of this reason the type of unloading based on product and place is extremely important for an organization. There are four types of unloading type to select from:
- Basic Funnel Discharge
- Gravity Discharge via Funnel Pit
- Discharge to Silo using Vacuum
- Gravity discharge via ramp
It is based on the type of container style and mechanism unloading type will depend on along with product and place, based on which selecting the ideal container that can support the type of loading is primary to define success
Size of Container Liner
Choosing the size is thoroughly dependent on the variant available in the market for each container type and what suits the requirements of the business. The variant of sizes of container that are generally available varies between:
- 20 Feet
- 30 Feet
- 40 Feet
- 45 Feet
- 53’ Feet and other sizes
It is thoroughly based on your organizational requirements you should select the appropriate size that meets your requirements.
The overview of the type of container highlights the large number of factors that need to be considered by an organization when selecting a container liner.
So if you are interested in selecting the right container liner for your business, you can get in touch with us we would be happy to help and guide you.
Why Choose Us?
Rishi FIBC is one of the leading container liners manufacturers with business across 42 different countries providing premium quality products to users. All our container liners so manufactured meet all the necessary standards and quality parameters, thereby making sure that none of the users get even a single chance to complain. With our decades of experience and sheer level of expertise, Rishi FIBC makes sure to live up to the expectations of every user in the best possible manner. So what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us over our helpline number or our website to get proper guidance and fulfill your business inquiry related to selecting the right container liner that will meet your business requirements.