Development History of Container Flexitank

01 The power of standardization

On the stage of globalization, an inconspicuous role, the container, has played a revolutionary role. It has not only changed the way goods are transported, but also profoundly affected the pattern of international trade and the world economy. In the 1950s, container transportation was just a concept that had not yet been realized. At that time, although there were docks in commercial centers around the world, cargo transportation was still an urban industry that relied on intensive manpower. On the streets, millions of workers carried goods on their shoulders and backs; on the docks, workers carried heavy goods, climbed the pedals, and got into the cargo holds, piling boxes or barrels filled with goods in any available corner. Although the shipping industry has a history of thousands of years, freight at that time was still a huge and complex project. The goods had to be divided into small portions in the shipper's factory or warehouse, and then transported to the dock by truck or train, where they were sorted and loaded and unloaded by workers.

In that era, dock transportation was inefficient and costly, and the competition for employment of dock workers was becoming increasingly fierce.

In 1954, American truck driver Malcolm McLean conceived a bold plan while waiting to unload at the dock: if all the goods were packed in boxes of standard size, then these boxes could be seamlessly transferred between trucks, trains and ships to move the entire container to replace the repetitive bulk loading and unloading work, thereby greatly improving loading and unloading efficiency.

On April 26, 1956, the Port of New York witnessed an epoch-making scene: the crane could load a container into the world's first container ship, the Ideal X, every 7 minutes. In less than 8 hours, the ship was loaded with 58 33-foot aluminum containers and 15,000 tons of crude oil and set sail for the Port of Houston. The freight rate dropped from US$5.83/ton to an astonishing 15.8 cents/ton, showing the huge market potential of containers. As American historian Donald Fitzgerald said: "This is not just a revolution. The containerization of the 1950s opened a new chapter in the history of maritime transport."

Next, all aspects of the entire transportation system - ports, ships, cranes, cargo storage tools, trucks, trains and crew operating methods, have been transformed around container transportation. The ISO committee formulated international standards for container shape and gross weight and container strength and lifting in 1964 and 1965 respectively, and a new era of global trade transportation has finally arrived.

02 Pour liquids into containers

With the rapid development of standard containers, it has kept pace with the continued growth of global trade volume, further promoting the diversification of transportation needs. Especially in the field of transportation of chemical products and liquid goods, the traditional mode of transportation seems quite primitive: stacking several barrels into a standard dry cargo container. This method is inefficient and obviously cannot meet the growing market demand.

Against this background, in 1966, a young European engineer Bob Fosse saw the huge potential of multimodal transport and the container gap in the field of liquid transportation. After a year of design and hard work, the world's first tank container that meets the ISO international standard container size was born. Tank container-Teng Fei Container This new type of container is designed for the transportation of liquid goods and has all the advantages of containerized transportation. Once commercialized, it quickly spread to the transportation of various liquid commodities and became an indispensable and important part of the international logistics field.

03 The "transformation" of dry cargo standard containers

Although tank containers and iron barrels have made significant improvements in transportation costs and efficiency, this is not the ultimate stage of the development of bulk liquid transportation. The high purchase, emptying, maintenance and cleaning costs of tank containers and packaging barrels often keep corporate logistics costs high. In 1984, the design team of Trans Ocean Distribution in the UK drew inspiration from the fuel tank liners of airplanes and tanks and conceived a new type of liquid cargo transportation container: adding a huge packaging bag inside the standard dry cargo container. In this way, the dry cargo box can be quickly transformed into a liquid box, which is the original container flexitank. The first generation of container flexitanks mainly use cloth-lined rubber, cloth-lined polyurethane PU and cloth-lined polyvinyl chloride PVC as basic materials. These materials have a strong structure, rare leakage accidents, and can be reused after cleaning.

Compared with tank containers, this flexitank packaging method has similar advantages, such as larger loading capacity, more flexible transportation mode, higher loading and unloading efficiency and safer packaging structure, etc., and most importantly, it is more competitive in terms of cost. Therefore, when Trans Ocean Distribution expanded this packaging method from the military field to the commercial field, it quickly gained wide application and favor in the transportation of food/beverage liquids, industrial oils and non-hazardous liquid chemical raw materials.

04 Eliminate storage and cleaning fees

In the process of many years of development, the container flexitank industry has been working hard to solve a series of problems caused by the repeated use of flexitanks, such as the cost of empty bag return and cleaning, customer concerns about cleaning quality, and the challenges of multi-layer container flexitanks in strength, unloading residues and scrapping. Until 1999, with the widespread use of polyethylene (PE) materials around the world, an innovative solution appeared on the market:Disposable flexitanks made of single-layer polyethylene materials.

This new type of container flexitank not only solves the maintenance and cleaning problems of traditional multi-use flexitanks, but also has significant advantages in transportation efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The product meets the strict requirements of the US railway for the impact of the 9.6 km/h coupling speed and successfully passed the impact test of the American Railway Association, thus proving its reliability in terms of safety and stability. This achievement not only improves the market acceptance of the product, but also marks the excellent performance of the container flexitank in terms of quality standards.

In the same year, Trans Ocean Distribution introduced its container flexitank technology to my country. In order to ensure that the technology is suitable for my country's railway and road transportation conditions, the Ministry of Railways conducted a three-year operation test and technical appraisal of the container flexitank. After this series of rigorous tests, the container flexitank was determined to meet the requirements of domestic railway transportation in terms of impact resistance, abrasion resistance, sway resistance and weather resistance. This marks that the container flexitank transportation technology has officially entered the Chinese market, but due to the lack of market awareness, infrastructure limitations and the adaptation process to new technologies, the container flexitank technology has not been widely used and developed in the early stage.

05 Multi-layer flexitanks promote the rapid development of the industry

In 2007, with the maturity of technologies such as large-scale seamless blown film equipment and multi-layer co-extruded barrier films, the manufacturing technology of multi-layer polyethylene PE+PP flexitanks has made a major breakthrough. This new type of disposable container flexitank uses 3 or 4 layers of 0.125mm thick polyethylene material, and a layer of polypropylene woven material is added to the outer layer. The manufacturing process of this combination of materials has enabled the container flexitank to achieve a qualitative leap in terms of blocking moisture and oxygen, corrosion resistance, impact resistance and other aspects. More importantly,all materials of this flexitank can be recycled and reused, thus meeting the requirements of circular development in terms of environmental protection.

Also in 2007, my country welcomed the first batch of container flexitank production and sales companies. This important milestone marks China's significant progress in the field of container flexitank manufacturing. With the emergence of these companies, the relevant loading and unloading processes,protective measures and industry standards are also constantly improving and developing, laying a soLet foundation for the widespread application of container flexitanks.

With the demand for various transportation scenarios and different transported liquids, a variety of special types of container flexitank products have gradually emerged in the market, including flexitanks suitable for high or low temperature conditions, vehicle-mounted flexitanks designed for vehicle transportation, etc.

The development and promotion of these products further enriched the application scope of container flexitanks, enabling them to better meet the specific needs of different customers and industries.

Container flexitanks have received more and more attention and application worldwide due to their significant cost-effectiveness, safety, convenience and environmental protection advantages. It is estimated that the number of container flexitanks transported worldwide in 2023 has exceeded 1.5 million,and with the continuous advancement of technology and the further growth of market demand, container flexitanks will continue to play a key role in global logistics and supply chain management.Standing at the starting point of 2024, looking back on the transformation process of liquid transportation in the past 70 years, we can clearly see that this is a typical case of close integration of scientific and technological development with actual needs. From the era of relying on manpower and simple containers,to the popularization of efficient container flexitank systems, the development process of this field fully demonstrates the importance of technological innovation in meeting market needs, improving transportation efficiency, reducing costs and promoting environmental sustainability.

Qingdao Let flexitank, as one of the first companies to enter the flexitank industry in 2008, has the honor to grow with the entire industry and witness the entire development process of the global flexitank industry from initial exploration to maturity. Against the backdrop of continuous technological progress, expanding markets, and increasingly diversified applications, Qingdao Let flexitank has not only actively participated in this development process, but also promoted the innovation and development of the entire industry through its own efforts. With the continued growth of the global economy and the continuous expansion of international trade, the demand for liquid transportation is bound to continue to rise, which brings new opportunities and challenges to the flexitank industry. Looking to the future, Qingdao Let flexitank will pay close attention to the evolution of global market demand, and strive to provide all customers with better transportation solutions through continuous technological innovation and product optimization; at the same time, it will continue to strengthen communication with customers, attach importance to customer feedback, and continuously improve service processes to ensure that the solutions provided are both efficient and economical. In the future, Qingdao Let flexitank will be committed to becoming a leading enterprise in the flexitank industry that is trusted by customers and respected by the society, and contribute its own strength to the development of global trade!