Shipping Container Connectors

[TLHS]

Hi all,

I'm sure I'm not the only one in the industrial space who gets pretty regular questions in the form of "Can I do xxx with a shipping container". My answer is often "probably, but it's not really the best solution."

Sometimes, though, it's just mounting small things to a container. I'm curious if anyone has run into off the shelf connectors that can interface with the standard shipping container connection points and have some sort of reliable engineering documentation behind them. It would be incredibly useful for strapping things like lights and camera masts to the side, but I haven't run across anything that looks reliable. There's a vendor out of the UK that seems to do something like what I'm looking for, but that likely makes it difficult to expect a contractor in North America to get a handle on for small jobs. I just want to make sure nobody's found anything neat that I'm missing. Welding a couple of plates to the thing isn't a show stopper and has been what I've done in the past for these types of situations.

 

[dhengr]

TLHS:
Those corner connectors are an industry std. steel casting. I’d go the Shipping Container Industry Std. Assoc. (not sure of the exact name off the top of my head) for their design stds., details, etc. The shipping, railroad and trucking industries all live with those same stds., but each with slightly different max. load criteria for their part of the operation. And, the containers and corner connectors must meet the max. of those loads in each direction. I would think that you should be able to buy/salvage those corner connectors by the ton/truck load as containers are being scrapped. And normally, I would bet that the corner connectors are not the reason the container is being scrapped, so with some inspection and clean-up they should still be useful for your applications. Then, you fab your application on top of the used connector and fix it to the container in question. The containers are made/designed around those concentrated corner connector loadings, and otherwise the container loads and loading are fairly unform. The reuse of the whole container gets complicated quickly when people want to apply all sorts of non-uniform loadings, and cut lots of openings in the six surfaces of the container.

 

[dik]

I have several articles on containers from a project a few months back... this has some fittings as well as bunch of other stuff.


Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[dik]

Directory snapshot...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[Ussuri]

https://www.conpargroup.co.uk/twist-locks.html

You could have a look for Twist Locks

 

[phamENG]

I take it you mean non-standard twist locks, TLHS? Like a fitting that will lock into the standard fitting on the shipping container but has a non-shipping container attachment - like an antenna or pole that can be secured to the twist lock fitting on the container to avoid welding?

I do not know of one, but thanks for the business idea...

 

[LittleInch]

You could try a ground plat and then bolt stuff to it?

Like this

https://www.falconstructures.com/blog/shipping-container-accessories

These look quite nifty,

https://twistlocks.com.au/shipping-container-side-twist-locks/

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[TLHS]

Thanks all,

Dik, I was going to say that I have a bunch of shipping container standards, and that it wasn't really what I was talking about, but I looked in there and there are definitely details for the locking mechanisms. I don't think it'll really help me, because I'm in situations where I'm doing one offs and manufacturing my own locking assemblies won't be cost effective over just welding something on, but it's good to know if ever want to do something at scale. Looking at your directory, have you also run across the ICC document about shipping containers as buildings? It's helpful in some areas and a good thing to point at as definitive when doing engineering on them: "ICC G5-2019." Just something you might want to add to the library if it ever comes up.

dhenger, yeah that's a thought. That's a pretty good idea for some applications but too much of a pain to try to organize for something with a single container heading to a site somewhere I'd think.

Ussuri, phamEng and LittleInch, I had no idea these were called twistlocks and knowing that has given me a whole bunch of things to search for. I'm going to dig around with that for a bit.

 

[dik]

I've come across a couple of container for buildings articles; I'll check and update the directory as I find info.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[rayb08]

https://www.peckhale.com/products?tid_3[]=25&field_product_search_terms_value=&items_per_page=5

https://www.tandemloc.com/cargo-securing-container-stands

I've had experience using products from these vendors to secure containers in US GOM