I have an idea...Reflective paint on containers

[Timo42]

Maybe make them with disruptive technology...

 

[glowmaster]

Not reflective, emissive. paint with pigments that absorb sun and glow at night.

Check this out, I think I may put a layer of this glass over the bowsprit I am stiffening (if winter ever fucking ends.)

http://www.sollercomposites.com/composites/carbon%20fiber%20sleeves.html#glow

glowingly,

ed

 

[Ned]

Containers are airtight on the top, not bottom. A small vent hole would be enough to sink it.

The cost of drilling that hole in millions of containers will be something for the shippers to whine about.

 

[Foreverslow]

why not update the design so that the front falls off...

 

[peragrin]

How about a device that would sense when the container came off the ship, open some ports, and sink the damn things?

Great idea! If they are not on a ship, they should not be floating.

I would think it should even be possible to engineer a passive device to build into containers to allow them to flood when immersed, but keep the contents dry when the container is where it belongs (on deck). Kinda like a Dorade vent in reverse.

Of course, if the contents themselves are naturally buoyant, then just flooding the containers wouldn't sink it. Suggest a requirement for containers with buoyant cargo to be ballasted sufficient to sink them.

About 6 times a year I ship paper from the East Coast to thailand. not rolls of paper, not sheets of paper, but paper air filters. Paper so light it is basically foam. with vacuum down the bags to stuff the container. The fill up nearly instantly when air is allowed back in. We stuff the container until we need to ram a truck into in to get the doors to close and lock. If ever lost that container would never sink. it would always contain too much air.

Why doesn't Thailand buy locally? we have no idea. the manufacturer of the paper filters even has offices and manufacturing there. I guess because it is cheaper to ship it from the east coast than to pay engineers to create a limited supply run of filters locally.

 

[us7070]

How about a device that would sense when the container came off the ship, open some ports, and sink the damn things?

Great idea! If they are not on a ship, they should not be floating.

I would think it should even be possible to engineer a passive device to build into containers to allow them to flood when immersed, but keep the contents dry when the container is where it belongs (on deck). Kinda like a Dorade vent in reverse.

Of course, if the contents themselves are naturally buoyant, then just flooding the containers wouldn't sink it. Suggest a requirement for containers with buoyant cargo to be ballasted sufficient to sink them.

About 6 times a year I ship paper from the East Coast to thailand. not rolls of paper, not sheets of paper, but paper air filters. Paper so light it is basically foam. with vacuum down the bags to stuff the container. The fill up nearly instantly when air is allowed back in. We stuff the container until we need to ram a truck into in to get the doors to close and lock. If ever lost that container would never sink. it would always contain too much air.

Why doesn't Thailand buy locally? we have no idea. the manufacturer of the paper filters even has offices and manufacturing there. I guess because it is cheaper to ship it from the east coast than to pay engineers to create a limited supply run of filters locally.

the more air, the more likely it is to sink

all the air will be replaced by water - probably pretty quickly if the air is only encased in paper

 

[Bill's Sock Puppet]

Facts about Shipping containers

There are currently over 17 million shipping containers in the world, and five or six million of them are currently shipping around the world on vessels, trucks, and trains. In total, they make around 200 million trips a year.

Its estimated that there are 10,000 shipping containers lost at sea every year. Thats almost one container every hour! Lost containers can be damaged by waves and sink quickly, but some may float for a little while. The ones that dont sink, often float just below the surface which can cause a lot of damage to other vessels.

Painting or applying reflective tape on the edges of would be helpful seeing them floating on the water. This would would have to be done by the owner of the container. (The ships do not own all the containers they ship.)
Placing explosive bolts, doors, etc. armed to go off automatically or remotely on all shipping containers would probably trigger concerns everywhere the container goes. (or did you want the longshoremen to install and remove these devices in port? )

 

[Mark Morwood]

I've long believed that the danger of hitting a container is vastly over stated

...

Along the same lines, I've often wondered how much of a real risk they are as I've never seen one floating at sea. That's in about 30,000 miles over two different multi-year trips around the Atlantic and Med.

So has anyone else seen one at sea?

Now it maybe that they are hard to see and maybe we keep a sub-standard watch, but we have seen lots of other things that can be a real risk, like whales, unlit fishing boats, etc ...

 

[DA-WOODY]

why don't they REALLY lock them ALL together

BETTER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Godzilla]

You'd think that making them easier to find would be better than making them easier to sink. A small AIS beacon (with hydrostatic release or some such) might make finding overboard containers easier and maybe even profitable for salvors.

Who is going to retrieve them?

How are they going to do it?

Probably way more cost effective to just pay the customer for lost cargo.

 

[Godzilla]

After the FELA act was passed to make railroad companies liable for the injuries of workers, railroad companies rapidly innovated to prevent injuries. It's all a matter of motivation.

If you want the problem solved, simply institute a $1M fine on the shipping company in question for every container that is lost from the ship. You drop 30 containers, you get fined $30M. I think you'll find the problem will be solved very quickly.

Excellent Idea.

It could be difficult to get the ships to report losses though.

 

[Dacron]

After the FELA act was passed to make railroad companies liable for the injuries of workers, railroad companies rapidly innovated to prevent injuries. It's all a matter of motivation.

If you want the problem solved, simply institute a $1M fine on the shipping company in question for every container that is lost from the ship. You drop 30 containers, you get fined $30M. I think you'll find the problem will be solved very quickly.

Excellent Idea.It could be difficult to get the ships to report losses though.

And would ships not simply go register elsewhere? Or stop using the port that imposes the fine and go a bit further down the coast? You are talking about invoking a fine/fee that would put your port out of business. Not overnight sure, but probably faster than you think if its a big enough fine to adjust behavior.

 

[Dacron]

Aside from all the above, would not said reflective paint get fouled and go green/brown pretty quickly - like within a few days? Reflective antifouling paints don't exist, do they?

 

[Mike in CT]

Containers are airtight on the top, not bottom. A small vent hole would be enough to sink it.

The cost of drilling that hole in millions of containers will be something for the shippers to whine about.

They are not air tight at the top because they have small vent holes installed from the factory. see post #31. Many new containers now have as many as 8 of these vents at the very top of the wall.

 

[DryArmour]

After the FELA act was passed to make railroad companies liable for the injuries of workers, railroad companies rapidly innovated to prevent injuries. It's all a matter of motivation.

If you want the problem solved, simply institute a $1M fine on the shipping company in question for every container that is lost from the ship. You drop 30 containers, you get fined $30M. I think you'll find the problem will be solved very quickly.

Excellent Idea.It could be difficult to get the ships to report losses though.

And would ships not simply go register elsewhere? Or stop using the port that imposes the fine and go a bit further down the coast? You are talking about invoking a fine/fee that would put your port out of business. Not overnight sure, but probably faster than you think if its a big enough fine to adjust behavior.

Why not simply require the reflective paint for containers to be offloaded here in the US? No paint? No offload.

 

[r.finn]

How about gps trackers monitored by the Department of Defense for military training operations? That could be fun.

 

[ClevelandSteamer]

How about gps trackers monitored by the Department of Defense for military training operations? That could be fun.

Use the containers for target practice?

 

[Albatros]

How about gps trackers monitored by the Department of Defense for military training operations? That could be fun.

Use the containers for target practice?

the idea of gps trackers was considered loooong time ago but at the time too costly, just make a calculation of the number of containers on this little blue marble, might also become quite a clutter for comms because obviously a gps on its own is worthless, it also needs to transmit.

and as for that target practice : somewhere mid 80's while doing the monthly run to the USofA on a containerhulk, a bit off Newfoundland we observe a couple of Canuck army jets circling us, they call on vhf and ask us to remain on current course no matter what as they were going to do a bit of a practice run on a couple of floating containers, was a great sight from monkeybridge with a pair of heavy goggles, them coming parallel to us making dives to the water and bam bam bam a mile or so next to us, when finished they made another pass close by to say all was clear and thanks for the cooperation.

 

[Jazzy]

A little off topic but, I sail on the great lake and after a thunder storm or heavy rail the amount of crap and logs floating around is unf----- unreal. Can,t do shit about it but keep a lookout.

Br