The intermodal container may be called by other names such as a box, high-cube container, ISO container, sea can, freight container, conex box, and container. These models are made from standardized reusable steel. They offer safe and secure and effective storage for moving materials all over the world via a global containerized intermodal freight system.
"Intermodal" is a term which refer to the container that could be moved between one kind of transport to another. Intermodal may refer from a ship to rail or ship to truck, without having to reload and unload the container's contents. A few of the container lengths that have a distinctive ISO 6346 reporting mark on them vary from 2.438 m or 8-feet to 17.07m or 56 feet. These units are as high as 8 feet or 2.438 m to 2.9 m or 9 feet, 6 inches. It is estimated that there are about 17 million intermodal containers within the world of different kinds to suit a variety of cargoes.
These containers could be transported by freight train, semi-truck trailer and container ship. They could also travel many distances without having to be unpacked. At container terminals, they are transferred between modes using container cranes. Normally a reach-stacker is used to transfer from a flat-bed truck to a rail car. These units are secured during transportation by a range of "twistlock" points situated at every corner on the container.
Every container is equipped with a particular bin identification code or BIC code which is painted on the outside to be able to take care of identification and tracking. These models can lift things ranging roughly 20 to 25 tonnes.
For transport on rails, the container could be carried on well cars or on flatcars. Well cars have been designed particularly for use by intermodal containers. They can safely and efficiently accommodate double-stacked containers. The loading gauge of a rail system could actually restrict the types of container shipment and the particular modes of the shipment. Like for example, the smaller loading gauges that are usually found within European railroads would just handle single-stacked containers. In some nations such as the UK, there are some sections of the rail network that cannot accommodate high-cube containers, unless they could use well cars only.
These containers are built to last and are used to travel extreme distances. They are re-used with companies and can lift an enormous amount of cargo. These containers are responsible for moving many of the objects we depend on everyday all over the world.