Shipping containers are quite the impressive invention. Read the book and see what I mean. They let us pick up 40-ton objects and put them down nearly anywhere on the earth, which such ease that Alexander the Great’s head would explode with envy.
And they look so simple, too. What’s left? How could someone possibly improve on the system in any way?
Well to start, feast your eyes on the CakeBoxx container design (website, video) that has no doors at all, but rather has/is a giant lid that fits over a base.
Advantages include:
- Killer-strong/more-stackable, because it’s metal all around (no doors)
- Easier to inspect, because you can see everything, from all sides, right away
- More secure, because A) it takes a lot more equipment just to get into one, and B) it’s more difficult to replace the serial-numbered tags/seals/thingies that hold the lid down (as opposed to simply cutting the hinges off a regular container and then replacing them, with the lock still on no less!)
Wow. ‘Wish I’d thought of that one. Maybe next time I will.
Next, I must admit that I found very impressive the Hammar 195S (video) automated container trailer for semi trucks. It loads and inloads itself, picking the continer up and putting it back down again, without needing someone else to show up with a crane at either end.
What next, I ask you?!
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(I, for one, am holding out for something like the Hammar trailer, but more articulated and complex, so that I can build container-frame baby houses that can then be set atop concrete pillars on hillsides, without having to excavate much at all.)
(And/or actually straddling two-lane streets.)
(Etc.)
Longshot City 
April 12, 2011 at 8:41 pm
[…] Not-So-Stupid Shipping Container Tricks Shipping containers are quite the impressive invention. They let us pick up 40-ton objects and put them down, nearly anywhere on the earth, which such ease that Alexander the Great's head would explode with envy. … Not-So-Stupid Shipping Container Tricks […]
August 11, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Craig,
I completely agree!!! Thank you for your absolutely brilliant remarks.
And, if anyone wants one, please contact me at lilian@CakeBoxx.com
Yeah, I work for them! 🙂
Lilian