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An intermodal container is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship to rail to truck – without unloading and reloading their cargo. Intermodal containers are primarily used to store and transport materials and products efficiently and securely in the global containerized intermodal freight transport system, but smaller numbers are in regional use as well. These containers are known under a number of names, such as simply container, cargo or freight container, ISO container, shipping, sea or ocean container, container van or (Conex) box, sea or c can. Intermodal containers exist in many types and a number of standardized sizes, but ninety percent of the global container fleet are so-called ''"dry freight"'' or ''"general purpose"'' containers,〔〔 durable closed steel boxes, mostly of either twenty or forty foot (6 or 12m) standard length.〔〔 The common heights are and – the latter are known as ''High Cube'' or ''Hi-Cube'' containers. Just like cardboard boxes and pallets, these containers are a means to bundle cargo and goods into larger, unitized loads, that can be easily handled, moved, and stacked, and that will pack tightly in a ship or yard. Intermodal containers share a number of key construction features to hold-up to the stresses of intermodal shipping, to facilitate their handling and to allow stacking, as well as being identifiable through their individual, unique ISO 6346 reporting mark. In 2012 there were about 20.5 million intermodal containers in the world of varying types to suit different cargoes. Containers have largely supplanted the traditional break bulk cargo – in 2010 containers accounted for 60% of the world's seaborne trade.〔(Global Trade – World Shipping Council )〕 The predominant alternative methods of transport carry bulk cargo – either gaseous, liquid or solid – e.g. by bulk carrier or tank ship, tank car or truck. For air freight, the more light-weight IATA-defined unit load device is used. ==History== (詳細はLiverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one of these. "Simple rectangular timber boxes, four to a truck, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where they were transferred to horse-drawn carts by crane."〔Essery, R. J, Rowland. D. P. & Steel W. O. ''British Goods Wagons from 1887 to the Present Day''. Augustus M. Kelly Publishers. New York USA. 1979 Page 92〕 Early versions of standardized containers were used in Europe before World War II. Construction of these containers had a steel frame with wooden walls, floor, roof and doors. The first international standard for containers was established by the Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal (B.I.C.) in 1933, and a second one in 1935, primarily for transport between European countries. American containers at this time were not standardized, and these early containers were not yet stackable – neither in the U.S. or Europe. In November 1932, the first container terminal in the world was opened by the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company in Enola, PA. The development of containerization was created in Europe and the US as a way to revitalize rail companies after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, in New York, and resulting economic collapse and drop in all modes of transport. In April 1951 at Zürich Tiefenbrunnen railway station the Swiss Museum of Transport and the ''Bureau International des Containers'' (BIC) held demonstrations of container systems for representatives from a number of European countries, and from the United States. A system was selected for Western Europe, based on the Netherlands' system for consumer goods and waste transportation called ''Laadkisten'' (lit. "Loading bins"), in use since 1934. This system used roller containers for transport by rail, truck and ship, in various configurations up to capacity, and up to 3.1 x 2.3 × 2 metres in size. This became the first post World War II European railway standard of the International Union of Railways – ''UIC-590'', known as "pa-Behälter." It was implemented in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. The use of standardized steel shipping containers began during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when commercial shipping operators and the US military started developing such units.〔Intermodal Marine Container Transportation: Impediments and Opportunities, Issue 236 // National Research Council: (The container revolution ) (page 18): "This () box in turn served as a model for the small containers that most major ship operators began using during the late 1940s and early 1950s. These however, were mainly loaded and unloaded at the docks, and not used intermodally.."〕 In 1948 the U.S. Army Transportation Corps developed the "Transporter", a rigid, corrugated steel container, able to carry . It was long, wide, and high, with double doors on one end, was mounted on skids, and had lifting rings on the top four corners. After proving successful in Korea, the Transporter was developed into the Container Express (CONEX) box system in late 1952. Based on the Transporter, the size and capacity of the Conex were about the same, but the system was made ''modular'', by the addition of a smaller, half-size unit of long, wide and high.〔Development of Containerization // J. van Ham, J. Rijsenbrij: (Steel containers ) (page 8)〕 CONEXes could be stacked three high, and protected their contents from the elements.〔 By 1965 the US military used some 100,000 Conex boxes, and more than 200,000 in 1967.〔 making this the first worldwide application of intermodal containers.〔 From 1949 onwards, engineer Keith Tantlinger repeatedly contributed to the development of containers, as well as their handling and transportation equipment. In 1949, while at Brown Trailers Inc. of Spokane, he modified the design of their stressed skin aluminum 30-foot trailer, to fulfil an order of two-hundred containers that could be stacked two high, for Alaska-based ''Ocean Van Lines''. Steel castings on the top corners provided lifting and securing points. In 1955 trucking magnate Malcom McLean bought Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, to form a container shipping enterprise, later known as Sea-Land. The first containers were supplied by Brown, where McLean met Keith Tantlinger, and hired him as vice-president of engineering and research. Under the supervision of Tantlinger, a new x x Sea-Land container was developed, the length determined by the maximum length of trailers then allowed on Pennsylvanian highways. Each container had a frame with eight corner castings that could withstand stacking loads. Tantlinger also designed automatic spreaders for handling the containers, as well as the twistlock mechanism that connects with the corner castings. Two years after McLean's first container ship, the ''Ideal X'' started container shipping on the U.S. East Coast,〔http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/trnews/trnews246.pdf〕 Matson Navigation followed suit between California and Hawaii. Just like Pan-Atlantic's containers, Matson's were wide and high, but due to California's different traffic code, Matson chose to make theirs long. In 1968, McLean began container service to South Vietnam for the US military with great success. ISO standards for containers were published between 1968 and 1970 by the International Maritime Organization. These standards allow for more consistent loading, transporting, and unloading of goods in ports throughout the world, thus saving time and resources. The International Convention for Safe Containers is a 1972 regulation by the Inter-governmental Maritime Consultative Organization on the safe handling and transport of containers. It decrees that every container travelling internationally be fitted with a CSC Safety-approval Plate.〔(International Convention for Safe Containers ) (Geneva, 2 December 1972)〕 This holds essential information about the container, including age, registration number, dimensions and weights, as well as its strength and maximum stacking capability. Longshoremen and related unions around the world struggled with this revolution in shipping goods. For example, by 1971 a clause in the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) contract stipulated that the work of "stuffing" (filling) or "stripping" (emptying) a container within 50 miles of a port must be done by ILA workers or if not done by ILA that the shipper needed to pay royalties and penalties to the ILA. Unions for truckers and consolidators argued that the ILA rules were not valid work preservation clauses because the work of stuffing and stripping containers away from the pier had not traditionally been done by ILA members.〔 In 1980 the Supreme Court of the United States heard this case and ruled against the ILA. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Intermodal container」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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