Record high fuel costs have resulted in both passenger and cargo airlines searching for ways to reduce the weight of freight containers – so Norwegian company Nordisk has spent years researching an alternative to the traditional 0.6mm aluminium sheet that results in a standard LD3 container tipping the scales at 75kg.
Nordisk settled on a lightweight composite material called Twintex that works out at roughly half the weight of aluminium, resulting in a significant weight saving when it’s used in the side and top panels of a typical lightweight container.
Although it works out slightly more costly than a conventional container, as all composite containers do, the additional costs are insignificant compared to the fuel cost savings from the reduced weight.
As Nordisk’s ‘weightsaver’ LD3 containers use the same well-proven extrusions as the traditional aluminium versions, spare parts are not a problem while the Twintex version is resistant to UV radiation damage; can be repaired in conventional workshops and above all is very durable. More than 10,000 of the new containers are already in service around the globe, some for the domestic Chinese market being made at Nordisk’s factory near
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Source: Flight Daily News
