Automatic Folding Container Type for Scientific Research Stations

Are foldable containers effective in repositioning empty containers?

Foldable containers are considered an effective solution to deal with the endemic imbalance in the repositioning of empty containers. Several foldable containers were commercialized without clear breakthrough in the market and most current researches are still limited to small pilot projects.

Which containers are foldable or collapsible?

As mentioned above, the foldable or collapsible containers that have been actually commercialized to date are SIO, Fallpac and HCI. Among them, only HCI is fully foldable whereas SIO is collapsible and Fallpac combines collapsible and foldable features.

Why are foldable containers so controversial?

One main reason for this controversy is the high purchase cost of the foldable container. The current purchase cost of the developed foldable container is currently set to US$ 20,000 but will be lowered to US$ 10,000 in case of mass production, which is still significantly higher than the purchase price of US$ 5,000 of a standard 40-foot container.

Can a 5-tier stacking foldable container be economically produced?

This paper presents the design of a new 5-tier stacking foldable container with convenient folding and unfolding process and that can be produced economically compared to previous products. The selected size of the container is the standard 40-ft high cube because it represents about 70% of the maritime container fleet transiting Korean ports.