Maersk chooses Cannon for its containers

A second turnkey plant for the production of "reefers" (special refrigerated containers used for the medium and long range transport of foodstuffs) was commissioned to Cannon by Maersk Container Industry.
The new production line, which will require a total investment of about USD 170 million, will be installed at the new production unit in San Antonio, Chile, and will be operational by early 2014. With a capacity guaranteed by 40 thousand 12-metre containers with the related refrigeration units, this production plant will be also able to manufacture 2.6-metre-high containers specially designed for the transport of bananas.
This will be the first modern plant for the production of reefers to be built outside China and the first ever in South America. The main production facilities for these containers are situated in China, where Maersk Container Industry has a large production unit in Qingdao. The heart of this plant is the rigid PU foam injection unit which produces the main container components – walls, floor, roof, base and corner doors – which are assembled at the rate of one unit per nine minutes.
The polyurethane foaming and polymerisation plant will take up about 4,300 sq.m. Ten high-pressure, high-capacity feeders will supply 25 mixing heads (model JL and FPL) thus allowing injection of the foam into panels arranged in nine 12.5 x 2.5 m large presses. Designed in accordance with the 2+2 and 1+1 platen exchange principle, these presses will allow the production of all the insulating components necessary for assembling a reefer: sandwich panels in different sizes consisting of two corrugated metal sheets joined with a layer of rigid foam having a thickness of several centimetres.