The meaning of marking on sea containers

Marine a container is a special equipment with which goods can be transported by shipping. There are a lot of companies on the market of this equipment that are engaged in the production of sea containers, so buyers have a question: “How to choose a container. What should I pay attention to? " For this, there is a marking that is affixed to the walls of the equipment. The codes contain information about dimensions, weight and maximum load. In ISO standards, you can find the principles and rules for affixing labels.

What is the function of labeling containers?

The need for labeling containers is to select equipment that is ideal for the cargo being transported ... Marking also makes it possible to track the movement of cargo.

Marking using letters

Thanks to letter marks, it is possible to understand for which type of cargo the sea container is suitable. For this, Latin letters are used, combined into groups. According to the European standard, such designations are deciphered as follows:

• GP - a sea container with which you can transport any type of cargo;
• DC - dry cargo can be transported in such containers.
• RE, RT, RS - refrigerated containers;
• HI, HR - they transport thermal goods;
• VH - they require continuous air ventilation;
• UT, OT - there is no roof in these types of containers (most often they are covered with tarpaulin or strong film);
• PF, PS, PC, PL - platform module;
• TN, TG, TD - transport liquid substances;
• BU, BK - module for the transport of bulk substances;
• SN - they are intended for the transport of animals and plants.

Alphanumeric

These markings are applied to the roof, doors and walls of containers. This designation consists of two lines that contain information about the container for transportation. The code includes Latin letters and Arabic numerals. The marking is put in two lines.

The designations in the first line are deciphered as follows:

• The first three letters indicate the owner company. The combination of letters has no analogues, all components are not repeated, it is assigned when the container is registered with an international authority.
• The fourth letter indicates which category the container belongs to. This includes the following codes: U - lifting equipment, J - removable equipment, Z - trailers, equipment with chassis, R - refrigerated containers.
• The numbers contain the serial number of the sea container. It consists of six digits. If there are not enough digits, then the code is supplemented with zeros, which are placed in front of the digits. The serial number is not repeated, with its help you can find out about the manufacturer and the batch in which the container was produced.
• The seventh digit is the main one. It makes it possible to find out if the information is true on the container. To calculate this figure, a special methodology is used, contained in the ISO 6346: 1995 standard.

The second line reflects the following information:

• Two capital letters indicate the code the country in which the container is registered. Country coding rules are contained in ISO 6346: 1995. This encoding can be omitted, as it is optional.
• Together, letters and numbers indicate the dimensions of the container. The first character contains information about the length of the container, and the second contains the height and width. Regulations allow for this data to be indicated by two letters, two numbers or an alphanumeric combination.
• The last combination of letters and numbers helps determine the type of container. The letters indicate the type of the sea container, and the numbers indicate the characteristics.

In addition, the containers have a code with which you can find out its technical characteristics. The walls of the equipment contain information about how many m3 of cargo a given container can hold, empty and maximum weight of a full container (which can be specified in both kilograms and pounds), electrical safety parameters (kW) and other parameters. There is also a "safety plate" on the module door. A so-called safety table is attached to the door of the container, which contains information about what materials were used in the production of the container, what maximum load weight they can withstand, how strong the ends are, about the rigidity of the structure, how many times the container was released.