Trends in the development of container fixing devices

The article describes trends in the technical development of fixing devices for containers, called a "fitting retainer". Containers have gradually conquered the transportation market in the USA, Europe and Asia. And each means of transport: road, marine and railway one needed devices to fix containers, because all participants of the transportation process are responsible for the safety of goods. In the period of the appearance of container transportations, commercial agreements between operators and transport companies played an important role, influencing the unification of overall dimensions and weights of containers and transported goods, which was a prerequisite to create fittings for containers and, as a result, fitting retainers for all means of transport. The domestic regulatory framework also required updating, monitoring a large number of flat wagon manufacturers and taking into account severe operating conditions of containers throughout the entire railway network. With the rapid development of the container transportation market on long routes from China to Europe and the transition to the technology of accelerated container train sets based on high-speed flat wagons, it becomes necessary to solve the issue of wind protection of empty containers and low loaded containers, taking into account the speed of up to 140 km/h. Well-known technical solutions from different manufacturers to fix containers in retainers of special shapes and with additional fixing through a retainer hole have been analyzed. An original technical solution of the fixing device is proposed, performed in the flat wagon opposite each fitting to install the container. By turning this device using man power, each corner of the container can be fixed to prevent empty containers from falling (tippling) from flat wagons when exposed to wind loads, which meets requirements of safety, operation and reliability of fixing the container in the flat wagon.