Shockwatch provides users
such as rail cars, trucks, large
containers, heavy equipment and aircraft, with a programme that reliably indicates G-force and/or temperature causes of damage.
IF THE heat hatches your exported ostrich eggs prematurely as they cross the Equator en route to Europe, or your container of dry goods springs a leak as it's being manhandled in a tropical rainstorm in Lagos, you need to meet Bester Pansegrouw.
Detecting accidental damage to cargo is only half the story. Finding the cause is often overlooked once the problem is solved and that's where Pansegrouw, marketing manager of Stopak, steps in.
His company supplies the expertise and equipment to create a package of detection and prevention so it doesn't happen again.
Cape Town-based Stopak, a manufacturer of dunnage and liquid liner bags since 1989 and sole South African distributer of hi-tech US-made cargo monitoring equipment, has spent the last year expanding its product range and improving existing ones.
ISO
accredited
The result is SABS's (SA Bureau of Standards) recent listing of some of Stopak's products, such as palletising glue and load monitoring equipment, as ISO 9002 accredited.
Said Jumbo Anderson, managing director of Stopak: In keeping with customers' requirements we have expanded our product range to include not only products that prevent damage but also products that can assist customers in determining the cause of the damage to their goods.
Monitoring equipment
There are two types of monitoring equipment of interest to the freight industry.
The Mag 3500 Shockwatch is a data event recorder that provides users such as rail cars, trucks, large containers, heavy equipment and aircraft, with a programme that reliably indicates G-force and/or temperature causes of damage.
Any handling deficiencies caused by human or mechanical failure are pinpointed for carriers, consignees and shippers to act on. Results can be downloaded to a computer's Windows platform and an informative, easy to read graph is instantly printed showing the temperature and movement throughout the entire journey.
Pansegrouw says: The monitoring equipment is extremely versatile and and user-friendly.
The small tamper-resisistant, protected memory, battery-operated Mag box is fixed inside the container or on the machinery being transported with super-strong double-sided adhesive tape or a bracket plate screwed on days or hours before departure.
Mag will spot exactly where it happened and how much the temperature dropped - and subsequently who or what's to blame.
There's a permanent record to help you claim insurance and point the finger at the guilty party.
Prevention against destructive damp comes in the handy Pro-Dri desiccant that controls the humidity inside the container by absorbing moisture. As the container or pallet moves through day and night, and hot and cold environments the stategically placed Pro-Dri keeps working until it has absorbed about half its weight.
Finally, Load-Guard is a non-flammable, non-toxic clear pelletising cohesive which eliminates or reduces stretch film saving up to 60% per pallet costs and capital start up costs such as film wrapping equipment.
Load shifting between boxes or bags, and rub or marking damage is substantially reduced.
By Simon Farrell
