Intermediate Bulk Containers for Liquids

Many companies are looking for alternatives from 55 gallon drums.  Solutions come in a variety of forms of liquid storage containers, 275 gallon totes, and intermediate bulk containers for liquids.  When searching for a solution, companies seek out quality intermediate bulk containers that have an economic advantage over drums when factoring in all the collective costs involved.  

Costs associated with 55 gallon drums

1. Storage & Warehousing

A 55 gallon drum takes up the same space in a truck or a warehouse whether empty or full.  This leads to cramped space restrictions for most production sites.  Keeping empty drums in a warehouse adds up quickly.  Using intermediate bulk containers which arrive collapsed flat save 80% warehouse space.  Basically you have less space being far more productive which in turn frees up warehouse space for finished goods, added production, or other operations to allow your plant to run more efficiently.

Collapsed flat EZ-SET Intermediate Bulk Container

2. Transport cost and Tare Weight

Drums are shipped typically 4 on a skid in a truck load or less than truck load shipments.  A steel drum weight is approx. 40 lbs so 4 drums on a skid equals 160 lbs plus 40 lbs for the pallet = 200 lbs.  If you extract this information to compared to a 275 gallon intermediate bulk container which fits on the same pallet but only has a tare weight of 71 lbs = 111 lbs total tare weight.  Compare this vs 5 drums with 1.25 pallet weight = 250 lbs   This is a tare weight savings of 55% which over the course of a full truck load is a tare weight savings of over 6,000 lbs which means you can fit 550 more gallons of your product or 12% greater material per truck load shipment of the ibc containers.  Adding 12% to your bottom line on maximizing your freight cost in today's market is significant. 

1 Person Assembly of EZ-SET IBC Container

3. Faster throughput and more product packaged in less time

If you use drums, you are well aware of the constant stop and start process within production to fill, cap, move, repeat of a drum filling process.  Whether it is fully automated or a manual operation, filling drums has a significant labor cost associated with it.  Filling IBC containers allows you to fill the equivalent of 5 drums in a continuous flow of material without stopping.  This leads to higher productivity and more finished product ready to ship at the end of a production shift.

Filling Completed of Liquid Bulk Storage Container

4. Environmental savings and lowering your carbon footprint

Steel drums continue to be difficult to handle, process, and more importantly the ability to dispose of an empty 55 gallon drum is becoming costly.  Manufacturers are learning they are responsible even for empty drums and tracking of the empty drum for proper disposal is becoming a larger cost within operations.  By switching to intermediate bulk containers, you use a recyclable container with earth friendly raw materials in which all the container and inner bag liner materials can all be recycled within regular channels.  

Intermediate Bulk Container Ready for Shipment