The Many Different Uses Of Storage Boxes Today

There is a huge choice of different storage boxes on the market today, largely made from plastics, and with the ability to store and transport items of all different sizes. Many such boxes are supplied with a variety of inserts so that they can be used for keeping items separate from one another, or perhaps stacked in columns.

Certainly, they are used a lot in the outside catering industry. Caterers who are servicing outdoor events or perhaps something like conference halls need to transport a lot of glassware, chinaware, and cutlery to and from events and they need to get them there and back without any damage. All right, maybe the cutlery won’t suffer damage, but the china and glassware certainly can.

Of course, there are different sizes of plates, cups, saucers, glasses, and so on, and this is one industry that does use a lot of different sized inserts. For example, there may be wine glasses, champagne flutes, brandy glasses, pint and half pint beer glasses, whisky glasses, and more all being used at one event.

Using standard sized containers is ideal, and there are two standard sizes of pallets available – the Euro pallet which is 1200mm x 800mm and the UK pallet which is 1200mm x 1000mm. Storage boxes are frequently manufactured to Euro size of 600mm x 400mm, so will fit in columns of four on a Euro pallet and five on the UK pallet. There are also half size, quarter size, and double size Euro containers available, all of which will fit in a combination of ways on the pallets. In addition, there are wheeled dollies which are designed to Euro size and of course help with easy movement of containers around, for instance, a warehouse.

Some manufacturers, such as the well-known Austrian company Fries, produce storage containers in a range of colours so that the contents can be easily identified. You can also add plastic tags or printed labels, but labels do have the disadvantage that when peeled off they can leave a sticky residue.

Many containers have flat sides, but there are also containers with angled sides. This means that when they are empty, they can nest into each other and will save around 70% of storage or transport space. Containers with flat straight sides are ideal for transporting food items such as fresh fish to or from a fish market, because once emptied they are very easy to clean. Other containers have ventilated sides for a variety of purposes. Going back to the catering industry, containers with ventilated sides are used a lot because glasses, plates, and so on, cannot only be transported and stored in them, but can also be placed on a conveyor to pass through a dishwasher. This reduces handling to an absolute minimum and consequently the risk of breakage.

In fact, the use of ventilated containers has become quite a science, with manufacturers like Fries concentrating on providing containers that get the contents washed and dried optimally. They need to be designed in a way so that the water can remove such things as lipstick from the rims of glasses. Ventilated containers are also used in many industries because it is simple to see whether they are empty or full, and if full what they contain.

Euro containers can be used by all sorts of industries. Manufacturers of small components will use component storage boxes with inserts designed to protect each component from rubbing against the next during transport and perhaps scratching each other. Companies such as Fries also make component storage boxes with plastic extenders which can be used to adjust the height of the box in order to allow for different heights of items such as glassware again.

All those different glasses not only come in different widths but different heights, so the containers can be adjusted for height and have different inserts for the various widths. For use with dishwashers, some of the containers can be fitted with clips which allow the glassware to lie at an angle so that when it has been washed, the water can flow away from the base of the glass quickly and easily, saving on drying time before transport.

Caterbox is a UK company that supplies a huge range of containers, inserts, and so on for the catering industry. The company has over 1,000 different items in stock, including component storage boxes.

Caterbox is the premier supplier of chinaware, glassware, stacking glass storage boxes and other general catering items to the equipment hire.