Shipping news: Bayer works with Conforce on container flooring

MPW readers may recall that Conforce has developed a composite plastic flooring designed to replace the prevalent birch plywood flooring used in metal shipping containers (original story near the bottom of this page. Its Eko-Flor can be steam cleaned but does not need to be treated, rendering every shipping container safe for shipping food or other sensitive products.

The objective of the partnership is to enable Conforce and Bayer to leverage their respective strengths to work toward commercialization of Eko-Flor. Jerry MacCleary, Bayer MaterialScience senior vice president, and head of marketing and business development for its polyurethanes operations in North America, said in a statement, “We see Eko-Flor as one of our key growth projects and are committed to bringing Conforce our technology, expertise and global BaySystems network in order to make the commercialization of Eko-Flor a success.” The BaySystems global network is comprised of 30 system houses on six continents.
Conforce Eko-Flor cs-4, a polymer-based composite container flooring system, weigh about 18% less than plywood floors, while offering comparable or better strength and durability. The flooring also features a surface shield developed jointly by Conforce and Bayer. Conforce expects that key customer final product evaluations resulting from ocean-going trials will be completed during the third quarter of this year. Commencing in the second quarter of 2010, the company plans to manufacture its flooring from a new facility in China.

The partnership will also provide valuable support for Eko-Flor ms-1, a composite panel system designed specifically for use in rapid deployment special application U.S. military containers. Conforce recently began production of ms-1 paneling to fulfill its first order. —[email protected]