To see a video of the folding in action, go to  http://www.flickr.com/photos/staxxon/4824816364/

Incredible isn’t it.. For more pics visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/staxxon/.. If anyone knows of any company in South Africa that does anything similar, do let me know..

As per their blog, Staxxon’s design objectives are:

1. Honor existing IMO/ISO container standards; and,

2. Preserve the basic structural integrity of steel containers; and,

3. Honor existing container owner/vendor supply chain relationships; and,

4. Honor existing container workflow and safety standards in ports, terminals and depots.

Staxxon’s primary technical objective was to develop a folding container method that would eliminate the most common commodity container cargo – air – and replace it with folded empty containers that would also meet existing CSC structural and weathertight standards. Staxxon’s top business objective was to provide a retrofit and new container approach that added incremental cost which was recovered from operational cost savings and improved utilization – ideally within 12-18 months for a typical container making 6-8 transits in a 12 months.

Staxxon’s top environmental quality objective is to reduce the number of vessel movements at sea as well as intra-state truck movements at ports related to empty containers. While competitors have focused their environmental objectives around the use of composite materials to replace steel, Staxxon has focused on the much larger environmental challenge and near term benefits of reducing sea-going vessel movements. In addition, Staxxon’s retrofit method allows existing container fleets to be repurposed to address sea lanes and routes with high empty imbalance scenarios instead of requiring wholesale replacement of existing container fleets.

US patent 7,703,632 was issued on 27 April 2010 covering the core Staxxon folding methods to Staxxon’s founder and CEO, George Kochanowski.

If you would like more information about Staxxon’s folding technology:

email: toms@staxxon.com

tel or text: +1 937. 217.7829

You can also find Staxxon on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/staxxon

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Staxxon/116780808343458

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Staxxon