We are KAVORTE, an independent sourcing and engineering office in Zibo, Shandong. We do not own a factory. We specify, audit, inspect and ship glass-lined, stainless steel and PTFE-lined reactors from 50 to 30,000 L. The last stage of that job — getting the vessel into a container and out the other side with the lining intact — is where more projects get hurt than at any point in fabrication.
A 10,000 L reactor is the awkward size. Big enough that it will not fit a 40 ft general purpose box standing on its feet, small enough that nobody orders a flat rack until the packing list is already written. Here is the sequence we run, and the numbers that decide it.
1. Three numbers before any packing discussion
Ask for the container's own figures first, not the vessel's. A 40 ft general purpose container has internal dimensions of roughly 12.03 m × 2.35 m × 2.39 m, and a door aperture of about 2.34 m wide by 2.28 m high. Usable volume is nearer 67 m³ than the 76 m³ the nominal size suggests, because the door frame and corner posts take their cut.
Payload is the second number. A 40 ft GP carries roughly 26,000–28,000 kg of cargo, and that ceiling moves with the tare weight, which is stamped on the CSC plate and should be read off the actual box rather than assumed. On many inland routes the road axle limit bites before the container does.
The third number is the vessel's own shipping weight, and it comes off the drawing — not off a model designation. Nominal volume fixes the model series and nothing else. Internal dimensions, wall thickness, jacket type, nozzle layout and unit weight all follow your duty. We issue these as a numbered specification confirmation sheet that you approve before fabrication starts, and the packing plan is built from that sheet.
2. Standing up, lying down, or out of gauge
A 10,000 L vessel standing on its support ring is taller than 2.28 m before the drive pedestal is bolted on. So the choice is normally three-way.
- Horizontal, inside a 40 ft GP. The vessel lies on saddles or timber cradles, with nozzles orientated to clear the walls. Cheapest, weatherproof, and the route most builds take. It costs you a rotation before loading and a re-erection on site.
- Upright in an open top. The roof is removed, the vessel is craned in vertically and lashed to the floor, then tarpaulined. Keeps the nozzles pointing the way the drawing expects, and the drive can sometimes stay mounted.
- Flat rack or breakbulk. For vessels that exceed the box in any dimension, the unit ships as out-of-gauge cargo with a lashing plan drawn and approved by the carrier's surveyor. Expect OOG surcharges and a slower booking.
If the vessel is close to the door aperture, get the door height confirmed in writing by the forwarder for the specific box. Two centimetres is the difference between a clean load and a crane sitting idle on the quay.
3. Support, chocks and lashing
Every lashing decision is subordinate to one rule: nothing touches the glass lining. Not a strap, not a chain, not a timber edge, not a ladder leaning against the shell. Glass lining fails under point load and impact, and a lashing that looks snug in Zibo looks like a crack in Rotterdam.
Load is taken on the jacket, the support lugs, the saddle or the structural carbon steel shell. We use hardwood chocks cut to the vessel's actual radius rather than softwood packing blocks, with steel strapping or chain lashings and tensioners running to the container's floor lashing points. Timber dunnage is fixed to the floor to stop the assembly walking forward under braking.
Nozzle faces get blind flanges or plastic caps, with greased plates or VCI paper between them. An agitator shaft that exceeds the container height travels separately in a timber crate, together with the seal cartridge, the drive and the manhole cover.
4. Moisture is the real cargo risk
A China–India or China–Europe voyage is 15 to 35 days of temperature cycling. Warm humid air migrates into the container, condenses on the cold steel ceiling overnight, and drips. That is container rain, and it attacks the parts of the vessel that are not glass: flange faces, drive housings, mild steel jackets, fasteners, and anything stainless sitting in a chloride-laden coastal atmosphere.
What we specify as standard on a long sea leg:
- Container desiccant bags hung high on the side walls, sized to the cargo and the voyage. A common starting figure is 8–16 kg of desiccant for a 40 ft box on a 20–30 day route, adjusted upwards for the moisture content of the timber dunnage.
- VCI film over machined and unpainted surfaces, or a full barrier bag for smaller items. VCI paper between flange faces.
- Humidity indicator cards placed where they can be read at destination without unpacking the vessel.
- Desiccant inside the vessel itself, with the manhole closed, if the interior nozzle necks are to be protected from condensation.
Timber is the variable most buyers forget. Dunnage stored in the open carries free water into the box. Kiln-dried timber, or timber with a declared moisture content, is worth writing into the packing instruction.
5. Loading discipline and evidence
Pick a day, be there, and photograph everything. A pre-shipment inspection on the loading day should capture the vessel's condition before it moves, the support arrangement, the lashings, the nozzle protection, the desiccant placement, the closed and sealed doors, and the seal number on the door hasp. The high-voltage test on the lining is carried out at the works before packing, and the inspection sheet recording it travels with the documents.
Two more items belong in the file: a shock and tilt indicator label on the crate or the vessel, and a signed container stuffing report. If a claim comes later, those documents decide it, not the photographs on somebody's phone.
6. Insurance, and the exclusion that matters
Marine cargo cover comes in two broad grades. Institute Cargo Clauses (A) is all-risks, subject to the exclusions printed in the clause. Institute Cargo Clauses (C) covers a named list of major casualties — grounding, fire, sinking, collision — and not much else. A reactor dropped by a crane during stripping is not a listed ICC(C) peril.
Confirm the insured value basis, normally CIF plus a margin, and read the deductible rather than the premium. Then read the packing condition. Most cargo policies exclude loss arising from insufficiency or unsuitability of packing, and the burden of showing the packing was adequate falls on you. That is the honest reason the lashing plan and the stuffing report matter more than the rate per mille.
Do not insure a used or reconditioned vessel on the same basis as a new one without telling the underwriter. Misdescription is a route to a declined claim.
What to do next
Before you book freight, get four documents into one place: the approved specification sheet with the unit weight, the GA drawing with overall height and nozzle orientation, the container tare from the CSC plate of the actual box, and a written door aperture figure from the forwarder. Those four numbers decide standing versus lying, GP versus flat rack, and whether the drive travels mounted or crated.
Then put a person on the quay on loading day. It is the cheapest insurance in the whole transaction.