Before looking at why liquid liners for IBC containers are ideal for safely transporting liquid products in bulk, let’s look at some of the challenges of transporting bulk liquid products.
Transporting liquids in bulk comes with many challenges including:
- Avoiding cross-contamination
- Promoting efficiency
- Maximising capacity
- Reducing waste
- Reducing costs
- Ensuring safety
Typically liquids are transported in a corrugated container, a shipping drum / shipping barrel, a BIC container (bottle in cage) or an IBC container (intermediate bulk container) which can be rigid, folding/collapsible or flexible.
What to Consider When Choosing
Here are a few factors to consider and questions you need to ask yourself before choosing containers for transporting bulk liquid products.
- Container Size: How big are they / do they need to be and how will this affect freight?
- Floor Space: How much floor space is required for storage and transport?
- Optimised Storage and Transport: Can the containers be stacked?
- Safety: Is it safe to stack the containers and/or are they interlockable?
- Water Usage: How much water is required for cleaning?
- Cross-contamination: How is it being avoided in terms of container reuse?
- Harbourage Points: Are there points that can retain product, increasing cleaning labour and overall costs and/or leading to bacteria or mould buildup if improperly sanitised?
- Decanting/Emptying: Is there a possibility of air exposure and resultant product damage?
- Decanting/Emptying: Will there be residual product loss resulting in profit loss?
- Sustainability: How does your container solution affect the environment?
Container Concerns
Shipping Drums / Shipping Barrels
- Low volume / capacity
- Stacking may be dangerous
- Moving drums can be difficult
- Pallets can cause complications
- Proper sanitisation is required after use
- If unpalletised, more handling is required
- They are not collapsible / space constraints
- Shape is not ideal for optimal storage and transportation
BIC Containers (Bottle in Cage)
- Not collapsible
- Not interlockable
- Not optimised for stacking
- Requires more freight when empty
- Harbourage points add to cleaning labour
- Significant water waste during triple rinse cycle
- Higher risk for cross-contamination when reused
- Residual product loss leads to product and profit loss
- Air exposure required for decanting may damage product
- Whether transported full or empty, they use the same amount of space
What are IBC Tote Liners?
IBC tote liners are a type of bulk liquid packaging designed for use with an IBC container. They are placed inside these containers to hold a wide variety of liquids that need to be stored and/or transported in bulk.
Our Liquid Liner Solutions for an IBC Container
ALC Liquid Packaging has a custom-designed range of IBC liquid liner solutions tailored for collapsible IBCs. They can accommodate liquid (low and high viscosity) as well as powdered, granulated and pickled products.
Our high-quality products include:
- The Pillow Range: Low Viscosity Liner Solutions
- Requires some handling during filing.
- The AIRMAX Range: High Viscosity Liner Solutions
- AIRMAX
- AIRMAX+: Flagship model with specialised insert
- Fill & Dispense Fitments
- The Quad Range:
- ALC Easy Quad – No handling required during filling.
- ALC Classic Quad – Very little handling required during filling.
- ALC Auto Quad – Hands-free filling with no operator assistance required.
IBC tote liners are very durable and help protect products during the filling, transportation and decanting processes.
In terms of decanting, they ensure that the maximum amount of product is decanted every time, reducing waste and product losses which in turn benefit your bottom line.
IBC Tote Liners:
- Are more hygienic
- Increase storage capacity
- Eliminate cross-contamination
- Reduce product and profit loss
- Eliminate the risk of air exposure
- Mean an IBC container can be used multiple times
- Make an IBC container easier to clean / keep clean
- Make an IBC container cheaper to clean / keep clean
- Saves resources such as water that other containers require for cleaning
What Makes Us Different?
Our tailored IBC container solutions are anchored in years of experience and valuable insights – supported by innovation and testing.
ALC Laboratory
We have an in-house lab for rigorous product testing and trials of all our IBC tote liners. Essentially, the functionality of products, with regards to transportation conditions, are tested.
More specifically, we test the following:
- Film strength
- Seal strength
- Slow force pressure exertion
- Tear propagation resistance
- Flexural strength of the film
- Response to impact when dropped from a height
Get in touch to discuss our IBC liquid liner solutions for your products.