Shipping Container for Olive Mill

[EdC]

Rox

I took some time to read the specifications you so kindly translated. My French is 30 years old and was not the good to begin with.

The aluminum insulation I am familiar with will not hold up to pressure washing at all. Also, I do not think it is fire resistant. If memory serves it is a Mylar plastic so would probably burn.

Earlier you had mentioned that you wanted to put windows and doors in the sides of the container and wondered about window frames and attaching things to the walls. The metal sheets the boxes are covered with are really thin, maybe 3 mm thick or so. They get what strength they have from the corrugations in the metal. Windows and doors would have to have a frame wide enough to cover those corrugations. The company that I dealt with, attached electrical conduit to the wall using pop rivets on the low areas (where people could run into them) because screws would stick out and be a hazard.

 

[jinman]

Jinman:

Could you post the translation? For some reason I can't get the translation tools to work.

Dave sorry, I had to go out and make some measurements for my own shop and then I had an appointment with Tony and Brett. Brett came out the winner of course.

Anyhow, I see that Rox has provided you with the translation. That Google Translate tool is very slick on my system and works perfectly. I'm very impressed.

Rox, you haven't mentioned variances to the regulations. Are they ever allowed? Would they be likely to allow a variance if you specified how long you would use the temporary setup before going to a permanent mill? Just a thought. . . .

 

[6sunset6]

Rox, Don't forget about maintaining the equipment . Seasonal use for 3-4 years may not require anything major but one never knows. You may have to pull the units out of the container to do any major work. Make sure you can do that.

 

[CurlyDave]

Rox:

Here is my first cut at a layout for your mill.

I would elevate the container about 2 feet above grade, which means you can have a loading dock at each end, one for receiving olives in crates and one for shipping out oil in drums. You may want to use the ramps I show for your own olives, but if you process anyone else's they will probably bring them in by truck, and the loading dock will be very useful here. If you bring yours in by fork lift, the dock will work nicely.

I would put radiant heaters in each end, but not heat the process section where you would have four windows, two on each side to provide ventilation.

The most controversial part of this is that I would put two partitions, with doors, in the container. The partitions allow you to heat the ends of the container without losing all your heat through the open windows in the process section. The doors, and possibly the partitions, should have windows, so you can see what is happening in the process section without actually going in.

Olives are received and weighed on the left, and dumped into the DLE unit which washes them and augers them up, through the partition (I can show you how to do this easily later) and dumps them into the hopper of the crusher/kneader. On to the centrifuge and then the decanter. Oil comes out of the decanter in a pipe which goes through the partition, and a food-grade hose, with a shut off nozzle, is used to fill the drums. You will probably need a special filling station to contain spills, which I have not shown.

The finished oil is stored in the heated section at the output end. Again you have both a loading dock for putting drums into a truck or a ramp to pull them on carts.

The elevated container also allows access to the underside of the container for maintenance of the drain in the process section.

Let me know what you think of the concept before I add in details.

The only thing I am having trouble with is that I think the floors in the receiving and shipping ends should be flat, while the floor in the process section must be bowl shaped. This means there might be a tripping hazard going through the door, although I think we can minimize it. Maybe some of the guys in the trades can help out there.

 

[EddieWalker]

Dave,

With the container elevated, it will be allot easier to get a drain in the floor. With her minimal requirements for that pitch, and wood on the floor, I'd look into renting a wood floor belt sander. I've only used them a few times, so I'm not sure of the exact name. I just tell them at the rental yard what I want. It's a giant belt sander that is used for refinishing wood floors. With some aggressive grit paper, like 40, it should sand out a bowl in the floor in just a few hours. Lots of dust, and probably not perfect, but a simple enough task.

Eddie

 

[CurlyDave]

Dave,

With the container elevated, it will be allot easier to get a drain in the floor. With her minimal requirements for that pitch, and wood on the floor, I'd look into renting a wood floor belt sander. I've only used them a few times, so I'm not sure of the exact name. I just tell them at the rental yard what I want. It's a giant belt sander that is used for refinishing wood floors. With some aggressive grit paper, like 40, it should sand out a bowl in the floor in just a few hours. Lots of dust, and probably not perfect, but a simple enough task.

Eddie

The drain and the loading docks were the primary reasons I am thinking of elevating the container. With all the solids that are going to be washed down there, I think being able to get to it for maintenance is necessary. Especially when your season is only 6 weeks long. Any delay in fixing a blockage is going to be costly.


I am thinking the drain should be in the center of the floor -- put it at the side and you are constantly walking in it, in the center the machinery straddles it, and you can't walk there because of the machinery.

The size and shape depends on whether vinyl is OK. If it is, either your idea of sanding, or just splitting sheets of plywood and just using sleepers under them will work. Make the drain wide enough so that a standard shower drain can be installed in the flat bottom. The exact design awaits clarification from rox on the workability of vinyl.

 

[jinman]

Dave, I'm thinking the floor material will be dependent on what are the definitions of waterproof and fireproof according to local regulations. Of course, center drains will work, but I'm thinking the materials to be drained will not drop directly below the machines, but in the spaces between/beside them. I'm betting that in the open mills, drains are not located below machines, but in central open areas because working to get materials in a drain below the machines could be difficult. What do you think?

I like your design for segmenting the inside of the container and also raising it so that you can build an earthen ramp or just back a trailer up to the container like a loading dock and move the materials in/out without having to lift them, or only slightly lift them.

For doors, the simplest might be a swing door, but that takes up space. A pocket door or sliding door suspended from a rail could slide out of the way down the wall and not take up extra space; maybe even an accordian door.

I found this specification for a container online. It doesn't have illustrations, but there is a lot of useful info here for details of container constuction. For example, the plywood flloor is treated and 28mm (1.10") thick. Other materials and strength specifications are also relevent to this topic.

Container Specs

 

[doxford jim]

For the main floor drain, possibly a satellite dish might work - set in concrete of course, with that section of the wooden floor removed. Easily maintained, repaired and painted. Connection to drain pipes would be easily achieved if the container is off the ground say 2ft. Being elevated allows for good and easy maintenance to all that might be run under the container. If a perimeter skirt is built around the base, weather and cold can be kept at bay and still allow easy access via a couple of small doors.

Just a thought - I can't better the other obvious good points already mentioned.

Sure hope it all comes together nicely for you.

Jim

 

[charlz]

While the theme here is short term cost savings it appears all of this material and work will be a throw-away in the long run. Exception being the re-use of the container. I would try to build this such that more of it is re-used and built upon for the future building.

The key building code seems to be the floor.

Here is what I would look at:

Plan on pouring a pad for the container with the sloped floor,drain etc. with knee walls/whatever you call them around the pad. Cut the floor completely out of the container and place it on the knee walls. The walls are high enough to raise the container to make head room for roll-up doors of sufficient height.

The positioning and slope of this pad is such that it can become the 'center section' of the future building. Remove the lengthwise knee walls, pour a new pad and footings/knee walls to the left and a new pad and footings/knee walls to the right and voila! you have the footprint of the 'end state' building. At that time the container is moved to a new concrete pad somewhere on the property and used for storage. Original swinging doors are replaced and the rollup doors, lights etc are used in the new building framed up on the expanded pad.

The concrete is going to add to the short-term cost but with the floor requirement and the ability re-use it in the future I think it would be worth it.

 

[charlz]

Now that I am at the house and can look at the pics easier I have to wonder if those 'swimming pool' blocks couldn't be used to make the 'knee walls' in my proposal further cutting down on the costs?

If I read the drawing right one of the hoppers the olives go into is 1.46m or about 4.5 feet high. This seems to be the press and not the 'DLE'. Is the 'DLE' hopper the same height? How will olives be loaded into the hopper(s)?