About Shipping Containers and Overseas Moving

- by Bill Mansfield

Let me quickly address this closed container security issue. If security is an issue with the soft tarp tops, then use a removable, hard, steel top as in the photos below. The best way to load a heavy magnet into a container is by using its lift rings.

The straps, cables or chains used to load the magnet into an open container keep the magnet suspended for easy loading. It can’t fall, unless something breaks (of course) and I have never seen a magnet hit the ground. To load a magnet into a closed container you can lift most magnets with a fork truck (lift). Some MRI gantries are fork lift friendly, too. Most are not when you use a fork truck on any terrain less than perfect. Think of the bumps and the bouncing… you get the idea. Of the many stories told, they all involve fork trucks.

Then you have to deal with the second rig, moving the gantry into the closed-top container. Not all containers can handle any set of rollers on their floor. Pushing or dragging an 18 to 25 ton magnet on a container floor can cost you a container repair.
When you’re anywhere inland overseas, getting a large enough fork truck to remove the MRI from the container can be difficult. So the MRI ends up being rigged at the customs dock by a non-MRI rigger and placed onto another truck to eventually be rigged at the final location by a crane. This second rigging cost has just negated the savings the customer thought they had of a standard vs open-top container.