Steel drums and pails have been a constant for packaging, storing, and transporting of dangerous and hazardous goods for decades. One thing that has continued to evolve, however, are the liners for the drum and pail industry. Interior drum and pail linings provide many benefits to get the most of your steel drums.
Reconditioning of Steel Drums
Steel drums must be reconditioned regularly whether they contain a lining or not before they can be re-used or sold. Reconditioning is typically performed by a third party and includes a thorough and excessive cleaning. When steel drums contain greases, adhesives, or chemicals they can be challenging to clean and reconditioning the drum may not always be a viable option. Steel drums with liners help to keep it cleaner and make reconditioning the drum easier to extend the drum’s life cycle.
Why Steel Drums are the Preferred Choice
Steel drums are certainly the preferred choice for storing and transporting hazardous goods and chemicals, although they are also the go-to transport option for many products including food concentrates and additives. Steel drums provide many advantages such as:
- Sustainability and recyclability
- Superior performance in many environments such as extreme humidity, temperature, pressure, and fire conditions
- Maintain structural integrity without leakage
- Provide secure containment to secure the lowest insurance rates
- Reduce warehouse costs with efficient storage and stackability without collapsing under weighted pressure
- Deliver significant back-end savings
The Sustainability of Steel
Steel is one of the most recyclable products in the world with a recycling rate of 88% making it highly sustainable. Steel does not lose performance with continuous recycling allowing steel to be used and reused to build countless consumer goods such as appliances, automobiles, building and construction items, and steel drums, among many other products. The endless capacity to endure and the recyclability of steel defines sustainability.
Benefits of Steel Drum Liners to Companies
Interior drum and pail linings enhance steel’s sustainability in a few key ways. When steel drums require reconditioning, large amounts of water is required for this process. Steel drums that contain interior linings are cleaner to begin with and require less amounts of water for the reconditioning process.
For companies that use hundreds or thousands of steel drums, this savings is significant. Interior linings improve the economics of the companies that rely on them in a few ways:
- Easier to recondition
- Requires less water for cleaning
- Quicker entry into the close-looped system
- Little down time to improve supply chain requirements
Drum Linings Enhance Product Purity
Another valuable benefit of drum linings is the protection of the product. Product purity benefits both the company and the end user by delivering quality products whether shipping hazardous chemicals or food items. Steel drum liners maintain product integrity and purity while protecting the steel drum at the same time.
Reconditioners do a great job of thoroughly cleaning steel drums, but drums without liners are just asking for trouble. Imagine packing food products into a steel drum without a liner, the possibility of exposure to some sort of contamination such as metal shavings, grease or oil would still be present. Interior drum linings protect the product inside and deliver valuable benefits to companies.
To realize the maximum benefits of your steel drum and pail linings, including sustainability, secure packaging, cost-saving efficiencies, and product purity, you should realize the options available today with custom and proprietary drum and pail linings that outperform interior linings of years past.
UNICHEM RESCO® Drum and Pail Linings
Universal Chemicals and Coatings, Inc., UNICHEM, offers superior industrial container linings in phenolic and epoxy coatings. RESCO® chemical resistant drum coating linings are available in epoxy, epoxy phenolic, and phenolic based chemistries in waterborne and solvent chemistries with both high heat and low heat curing options. RESCO® steel drum linings deliver unsurpassed chemical resistance and protection against corrosion.
Our RESCO® proprietary solvent drum lining offers innovative solutions to the steel industrial drum industry with the combined technology of other RESCO formulations, and provides a universal solution no other chemical manufacturer offers. RESCO Universal is a result of innovative research and development and provides flexibility with protecting linings with superior chemical resistance.
UNICHEM has more than 50 years of experience in providing custom chemicals and coatings including superior drum and pail linings. RESCO® drum linings include waterborne and solvent versions, rust inhibitors and roll-coat or spray versions. Contact us to learn more about how RESCO® drum and pail linings are transforming the steel drum industry.