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A drum is a cylindrical container used for shipping bulk goods. Drums can be made of steel, dense paperboard (Commonly called Fiber drums — See Footnote) or plastics, and are generally used for the transportation of certain dangerous materials or modest quantities of bulk goods. For caustic and acid materials, plastics, usually thermoplastics like Nylon, Polystyrene, Polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs) or possibly Polycarbonates are the preferred shipping container; for flammable substances like most petroleum distillates, and alcohol, etc., metal containers are the standard. Which type is used for shipping non-corrosive industrial chemicals would depend on the chemicals or materials, but the general rule would be to use the container type that is inert or non-reactive with the material being shipped.
It is common to hear a drum referred to as a barrel in the United States, and some would argue that barrels hold liquids while drums are open-topped, but in everyday USA style English usage, the two terms are used nearly interchangeably in the vernacular. Drums such as these have a standard nominal volume of 55 US gallons or 44 Imperial gallons and nominally measure just under 34-1/2" tall with a diameter just under 24" and differ by holding about thirteen gallons more than a Barrel of Crude Oil one hears about (the quoted price of) in the daily financial news reports. In the US, 25-gallon drums are also in common use and have the same height specification. This sameness allows easy stacking of mixed pallets. Taking account the materials making up the drum, in the vernacular, these three main varieties are known as plastic drums or barrels, cardboard drums or barrels and steel drums or barrels.
The two common sub-types of drums are the open top and the welded top (with 2” bung holes). The latter are almost universally called 'barrels' in preference to drums in the US. They cannot efficaciously either dispense or be filled with powdered goods, though they might store them very well, so are not used for such goods, being reserved for liquids transport and storage. Plastic drums are manufactured using injection blow moulding technology. Metal drums are hot-rolled into long pipe-like sections then forged on a stamping press while still red-hot into drum bodies. A welded rolled seam is then made for the drum bottom, or bottom and top both.
Standard drums have reinforcing rings of thickened metal or plastic at four places: top, bottom, and one each a third of the way from each end ring. This sufficiently strengthens them so that they can be readily be turned on their sides and rolled when filled with heavy materials, like liquids. Over short to medium distances, drums are generally tipped and rolled on the bottom rim while being held at an angle, balanced, and rotated with a two-handed top grip that also supplies the torque (rotational or rolling force).
The open-top sub-type is sealed by a mechanical ring clamp (concave inwards) that exerts sufficient pressure to hold many non-volatile liquids and make an airtight seal against a gasket, as it exerts force inward and downward when tightened by a normal three-quarter inch wrench or rachet wrench. Tops exist with bung holes as above, and these hybrid drums with lid can be used to ship many non-volatile liquids as well as industrial powders. Many drums are used to ship and store powdered products as well as liquids, such as plastic beads for injection moulding, extrusion, and purified industrial grade powders like cleansers (e.g., fertilizers, and powdered aluminum). If used to transport dangerous goods across international boundaries, they may need to have UN certification. In general, drum usage is limited to wholesale distribution of bulk products, which are then further processed or sub-divided in a factory.
These metal drums have two openings (2" and 3/4"). Once the drums are filled, the flanges are screwed on the openings. Now to secure the contents of the drums, cap-seals made of metal and other types like metal+plastic are used. These cap-seals sit on top of the flanges and are 'crimped' using drum crimping tools (also called drum cap sealers). Once crimped, the flanges can be unscrewed only by breaking these seals and thereby securing the content of drums from adulteration and theft. Pneumatic and hand-operated cap-seal crimping tools are available. Pneumatic ones are used in production lines for high production.
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55-gallon drum
A 55-gallon drum (known as a 44-gallon drum in the United Kingdom, and increasingly in Australia as a 200-litre drum) is a cylindrical container drum with a nominal capacity of 55 U.S. gallons, 44 imperial gallons, or 200 litres. The exact capacity varies with wall thickness and other factors. Standard drums are 22.5 inches (572 mm) in diameter and 33.5 inches (850 mm) high (these dimensions yield a total volume of ~218 L)
The drums are typically made of steel with a welded top and ribbed outer wall to improve rigidity and durability. They are commonly used for transporting oils and fuels, but can be used for storing various chemicals as well.
The 55-gallon drum will fit handily four to a fork truck standard wooden shipping pallet, and so ease handling and shipping. The drum's size, shape, and weight distribution lends itself to being moved about readily on the loading dock or factory floor with a two-wheeled hand Truck. They can also be moved short distances by hand by tilting, then rolling along the base, which is designed especially for that purpose.
Today's 55-gallon drum resulted from military shipping requirements in World War II, the first war in which trucks, cold rolled steel, stamp or pattern forging machinery and welding were widely available. The drums helped win the Battle of Guadalcanal in the first U.S. offensive in the South Pacific Theater. The U.S. Navy could not maintain control of the seas long enough to offload aviation fuel for U.S. aircraft ashore, so the drums were often transported to the island on fast ships like destroyers, shoved over the sides (or time permitting, lowered in cargo nets. Aviation fuel is lighter than seawater, so the drums floated, and Navy Seabees corralled the drums in small craft.
Closed-head steel barrels and drums used for shipment of chemicals and petroleum products have a standardised bunghole arrangement, with one 2-inch (50.8 mm) NPT and one 3⁄4-inch (19 mm) NPT threaded bunghole on opposite sides of the top head. This arrangement is echoed in many plastic drums in the same size. Various components can be mounted to the drum, such as drum pumps and bung mixers.
In the past, hazardous waste was often placed in drums of this size and stored in open fields or buried. Over time, some drums would corrode and leak. As a result, these drums have become iconic of pollution problems, even though they have numerous uses and are ubiquitous in commerce.
Drums are often re-conditioned and then later used for storing different liquids. Re-conditioning drums is one of the safest ways to remove hazardous waste. Until the 1990s many state highway departments reused 55-gallon drums as barricades to protect construction workers from oncoming traffic. Once empty the drums were painted orange and white and placed along roadways where construction was occurring. Today, construction crews use plastic drums that resemble their steel predecessors in both size and shape.
Although oil is sometimes shipped in 55 US gallon drums, the measurement of oil in barrels is based on the 42 U.S. gallon wooden barrels of the 1870s; which is about 35 imperial gallons.1
External links
Further reading
- ASTM D5404 Specification for Molded Polyethylene OpN-Head Pails
- Brody, A. L., and Marsh, K, S., "Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology", John Wiley & Sons, 1997, ISBN 0-471-06397-5
See also
Footnotes
- The Fiber drums referred to above will easily hold 400–600 pounds, and are usually coated internally with a urethane or plastic protective coating. They have steel reinforcement rims at their ends, and are sufficiently strong that this is the only type of drum that is not reinforced in the middle third, but that is almost certainly due to the difficulty in creating a 'Vee' rib in a paper layer that essentially spirals out from a single end seam.
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- This page was last modified on 6 November 2008, at 09:15.
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