While developed initially for the transportation of grease, piston tanks are now used in the handling of numerous viscous materials. These tanks are used for, but not limited to printer ink, auto undercoating sealant, auto sound proofing foam, body putty, uncured silicone caulk, peanut butter and chocolate (for baking/cooking). As the usage of piston trailers has expanded, unique customer requirements have led to the development of alternate uses for piston tank technology. This technology is also being used more in the storage and processing of viscous materials. In addition, the initial phase of modifying piston tanks as isotainers occurred.

Both producers of viscous materials and their receiving customers find piston tank technology to be a valuable asset when they wish to store 1000 gallons or more of a product. For many years manufacturers used 55-gallon drums to store, transport and dispense. Many have moved to the more modern intermediate bulk containers (IBC's) which generally hold around 300 gallons of product. When capacities above 300 gallons were required, conventional storage tanks were generally used, which meant only 60 to 80% of the product can be dispensed.

Piston tanks have been designed and used as storage vessels for quantity of products above 2000 gallons. The tanks can hold up to 10000 gallons storage capacity. They eliminated the problems caused by poor slump ability of viscous materials when emptying storage vessel as they have in bulk delivery trailers. The capacity, length and diameter of these storage units can be custom designed to fit the needs of the customer. They are another step up in storage efficiency and capacity.

Some customers receiving bulk product have installed horizontal piston tanks mounted on piers to provide superior storage and excellent dispensing of their product into their processing streams. This allows them to avoid retaining an old heel of product in their storage tanks. This is especially useful if they wish to change the storage tank to a different product as little if any cleaning is required.

Several grease manufacturers have begun to use piston storage tanks in their production streams. They can be located just downstream of the production kettles and provide very efficient storage units for holding the finished products prior to packaging and shipping. This allows the producer to change the production to another type of grease quickly.

A Korean manufacturer of silicone caulk desired to use this technology for bulk delivery within Korea. Because of their narrow roads and specific design requirements, a USA manufactured trailer was not feasible. They requested that a tank be designed to attach to an international standardized isotainer frame. The finished design of these isotainer piston tanks would open the door to international shipment of viscous products in bulk.

A major producer of silicone caulks has eliminated costly 55-gallon drum delivery - Loaded piston trailers are dropped at the packaging plant and immediately connected to their packaging process lines. The trailers remain on-site for 1 to 3 days as the material is dispensed into the typical caulk cartridge that we buy at our hardware store. At the time of delivery of a fully loaded caulk trailer, the empty trailer used in the prior cycle is picked up and returned to the manufacturer for reloading. Not only do they save in cleaning of drums and disposing of unused heels, but they also have nearly doubled their warehouse capacity for finished cartridges by elimination of the 55-gallon drum or IBC units.

More application of this technology will allow industry to handle viscous materials cleanly and more efficiently.

We currently do business in the United States, Belgium, and Korea.