INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER LESSORS

IICL TB 007, 1 September 2010

Title: LIMITATIONS ON CROSSMEMBER REPAIRS

Reference IICL “Repair Manual for Steel Freight Containers (fifth edition)
Section 8.2.3 Crossmember Inserting

The IICL has revised its criteria for crossmember inserting as outlined below:

Revised Criteria
Weld repairs to  crossmembers are not allowed within the center one half of two adjacent crossmembers.  
The center one half of a crossmember is defined as that part of the crossmember that is greater than 600mm 
from the nearest bottom side rail.  If two adjacent crossmembers have weld repairs within the center halves, 
either one of the crossmembers must either be replaced or the inserts must be lengthened such that they do 
not terminate within the center half of the crossmember.   
 
 
 
 

 
 

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 INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER LESSORS

BACKGROUND

The IICL has recently become aware of weld cracking in two repair techniques used to repair downward bowed
crossmembers.

The most common repair involves the installation of a series of inserts at our near the centers of several adjacent
crossmembers. The vertical welds—located near the crossmembers centers in the area of maximum bending
stress and subject to the residual tension resulting from jacking the crossmembers straight prior to installing the
inserts—may have been, in a few cases, below IICL standards.

If the sub standard weld pulls apart, the floor load is passed to the adjacent crossmember, and the adjacent insert
welds may also pull apart, resulting in a series of weld failures until all inserted crossmembers have pulled
apart.

1990 M STREET NW, S U I T E 650, W A S H I N G T O N , DC 20036-3417 USA

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A second, but less common, repair involves cutting relief notches at or near the crossmembers centers, jacking
the crossmembers straight, and weld the notch closed. These also may come apart for the same reasons and in
the manner as described above.

1990 M STREET NW, S U I T E 650, W A S H I N G T O N , DC 20036-3417 USA

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 INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER LESSORS

With the objective of eliminating these shortcomings, the IICL Technical Committee has revised crossmember
repair standards so as to eliminate sub-standard inserting and other welded repairs in the highly stressed center
portions of crossmembers.

IICL TB 007 was prepared under the supervision of the IICL Technology Committee.

1990 M STREET NW, S U I T E 650, W A S H I N G T O N , DC 20036-3417 USA

TELEPHONE: 202 223-9800 F A X : 202 223-9810 W E B S I T E : w w w . i i c l . o r g