File Photo / Fred Field
Robert Lindyberg leads Global Secure Shipping, which opened a 32,500-square-foot container manufacturing facility this week.
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New plant in Old Town will make shipping containers that thwart threats
Photo / Courtesy, University of Maine
Robert Lindyberg, right, joined U.S. Sen. Susan Collins to cut the ribbon on the expansion at Global Secure Shipping.
Global Secure Shipping, a University of Maine spin-off, on Wednesday opened a 32,500-square-foot plant for manufacturing a new type of maritime shipping container that's designed to thwart theft and tampering.
The facility, at 12 Industrial Park in Old Town, makes the secure containers from a hybrid composite material and equips them with sensor systems that detect intrusion.
The company, led by Robert Lindyberg, has been operating to date in a 17,500-square-foot building on city-owned land at the same site.
Global Secure Shipping said the new plant is the only one of its kind in the world, and that the expansion will allow the company to significantly increase production capabilities, allowing it to manufacture nearly four containers per day.
Annually, the facility will have the capacity to produce 1,000 20-foot-equivalent containers, or TEUs.
The containers are up to 10% lighter than traditional shipping containers, but maintain full structural integrity and offer 99.9% probability of detecting penetrations on all six sides, according to the release.
The container commercializes patented technology resulting from years of Department of Homeland Security-funded research and development at the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
The technology includes an embedded sensor system that detects penetrations as small as one inch, a door-opening detection system and a two-way communications system for real-time tracking and monitoring.
The company was selected for a $4.1 million Department of Homeland Security contract to produce and test the next generation of secure cargo containers.
“The project we celebrate today is about seaport security,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said during an opening ceremony. “But it also is about transitioning from research and development to manufacturing to create new industries, with new opportunities and good jobs. GSS is in the vanguard of that transition.”
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