Container door hinges failure: Container door fell on deck

IMCA has received details of an incident highlighting dangers from the lack of maintenance to container doors.

A container was being opened as illustrated in the two photographs below. As the left hand door was opened the top hinge broke, followed by the second and third hinges, and the door fell onto the deck.

Nobody was struck or injured during this incident.

The cause of the incident was found to be lack of lubrication between the vertical rod and the hinges, which should rotate on the rod. They had become corroded and jammed intermittently and had suffered fatigue due to opening and closing of the door resulting in cracking and eventually failure.

The company has noted the following precautionary measures:

• Container door hinges of this design should be routinely checked every time they come on board for signs of jamming, wear, tear, and lubrication applied accordingly;
• If lubrication and corrective actions are required on board, particularly to hinges in containers, then a non-conformance report should be submitted so that appropriate preventive measures can be taken.