This is Brabant Water
Brabant Water supplies drinking water of the highest quality to the 2.4 million inhabitants of Brabant. In order to guarantee continuity of supply, the pipeline network must be maintained and sometimes replaced. During this work, it can happen that customers are temporarily without water. To ease this inconvenience, Brabant Water has developed a contemporary tapping point where the customer and information provision are central. By placing the tap point during works, Brabant Water gives customers the opportunity to fetch drinking water to ease the inconvenience.
The tap is also used at events and festivals where sustainability and/or sport play a clear role. In this way, Brabant Water stimulates the drinking of tap water.
The housing of the tap point is made of plastic and the 'base' of steel. In addition, there are a number of accessories such as a standpipe for connection to the mains and taps for filling bottles and/or buckets.
What was used
Packaging problem
Brabant Water wants to package these products in a sound manner, so that no damage can occur during transport and storage. Therefore they have approached Faes to think along in a packaging solution that meets the following preconditions:
- Water-resistant;
- Weight must comply with health and safety regulations
- Easily movable (wheels / forklift)
- Repairs must be possible
- Aluminium plates on the inside for work instruction (sticker)
- Ventilation options to prevent mould
Packaging solution
Brabant Water approached Faes for this project. After a thorough intake meeting in which the above-mentioned preconditions were discussed, Faes set to work on a number of solutions which are briefly discussed below.
Footplate
Because the footplate is enormously heavy and large, Faes made a custom-made flight case for it. Especially the size of the footplate meant that no standard packaging was applicable.
The flight case is provided with wheels and a pull handle to make it mobile. Of course, sufficient handles have been placed all around to ensure that this flight case can be lifted by at least two people. To guarantee watertightness, closing profiles with a rubber seal have been used and the interior of the flight case has been made completely water resistant by applying a polyester layer. Besides that, grids have been applied for ventilation, because the product is always packed wet after use.
The interior consists of plastic adaptor parts made of POM material, in which the footplate can be placed in two ways. Whichever side of the crate you place the footplate in, it will always fit!
Standpipe with accessories
We have found a perfect solution for the standpipe, the accompanying hoses and valves and other accessories in our SKB range, namely the SKB 3R-3214-15B-E. This crate comes standard with built-in wheels and a pull-out handle. Furthermore, the SKB 3R case is watertight, so we made an efficiency improvement right from the start. For the interior, we also made plastic adaptor parts from POM material. The taps are attached to the inside of the side wall of the crate by means of tool clips. The hoses can remain on the taps and can, as it were, be placed around the standpipe in the crate. A separate assortment box is provided in this box for the small loose parts.
Housing
The plastic housing was the biggest challenge. This housing was already in a very solid thick nylon bag, which in itself offered sufficient protection. Only transport was a crime. Faes made a custom-made flight case container for this (so only a bottom part as it were). In this case we placed a foam rubber buffer in each corner, so that the housing can be “planted” in the case like a tree. This makes it stand firmly in the tray.
The inside of this container is also coated with a polyester layer as described above, and the foam parts are made water-resistant.
General
When designing this packaging, we took into account the dimensions of the Brabant Water buses and the standard fittings in those buses. The entire set can be transported in the aisle of the buses.
