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UCP Africa's innovative storage pods.

UCP Africa’s Storage Pods are a highly efficient, practical and multipurpose archival core storage system, that can be used to.


  • Transport the core trays to and from the drill site (on a trailer or the back of a bakkie/pickup truck), 

  • Maneuver the core trays around the core shed (using pallet stackers or forklifts) and serve as a permanent archival core storage system.


To ensure that the UCP Storage Pods ascribe to international safety regulations and ensure that the Pods and core trays can withstand the most rigorous treatment in the field and in the core shed, UCP Africa conducted a number of tests on the storage pods with the below outcomes.


  1. Core Tray compression test – the core trays were tested to destruction to ensure that the UCP core trays can withstand the load bearing in a stacked environment. Results: Indicate that the UCP tray can withhold a weight equivalent of 53 to 86 trays, depending on the core tray, up to 10x that expected in a Pod.

  2. Flexure/stiffness test – to determine the amount of flexure the load bearing beam in a Pod can endure before permanent deformation takes place and ensure that two stacked Pods can be safely picked up using a forklift or pallet truck and determine the safety limits. Results: Shows that even under a load of 1200kg there is little determinable deformation of the bottom beam. 

  3. Pod compression test – to ensure that the bottom Unit in a 4 x Pod stack can support the loaded Pods above and determine the safety margin. A Pod was tested to destruction in a 45-ton press. Results: Shows that the Pod fails at a load of 23 718 kg, 10x that expected in a pod stack. 

  4. Vibration test - to ensure that the UCP Pods can be used to safely and securely transport the core trays in the field and at the core shack, under the most strenuous conditions.  A fully laden Pod was vigorously shaken in an oscillator for an hour to simulate transporting the Pod over rough terrain.  Results: After an hour on the simulator the Pod and core trays were still in good condition with no visible deformation.

  5. Two Pod tilt/bump stability test - to determine if two stacked Pods will remain secure when tilted with a forklift or accidently bumped. Results: the stack was tilted using an overhead crane to a maximum of 6° and remained stable.

  6. Tilt test – to see if the 4 x Pod stack remain stable on a slightly uneven floor or bumped by a forklift. Results: the entire 4 Pod stack was tilted using a forklift to a maximum of 4.5° and remained stable.



Other benefits of UCP Africa’s storage pods:

  • Improving core shed capacity by more than 200%, the pods can be stacked 4 high with each pod being able to hold 26 BQ core trays (177m of core stored) or 20 NQ core trays (87m of core stored) or 16 HQ core trays (62m of core stored) or 12 PQ core trays (35m of core stored).

  • Reducing potential health and safety risks by an order of magnitude.

  • Providing a risk-free alternative to core storage.

  • Quick and easy way to access old boreholes from the core shed/core yard.

  • ISO tested and approved.

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