| Euro container | |
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| Classification: | Inter-stacking reusable packaging |
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A Euro container, also called Eurobox, Euro crate or KLT box (from German: '''Kleinladungsträger''', "small load carrier"), is an industrial stacking container conforming to the VDA 4500 standard. The standard was originally defined by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) for the automotive industry, but was subsequently adopted across many other areas of manufacturing and the shipping industry. The most common sizes (length × width) are 600 × 400 mm and 400 × 300 mm, which can be stacked together to fill a Euro-pallet measuring 1200 × 800 mm.
Eurocontainers are based around two standard heights of 147.5mm and 280mm, including a 15mm overlap in the vertical direction—the height of the feet, or base, stacked into the lip of the box below:
| Nominal | Actual | Internal[1] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300×200 | 297×198 | 243×162 | |
| 400×300 | 396×297 | 346×265 | |
| 600×400 | 594×396 | 544×364 | |
| 800×600 | 800×600 | 752×552 |
These containers are manufactured typically in grey polypropylene or another thermoplast by injection molding.
Containers with full floor and walls are watertight. Many designs have at least two or more often four rectangular (about 12 x 4 cm) rounded grip-holes near the middle of the lips. The design may include some small holes in the lowest parts of at least two walls to let liquid run out if stored outdoors in rain or after washing. Walls constructed as grids allow one to see from the side into the box. If the bottom is formed by a grid, too, air may flow easily through even stacked boxes to keep bakery dry or allow quick cooling.
Euro-containers mounted on the rear rack of a bicycle or small motorcycle are widely used by newspaper-deliverers in Austrian towns. A Euro-container fits between the frame tubes in the low transportation bay of the Danish freight bike Bullitt.
The 400×300-millimetre sizes and stacking height were adopted in the early 1990s for inter-stacking Systainer boxes.