For a secure cold chain: ECOCOOL water-based cooling packs

Flexible cooling elements and gel packs Even the best insulated packaging needs cooling elements to be effective. Why? Because while insulating layers like styrofoam and wool do reduce the amount of heat that enters the packaging, they cannot stop this completely. ECOCOOL Coolpacks offer a solution: ice must absorb a considerable amount of energy from the surrounding air in order to melt.

This means that the ice “swallows” the incoming warmth and then slowly thaws. When the ice is completely melted, the cooling element no longer has a cooling effect. This lets the customer easily check whether the cold chain has been maintained. If there is still ice in the cooling pack when the stock arrives, then the cold chain was not interrupted; caution should be exercised if the cooling elements are completely melted.

ECOCOOL Coolpacks contain an environmentally friendly, water-based gel that allows the cooling element to freeze more evenly than would be the case with standard water. But it also sense to use water as a cooling medium as there is no other resource as readily available, inexpensive and effective. It takes 333 kilojoules of warmth to melt one kilogramme of ice. Compared to other cooling media, this value is quite high. And you’d be mistaken if you believe that adding salt will extend the cold chain. Though it’s true that the ice will begin to melt at a lower temperature and could then be used for shipping frozen products, it will also thaw considerably faster compared to pure water.

What determines how long cooling elements will stay cold? In addition to their weight and the ambient temperature, the surface area of the elements used has an influence on how long the cooling properties are maintained. The smaller the surface area of the cooling pack is for a given weight, the longer it will need to thaw. This means that larger cooling packs have a better cooling effect because they have a greater surface area. ECOCOOL offers a broad spectrum of cooling packs for all conceivable applications. With dimensions of 190 x 140 mm and weighing between 300 and 680 g, the cooling pack format 4.1 is the smallest in the series; with a standard weight of 900 g and 380 x 280 mm in size, the format 1.3 is our largest standard cooling element. For special applications, such as entire palettes of cold products shipped by air, the ECOCOOL portfolio includes so-called water blankets, which guarantee cooling over large areas even in the biggest containers.

ECOCOOL has the right cooling element for every application. Contact us for more information!