Kingsville, TX, US: Intelligent Thermal Solutions has won two 2011 Greener Package Awards in the Secondary/Large-Format Packaging category: Environmental Impact and Innovator of the Year.
The company’s innovation rests in taking existing refrigerated container technology for temperature-critical shipments and pairing it with a “depot”-style logistics system to create a viable sustainable alternative for cold-chain shipping. http://www.activeccboxes.com/
“When using reusable, returnable shipping containers, the cost of return logistics is what usually makes the use of the containers unfeasible,” says John Howe, chief executive of Intelligent Thermal Solutions.
“In the depot system, the customer does not own the containers, but rents or leases them. The system is used to accept the containers at the end of the shipment to eliminate the cost of returning them to the origin.
“When the container is shipped within the depot system, the cost for the container is competitive with the cost for a one-way disposable foam insulated container.”
Intelligent Thermal Solutions’ 36-litre ultra-rugged EcoTherm ATA R36 refrigerated shipper maintains an internal temperature of 2ºC to 8ºC for five days, while using less material than a typical cold-chain shipper, and it can be reused up to 100 times.
The technology includes a patented Thermal Shield, an aluminum box that surrounds the payload inside the container and equalizes the temperature in the payload area using conduction. According to Howe, this method conducts heat 10,000 times faster than convection, which is regularly used in other cold-chain shippers.
Gordon Johnson, head of strategic innovation for LifeConEx, says: “We have used the EcoTherm ATA R36 for many shipments to all continents in all seasons without experiencing a temperature excursion. The ease of use of this particular thermal shipping system is impressive, as is the robustness of its design.”
