Designed and manufactured in Nuneaton, the new unit gives cold chain logistics sites a lower-cost alternative to dehumidification for large, high-traffic openings – and can be installed without shutting the door.
October 2026 – Thermoscreens, the UK air curtain manufacturer and part of Carver Group, has launched the CS Tower, a new air curtain designed specifically for large cold store doorways in the cold chain logistics sector.
Unlike conventional air curtains mounted above a door, the CS Tower stands beside the opening. The vertical format lets the unit run at a lower fan speed, and means it can be installed and maintained while forklifts and pallet trucks keep moving through the doorway. The first model covers openings up to 4m high and 3m wide, with larger formats currently in testing.
A costly problem at every door opening
On a busy distribution site, a cold store door can open hundreds of times a day. Each opening lets warm, moist air into the room, adding load to the refrigeration plant, destabilising temperatures and forming ice on floors, a serious hazard where forklift trucks operate. For businesses whose cold store is the heart of the operation, any resulting downtime is catastrophic.
Existing options fall short on large, high-traffic doors. Strip curtains are impractical where vehicles pass through constantly. Rapid-roll doors open and close quickly but provide no separation while open. Dehumidification tempers incoming air rather than stopping it, is expensive to install and, because it runs continuously, is substantially more expensive to operate. The CS Tower creates a barrier of air across the opening, keeping warm air out at a fraction of the installation and running cost.
Chris Collins, Group sales and marketing director at Thermoscreens, said: “Every time a cold store door opens, the site pays for it, in energy, in temperature stability and, when ice forms on the floor, in safety. Operators with large, busy doors have had to choose between strip curtains that get in the way of their trucks and dehumidifiers that are expensive to buy and run. The CS Tower was designed around how these doorways are actually used, so the door keeps working while we keep the warm air out.”
Designed for the cold side of the door
Like the rest of the cold store range, the CS Tower is designed to operate inside the cold store, whereas many competing units are fitted on the warmer side. It uses efficient EC fans drawing up to 3.5A single-phase per unit, and airflow is set for each site using Thermoscreens’ commissioning guide.
Controls range from simple plug-and-play to full integration with a site’s building management system (BMS) via Thermoscreens’ control and monitoring package. For food manufacturing and hygiene-critical areas, IP66-rated versions can be fully washed down and stainless steel versions can be chemically cleaned.
Safety engineered in from the start
The CS Tower was developed over six to nine months by Thermoscreens with the wider Carver Group engineering team, and is manufactured at the company’s factory in Nuneaton. With units weighing up to 80kg and standing up to 4m tall, stability was a priority. The team developed an accelerometer linked to the unit’s controls, which shuts it down if it ever begins to lose balance. During testing, engineers simulated major fan failures that could cause the top section to vibrate – and the structure showed zero loss of balance.
Chris Collins added: “On the surface it could look like a simple platform, but a 4m unit sitting beside a door that forklifts use all day has to be completely dependable. We tested it hard, including simulating the worst-case fan failures, and the structure didn’t move. That gave us the confidence to put it in the field.”
Built on proven cold store results
The CS Tower is already operating at its first live site. It extends the organisations cold chain range, which includes the CS standard cold store air curtain, the SLCS slimline model for smaller rooms, the HE harsh environment unit in IP66 stainless steel for food production, and the RA range for chiller rooms.
Across that range, the company has four years of data showing reduced ice formation and improved temperature stability in cold stores where its units are installed. Its most recent testing on other cold store doors showed a return on investment of 13 months compared with existing strip curtains.
A growing, increasingly critical sector
The launch comes as UK cold chain capacity expands to serve retail, pharmaceutical and food production growth, and as the sector is increasingly recognised as critical national infrastructure. With energy among the largest controllable costs for operators, reducing the load on refrigeration directly supports both lower bills and net zero targets.
The CS Tower opens up the global cold chain logistics market for the business, which already operates across Europe and North America. Chris Collins concluded: “Our approach for the last five years has been to listen to customers, understand the challenges they face with air and develop technology to solve them. That’s about the cost, quality and comfort of air, if you can call -25°C comfortable. The CS Tower is a clear example, and as we grow in the cold chain we’ll keep looking for the niche problems we can help solve.”
