Passive packaging in air freight - air cargo for conditioned temperature controlled shipments

To maintain a certain temperature of goods during an air freight transport, two kind of ways can be used, being an active packaging or a passive packaging. An active packaging has an electrical or mechanical cooling unit which generates chilled or conditioned air flow to maintain the temperature of the goods. A passive packaging has no electrical or mechanical colling unit so the insulation quality of the packaging will be in charge of maintaining the temperature of the goods. In the air freight or air cargo industry the envirotainer is a well known active packaging which has a cooling unit generating a certain air flow. Thermal blankets and thermal covers are used as a passive packaging to maintain the temperature of the goods and protect them against external temperatures of extreme temperature fluctuations. The insulation quality of the used material will determine the temperature result of the goods.

The graphic above shows a possible temperature flow (blue line) of outside temperatures that can occur during an air freight transport. The brown line represents the ideal temperature for your goods. The green zone represents the maximum and minimum limits of the temperature. The temperature of your goods has to be within this green zone to maintain the quality of your goods. The goal of a passive packaging is to insulate your goods in such a way so the temperature stays within the green zone during the total air freight transport time (black line).

Temax insulation is a new revolutionary insulation material which is being used in several applications like transport insulation, building insulation, packaging insulations, etc which has proven its insulation quality, even in extreme conditions. The Temax insulation is flexible and foldable, easy to use, waterresistant and 100% recycleble which makes it also very atractive for one-way purposes. The Temax insulation has a unique build-up to offer resistance against the three heat and cold transfer items being: UV-radiation, conduction and convection.

Conduction is heat transfer through the material which depends on the raw material composition of the material in itself. Therefore for reducing the conduction a material is chosen with a lambda value as low as possible for decreasing the temperature flow in each material layer. The Temax 4000 is built of 14 layers; these 14 layers are separately put on each other and not fixed to each other. Air between these layers becomes an insulator and also a separator of heat transfer between the several layers. These layers are put on a specific order and direction on each other for reducing enormous the surface contact between the upper and the lower layers, whereby heat transfer between these layers are reduced.

Convection is heat transfer by air current. Warmth rises and cold falls whereby heat transfer arises on the lower and upper layers. This is reduced by air which is captured in the individual bubbles of the bubble film. These individual bubble dimensions are precisely produced so that each bubble has a optimal internal air flow and circulation. All air bubbles on the layers or films are produced with a certain gap for avoiding heat transfer between the several air bubbles. Hereby the convection warmth of one bubble can’t influence another neighbor bubble. Heat or cold created by convection can easily escape through the several separated layers of bubble film whereby the individual bubbles can obtain there own temperature. This technology also helps decreasing eventual condense which is a common problem with other insulations products.