Thermal heat transfer engineering on thermal packaging

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Are we in the Matrix movie?

When we look at the left picture above, we get the impression that we are in the Matrix movie. In that Matrix movie, the character Neo gets blinded and looses is ability for sight. The only way that he can see his opponent, the bad guy, is by the shape of the body that is radiating heat. Hot sparks are bright yellow and cold spots are darker blue. This is the same shape visibility as shown in the above pictures which are taken by a special heat sensitive camera. The camera is equipped with special heat sensitive technology that detects, and transfers, heat or cold temperatures into a certain colour from bright white, being very hot, to very dark, being very cold. With this camera it becomes easy to detect, determine and analyze hot or cold spots in various thermal applications and cold chain logistic solutions.

Temax uses these cameras for hot-spot-detection and temperature optimization of active (trailers – reefers – cold chambers) and passive cooling systems (insulated thermal packaging systems). These cameras are therefore used for product development and product optimizations. Also in test cases and analysis these cameras are used to offer additional information and data.

Heat transfer or conduction engineering of thermal storage and packaging systems

The pictures on the right show a pallet filled with heated time-temperature sensitive products which are insulated with Temax insulated thermal blankets. This insulated pallet was placed in a cold environment, the climate chamber with freezing temperatures (-15°C) during 6 hours. The dark blue to even black color shows the colder aria of the climate chamber walls. The bright color shows the warm temperature of the insulation material in which the warm products are packed. This picture was taken after ca 6 hours storage. Due to the heat sensitive camera it becomes possible to detect hot spots or cold spots in the set-up of the thermal packaging and to determine the heat transfer due to conduction that is penetrating through the insulation material. When these pictures are repeated in certain time-frames it becomes even possible to engineer the thermal heat or cold conduction values that penetrate through the insulation material over these time frames combined with the used insulation quality of the insulation material.

Thermal bridge or cold bridge engineering of thermal storage and packaging systems
The pictures on the right show a climate chamber which is heated to a certain temperature. The temperature of the air environment surrounding the climate chamber is colder which is noticeable due to the dark color on the heat picture. When you take a closer look to the door of the climate chamber you can see a lighter yellow color directly on the closure of the door. This is the heat or warm temperature that is penetrating through the rubber sealing of the insulated door. This location is a thermal bridge or also called cold bridge and is a point or linear line where the heat or cold transfer is bigger or higher than the average transfer over the global set-up.

TEMAX No-thermal-bridge thermal packaging development = S.O.P's and Protocols
The thermal bridges of thermal packaging or storage systems need to be engineered closely seeing these thermal bridges lead to significant temperature losses and deviations. At Temax we spend a lot of time and afford to engineer insulated thermal packaging systems and closure techniques where the thermal bridges are minimized to even completely avoided. The picture on the right shows the set-up of a pallet with time-temperature products which is insulated with Temax thermal blankets according to protocol "Blankets". This set-up was placed in a climate chamber for six hours (6 hours). The pictures below show the thermal results of the engineered S.O.P’s and protocol “Blankets”. The pictures show that no thermal bridges are active on corners and connections. All thermal colors on the global packaging set-up are the same meaning that all temperature surfaces are equal. If a thermal bridge should be active, you would see a very bright light on the location (line of point) of the thermal bridge

Krautz Temax thermal blankets insulated pallets Euro Block

Krautz Temax heat camera - Wärme Camera - Warmte camera

Temax insulation material heat resistance - heat holdback

The pictures on the right show the temperature blockage or temperature holdback of the Temax-4000 insulation material against a heat radiator (+62°C). The goal of this test is to see how the high heat of the radiator is blocked by the Temax-4000 insulation material. After one hour, the color of the Temax-4000 insulation is still nice dark meaning that the heat has not penetrated through the material. This also proves the good insulation quality of the Temax insulation material that is created due to the unique and special set-up and construction of the Temax insulation material where a multilayer insulation technique with internal convection systems are combined with a multilayer (4x) reflection technique.

Krautz Temax heat test - heitz test- hitte test

Krautz Temax warmtecamera - heat camera - Heitz Kamera

Temax insulation material heat absorption

The pictures below show a test on heat absorption. As we all know, every material absorbs heat or cold when it is exposed to a certain temperature change. Yet the question hereby is how much of heat or cold is absorbed during a certain time frame. It is the amount of heat absorption during time that will have an influence on the heat or cold conduction factor that will penetrate through the material. The more heat or cold that is absorbed by the material, the more heat or cold that will start to penetrate through the material. In the development of the unique Temax insulation materials, a lot of afford was taken into the minimization of temperature absorption. The pictures of the test below show the amount of temperature absorption of two different materials. We placed a small Temax insulation material on the back of a chair and a person placed his hands on both materials during ten seconds. (Left pictures). After these ten seconds the person removed his hands from both materials and we took a heat picture to see how much of the heat of his hands was penetrated into the material (right pictures). The heat picture shows how the Temax material has a dark color, meaning that a minimal heat was penetrated where the other hand is still very bright meaning that the other material took-in or absorbed a lot of the heat of the hand. This very low heat or cold absorption capacity of the Temax insulation material also explains the high insulation quality and temperature change resistance.

Krautz Temax heat absorption conduction

Krautz Temax heat camera warmtecamera

Krautz Temax heat camera warmtecamera

Heat transfer - thermal bridges - hot spot detection in temperature controlled trailers

Temax is also developing and manufacturing active cooling systems and air guiding systems for temperature controlled distribution and transport systems such as temperature controlled trailers, reefers or sea containers, last mile distribution systems and more. In the active cooling techniques it becomes very important to create ideal temperature controlled environments where top and bottom temperature deviations or front and back temperature deviations (trailers and reefers) are minimized to even avoided. The pictures on the left show the heat transfer of the Temax trailer. This special equipped trailer is used to test and analyze new developed thermal technologies.