Cold Chain Technologies upgrades materials, insulation for temperature-controlled packaging

Employing advanced modeling technologies for package design, as well as new elements in phase-change materials (which provide the both refrigerative cooling and freeze protection to protect for temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals), Cold Chain Technologies (CCT; Holliston, MA) has an upgraded family of containers, called GTS Express, Excel, Extreme and Evolution. The 20 types of units are pre-qualified for maintaining a temperature profile in common shipping environments, and are available in capacities from 4-52-liter parcels, to half- and full-pallet sizes.

“While performance criteria vary across the size of the containers, on average, we’re seeing a 50% increase in payload volume for a given parcel size, and a 25% reduction in cost,” says Jamie Chasteen, product development manager at CCT.

The revamping of the GTS line started with use of a proprietary design technology of the company, KoolDesigns Thermal Modeling, which employs advanced computational fluid-dynamics (CFD) and finite-element analysis (FEA) techniques (and which CCT also markets to clients who want to perform their own design work). Reformulated phase-change materials—and methods to package the materials in breach-resistant films—result in a dramatically improved gel pack size, which can be used either to extend the temperature range of the parcel, or to reduce the needed insulation (or, Chasteen notes, to replace high-cost vacuum- insulated panels with more economical plastic foams).

CCT manufactures its packages at multiple locations in the US and Latin America as well as and Europe through Topa Thermal Packaging. CCT also has distribution agreements in Europe and with VWR International, the global lab-supply distributor.