In 2017 Cold Chain Federation member NewCold Advanced Cold Logistics designed a bespoke pallet handling pod to operate at their Wakefield deepfreeze storage facility and now, says the company, the same unique technology will be put to work at their new site in Corby, due to open in the Autumn of this year.
The pod effectively bridges the gap between the deep-frozen production or storage environment and NewCold’s auto-loading 44-pallet double-deck trailers.
Accordingly, as soon as the product leaves the production line at minus 22 degrees, it is automatically loaded through a sliding door at the back of the 60-pallet-capacity pod, which itself is pre-cooled to the same temperature. From here the pallets are automatically transferred into the double-deck trailer, docked to the front of the pod.
Meanwhile, 3 refrigeration systems hold the temperature at a constant minus 25 degrees and being electric, keep harmful emissions to a minimum.
With loading into the pod completed in just 5 minutes, every deep-frozen package or pallet remains at a constant set temperature of minus 22 to minus 25 degrees, and at no time during its journey from the production line to completed loading in the trailer does any pallet need to be exposed to an ambient environment or touched by an operative. This not only ensures absolute temperature integrity but virtually eliminates product damage.
The same process is reversed when the load reaches the NewCold warehouse where automatic unloading capability unloads the trailer, again in approximately 5 minutes, directly into a frozen storage facility, ensuring best product integrity and quality.
