‘Test Cube’ takes product development to the next level

Thermal insulation specialist Seymour Manufacturing International (SMI) is broadening the product development range and testing facilities at its UK headquarters. The inventor of Tempro, the unique lightweight insulation material with exceptional thermal properties, has installed a sophisticated new development chamber, dubbed the ‘test cube’, at its base in Telford. The chamber has been tailor-made for SMI by cold room, freezer and industrial door specialists MTCSS, in Worcestershire. Brian Seymour, founder and managing director of SMI, said: “The chamber has been made to a specification that will not only cope with SMI’s current developments, but also those planned in the future. “It is chilled by a special Zanotti evaporator supplied by AFR Ltd of London, which will not only freeze the chamber down to minus 25C but also provides stable temperatures through the range up to plus 5C. “It gives us the ability to test modular doors, barriers, and our range of covers and liners for trolleys and moving dividers.” SMI, which has enjoyed a record year, is behind a string of thermal insulation innovations, including Cold-Stop Thermal Curtains, the Back-Stop range of thermal barriers for commercial vehicles, and Temperature Control Zones (TCZ) that can provide a chilled space when needed in minutes in an ambient warehouse. It has also launched the new ‘Green-Door’ – thermal swing doors that replace the expensive and cumbersome night doors used by many food retailers. SMI’s creations have saved some industries millions of pounds in energy, and thousands of tonnes of carbon. Mr Seymour said: “The Test Cube takes us to a new and higher level of accuracy when testing customer prototypes and our own product development. “We have purchased many thousands of pounds of testing equipment including Flir thermal imaging cameras, but this facility will take us further into the future. “It will help us to choose with greater accuracy the materials and design to help our customers – and prove product performance in a range of temperatures, with much greater accuracy.” MT Cold Storage Solutions worked closely with SMI to ensure the cold room used to create the test chamber was to their specification. The modular freezer was supplied by MTCSS’ Italian partners, MTH, offering high quality and high efficiency. MTCSS installed the cold room – including MTH insulated double hinged doors and flooring – to provide SMI with a test cube to allow them to prove, and improve, product performance in an efficient temperature-controlled environment.