Active insulation requires electric or gas/diesel powered machinery to generate convection currents to either heat or cool cargo.  Passive insulation is a non-active insulation that does not require the use of electricity or gas powered equipment.  Passive insulation comes in multiple types of materials and varieties, but it insulates cargo by maintaining the cargo’s core temperature by slowing down the rate of heat loss or heat gain.

For heat protection the main form of heat transfer is by way of Radiation. If you are protecting your cargo from heat you want to deploy materials that have low emittance values or high reflectivity values depending on the environment.  If your cargo is exposed to radiation inside a moving or idle truck the primary form of radiation is infrared also known as IR.  In this case you want materials to have low emittance values. If your cargo is exposed to UV Visible rays from the sun then you want materials to have Reflectance rates. When the load is being shipped during the cold season, it’s important to protect against conduction and convection. Wall spacing is crucial, and it’s important to follow proper protocol.

Fiber and bubble insulation are similar in the way they insulate cargo. The small air bubbles help trap and slow down conductive heat transfer. The more bubbles and the more layers of bubble you add the better the resistance. Fiber insulation acts the same way. All of the small fibers intertwined together create micro air pockets which diverts the heat transfer creating a longer path for the heat to transfer through. For example a solid object with no air pockets will allow heat to transfer as a direct line through one side to another. Adding small pockets of air by way of bubbles or fibers doesn’t allow heat to transfer directly through the object on a direct line, thus slowing down conductive heat transfer.

Metallisation is performed using a physical vapour deposition process. Aluminium is the most common metal used for deposition, but other metals such as nickel or chromium are also used. The metal is heated and evaporated under vacuum. This condenses on the cold polymer film, which is unwound near the metal vapour source. This coating is much thinner than a metal foil could be made, in the range of 0.5 micrometres.[1] This coating will not fade or discolour over time. While oriented polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are the most common films used for metallisation, nylon, polyethylene and cast polypropylene are also used.

• the oldest and most proven effective version is created by taking two sheets of 99% pure aluminum and laminating them to a middle substrate or “scrim” material creating what is known as a radiant barrier foil version,
• the newer version is created by applying a very thin reflective coating (typically 99% liquid aluminum) to poly film creating what is known as a metalized radiant barrier version.

If you are shipping less than truck loads you will want to use individual pallet covers to protect your load. Pallet covers are also used in mix loads when some products need to stay frozen and others don’t you can use a pallet cover in this instance as well to prevent loads from freezing. Pallet covers are also the maximum for of protection since they are covering the entire pallet.

If you are shipping full truck loads you will want to use a container blanket. Container blankets cover the entire length and width of a shipping container. You can also add wall and floor blankets for maximum protection in extreme climate conditions.

Container liners are primary used for transoceanic shipping. Container liners line the entire inside of a container allowing you to load cargo into the container while the liner is deployed. Container Liners are typically a one-time use product since the cargo is traveling around the world from port to port and cannot be retrieved at the receiving warehouse.

During cold weather, Cargo is most vulnerable on the bottom of the container.  When the Cargo becomes in contact with the container floor, conduction occurs and the heat from the Cargo is lost.  Until now, the only way to protect temperature-sensitive freight was to place your cargo on pallets.  We developed a double layered Slip Sheet that will give you the cost and environmental benefits of the traditional slips, while exceeding the stability and temperature protection you would typically get from pallets.

Wine can tolerate approximately ten degrees of fluctuation per day. Any more fluctuation than ten degrees per day can cause the corks to expand and contract allowing air to get inside the bottle and oxidizing the wine.

When shipping high value temperature sensitive cargo that is extremely sensitive to temperature, and can only allow small temperature excursions is when “secondary” protection comes in to maintain the cold chain. For example your cargo shipment travels from cold storage to refrigerated truck, to refrigerated storage and then to a tarmac (with no temp control) and them onto a refrigerated plane. The hour or two where the cargo was unprotected sitting on the tarmac awaiting loading is where the “secondary” protection help protect the cargo from a damaging temperature excursion.