When you ship temperature-sensitive items, you often try to maintain a specific, optimal temperature and prevent those items from getting too hot, too cold, or both. However, the ways that temperature can change often vary with the type of temperature change. While products can get hot or cold, the ways that they get hot or cold are not necessarily the same. That’s why it’s important to take the right precautions, such as a passive pallet covers, to ensure that all methods of temperature change are accounted for.
Heat Through Radiation
The primary way that things tend to heat up is through a process known as radiation. This means that the heat itself travels through the air in waves, usually infrared waves of radiation, and it is this contact with heat radiation that causes things to warm up. Of course, the term “radiation,” by definition, means that these waves of heat are “radiating” from a source, the most common being the sun.
A common reason these products heat up past their optimal shipping temperature is if they are removed from a reefer unit and exposed to the sun on a hot day while awaiting transfer to another vehicle. Passive pallet covers, especially those with a metalized film like aluminum, are designed to deflect radiation.
Cold Through Conduction
On the other hand, products can lose heat when they come into physical contact with cooler objects. Thermal conduction is a behavior of “equal distribution,” where if one element in the environment differs in temperature from other objects, the cooler objects will drain that warmer object of its heat until the heat is equally distributed throughout the environment. This process of transferring heat from a warm object to a cool object through physical contact is called conduction.
Unlike radiation, which transfers heat through the air from the sun, thermal conduction occurs largely through the ground or contact with cooler walls. Spacing and insulation are important in these situations, which is where the right kind of passive pallet covers can play an important role. Pallets themselves or some other type of Slip Sheet on the ground play an important role in preventing conduction from lowering the temperature of products that may be impacted by sustained exposure to cooler temperatures. You need to research your temperature protection options.
If you’re shipping temperature-sensitive products and want to know the best way to get those products to their destination safely, we can help. Contact us to explain your shipping needs and obtain a quote.
