WO2003013318B1

WO2003013318B1 - Cold storage box

Info

Publication number: WO2003013318B1
Application number: PCT/GB2002/003698
Authority: WO
Inventors: Adrian Copeland; Paul Dolan
Original assignee: Adrian Copeland; Paul Dolan
Priority date: 2001-08-10
Filing date: 2002-08-09
Publication date: 2003-04-10
Also published as: GB2383402A8; GB2383402A; GB0119512D0; WO2003013318A1; JP2004537475A; EP1465510A1

Abstract

A cold storage box consists of a combination of two main parts, which allows the transportation of chilled or frozen goods by post. It includes: Insulation. The insulation used in the three pieces: Top, bottom and the four sides in one piece. Multiple layers of flexible sheet plyethylene are used to make different thicknesses for different performance requirements. Cooling Elements. These are frozen and put inside the insulation. Brime filled cooling elements are used to keep the pemperature below zero or water filled cooling elements are used to keep the temperature slighly above zero. Frozen: a pre filled plastic bag with 1 litre of brine (salt solution). Each contains 0.33 to 0.37 kg of salt per litre of water to give freezing temperature of around 18 to 20 celsius. Chilled: a pre filled plastic bag with 1 litre of water and some chlorine

Claims

AMENDED CLAIMS

[received by the International Bureau on 5 February 2003 (05.02.03); original claims 1-3 replaced by new claims 1-7 (3 pages)]

Claim 1

The invention is a totally self contained refrigeration system that once prepared requires no external power source; it can maintain chilled temperatures (0 to 8 °C) and frozen temperatures (below -18 °C) for varying periods of time which can be controlled by the combination of the following components: a robust outer box type container, for example, solid board, corrugated cardboard, correx plastic or other such similar material (see figure 1) (1); within this robust outer box type container there is a flexible insulating layer which consists of a number of thin strips of closed cell flexible polyethylene foam (2.5mm) that are cut into rectangular shapes, layered one on-top of the other (see figure 10) (7) and totally encapsulated within a plastic sleeve, (8) which is heat sealed on all four sides, resulting in one sheet of flexible insulation (see figures 4,5,6,7,8 and 9) which can be manipulated to form the base, lid and sides of the robust outer box type container, irrespective of the number of layers of insulation used (3 layers of flexible polyethylene foam results in a foam thickness of 7.5mm which can be adjusted as easily as a thicker insulating sheet using 12 layers of flexible polyethylene foam which would result in an insulation thickness of 30mm); four separate pieces of encapsulated insulation are required, the base (5) and lid (4) are separate pieces, whilst the four sides are made up of two long pieces, heat sealed together at two edges (6); a system of cool bags that are pre filled with coolant liquid, the outer cool bag is a robust flexible plastic material, (see figure 3) (3) designed to operate at low temperatures, the coolant varies according to the required transportation temperature, the chilled cooling bag contains slightly chlorinated water which freezes at 0°C and maintains a product temperature of 0 to 8°C whilst the frozen cool bag contains a specific concentration of salt solution (0.37 kg of sodium chloride salt per litre of water) which suppresses the freezing point of the salt solution to - 21.4°C which maintains a product temperature of below -18°C, were both the chilled cooling bags and/or the frozen cooling bags must be frozen completely solid before use, so that the required temperatures can be maintained during transit.

Claim 2

A self contained refrigeration system according to claim 1, wherein the insulating material is made up of multiple thin (2.5mm) strips of closed cell flexible polyethylene foam because: it possesses excellent heat insulating properties; it is 100% recyclable, unlike polystyrene and many other types of insulation; the thickness and size of the insulating layer can easily be varied by addition of more thin strips of flexible polyethylene foam (see figure 10) (7) into the plastic outer pouch (8) that will encapsulate the strips; the nature of the multiple strips of flexible polyethylene foam (7) allows the insulation to slide across each other, resulting in both thick and thin insulation pieces being able to flat pack very effectively, thus making savings on storage space.

Claim 3

A self contained refrigeration system according to claim 1 and 2, wherein the individual loose strips of closed cell flexible polyethylene foam (see figure 10) (7) are encapsulated inside a protective outer plastic pouch (8) which is heat sealed on all four sides, thus providing a support for the individual strips of flexible polyethylene foam whilst retaining flexibility so that the flexible polyethylene foam can easily be manipulated and flat packed (see figures 4,5,7,8 and 9);

7 Claim 4

A self contained refrigeration system according to claims 1,2 and 3 wherein the insulation is made up of 3 individual pieces: the base (see figures 6 and 7) (5) is a separate piece of insulation consisting of a number of individual strips of flexible closed cell polyethylene foam (see figure 10) (7) encapsulated in a plastic pouch (8) which is heat sealed on all four sides; the lid (see figures 4 and 5) (4) is a separate piece of insulation consisting of a number of individual strips of flexible closed cell polyethylene foam (see figure 10) (7) (the number of strips may be different to the base as more insulation may be required on the top of the self contained refrigeration system) encapsulated in a plastic pouch (8) which is heat sealed on all four sides, the four sides (see figures 8 and 9) are made up of two long pieces of insulation (the length of each is approximately equal to the sum of two sides of the robust outer box type container) each consisting of individual strips of flexible closed cell polyethylene foam (see figure 10) (7) encapsulated in a plastic pouch (8) which is heat sealed on all four sides, the two loose pieces are heat sealed together along two edges thus making one flexible insulating piece (6) that can be easily manipulated to cover all four sides of the self contained refrigeration system.

Claim 5

A self contained refrigeration system according to claims 1,2, 3 and 4 wherein the chilled or frozen temperature of the food product that is to be transported inside is maintained by a system of chilled or frozen coolant liquid, contained within flexible plastic cool bags: the chilled temperature of 0 to 8 °C is maintained by a number of cool bags (see figure 3) (3) which consist of low temperature resistant flexible plastic filled with a volume of slightly chlorinated water (usually 1 litre of water) which provides a coolant that freezes at 0°C and can easily be disposed of or re-used as required; the frozen temperature of below -18 ° is maintained by a number of cool bags (see figure 3) (3) which consist of low temperature resistant flexible plastic filled with a volume of salt solution (usually 1 litre of water) which provides a coolant that freezes at -21.4 °C and can easily be disposed of or re-used as required, the salt solution concentration is 0.37 kg of sodium chloride salt per litre of water,

Claim 6

A self contained refrigeration system according to claims 1,2, 3, 4 and 5 wherein the use of a salt solution allows the transportation of frozen foods at an optimum temperature of between -21.4°C and - 18°C without the use of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) which can over cool food products (it is solid at -78.5°C) and it is considered to be unsafe to use under certain circumstances (air freight) and requires great care in handling; if other transportation temperatures are required, there are some alternatives to a sodium chloride salt solution which could be used; potassium chloride salt solution (-7°C) magnesium chloride salt solution (-35°C) and calcium chloride salt solution (-55°C).

8 Claim 7

A self contained refrigeration system according to claims 1,2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 wherein the main products to be transported are ever varying volumes of chilled or frozen food products of ever differing sizes and shapes: the solution described is very adaptable and is easily modified to provide an effective solution for anything from very small refrigerated units to pallet sized refrigeration units, hence the flexibility of the insulation system which can be easily adapted in size and thickness, combined with the flexibility of the individual cool bags which can be adjusted in size and number, to easily suit different customer requirements, the robust outer container and the insulation system are designed to flat pack, saving on storage space, which is of particular benefit when considering the pallet sized refrigeration units.

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