H.C.C.P.’s “Hazardous Critical Control Points” in temperature conditioned road transport

To transport conditioned goods or temperature sensitive products as food products, pharmaceuticals medicines or chemical products, conditioned trailers or trucks are used. These trailers have a cooling engine and an insulated body to create the required temperature in the trailer. This system is an active cooling system in which the cooler engine is creating a temperature controlled environment in the trailer. You would think that is very easy to maintain the required temperature in the conditioned, cooled or heated trailer yet a number of HCCP’s as hotspots are appearing. Therefore the company Krautz – Temax has developed a number of unique insulation solutions which optimize the temperature preservation in conditioned road transport.

HCCP’s in traditional conditioned transport

HCCP’s or “Hazardous Critical Control Points” are points in the transport of temperature sensitive goods which require extra attention seeing that at these points the required temperatures can fluctuate. Although, the transport is done by active cooling, being the cooling engine, lots of possible HCCP’s can appear. Below you can see some of the points where a temperature fluctuation can exist. The big question is: how big are these HCCP’s (height of the temperature fluctuation and duration of time of the fluctuation) and what is the impact of these HCCP’s on the quality of the temperature sensitive goods.
Too cold at front and too warm at the back of the trailer
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If we take a closer look at a standard conditioned trailer, we see that the cooling engine is placed at the front on the trailer. This means that the air-flow of the cooled trailer is blown from the front to the back. Experience show that this offers a problem with the temperatures in the total trailer. In every transport, the temperatures at the front are much lower than in the back of the trailer. Mostly the back of the trailer is not getting any cold air at all or it takes a very long time. This situation creates a CCP which means that there are points that the temperature of the air surrounding the conditioned goods can fluctuate and need to be studied closely.
“HOT-SPOTS” in the trailer
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In standard conditioned trailers, the air-flow from the cooling engine is blown from the front to the back of the trailer. Experience show that if large or high pallets or roller containers are loaded together with lower pallets or roller containers, the higher loaded pallets block the air-flow of the cooling engine creating hot-spots in the trailer. Hot spots are locations in the conditioned trailer where the temperature is higher than the required temperature. These hot spots are CCP’s where the temperature can fluctuate and need to be studied closely.
Unwanted air-flow in the trailer during opened doors
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When the doors of a conditioned trailer are opened, an air flow of unwanted external temperatures can float into the conditioned trailer. This means that the goods are influenced by the temperature of this unwanted air-flow. Experience show that if unwanted air is floated into the conditioned trailer, it takes a long time until the required temperature is reached again, especially in the back of the trailer. These opened doors are CCP’s where the temperature can fluctuate and need to be studied closely.
To strong air-flow of the cooling engine
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When the cooling engine is turned-on or if the required temperature is to low in regards to the warm air in the conditioned trailer, the cooling engine will create a very strong air flow which is blown over the goods. The quality of some goods is yet being influenced by this too strong air flow. Salads or flowers for example cannot stand a strong air flow and will show quality damages. This too strong air-flow is a CCP which influences the product quality and needs to be studied closely.

Multiple temperatures in conditioned transport

When conditioned transport is used to transport temperature sensitive products, the choice could be made to create multiple temperature environments in the trailer so products with a different temperature can be transported in the same truck or trailer. The company Krautz Temax produces special insulated thermal partition walls to make that possible. The thermal partition walls are used as an insulated barrier between two environments. If the other environments need to be temperature controlled the company Krautz Temax has developed the unique Triple Cooler system which not only gives the advantage of creating a multitemp cooling system but also guarantees the perfect temperature in the whole trailer, front and back.

Passive cooling in conditioned transport

Next to active cooling in conditioned transport also passive cooling systems can be used to optimize the temperature of the product as create a combination transport of products with different temperatures in the same trailer or truck. The company Krautz – Temax produces special insulated covers or thermal blankets and insulated boxes which protect the temperature of the product against unwanted external or outer temperatures. On this website you can find a number of passive cooling systems and passive packinging solutions