ShareICCC2016 highlights: ageing of refrigerated truck insulation
This summary refers to a paper presented during the IIR International Cold Chain Conference (ICCC2016) which took place in New Zealand. This paper can be downloaded from Fridoc database by using the direct link provided at the end of the article.
The insulation of refrigerated trucks is characterized by a heat transfer coefficient, also called K coefficient. The K value is determined according to the international agreement for transport of perishable food (ATP) protocol.
The insulation is decreasing during the lifetime of the equipment and the K value is increasing. This ageing depends on several criteria such as the level of maintenance by the owner and the temperature of the transported product.
The French regulation, like Italian or Spanish ones, requires a K-value test for all the ATP equipment after 12 years to renew their ATP certificate.
The analysis of 110 K-value tests of in-service refrigerated transport equipment made by Cemafroid shows that it is possible to evaluate the ageing of the insulation of the bodies.
It underlines that after 12 years, all the tested pieces of equipment are still compliant with ATP with K-values far under 0.7 W/m2.K. Moreover it shows that nearly 30% of the tested pieces of equipment have still a reinforced insulation (K lower than 0.4W/m2.K).
The authors conclude that it should be necessary to conduct a global statistical analysis of the thousands of figures available in the ATP tests stations and to measure the K-value ageing at least all over the 6 first years of life of an equipment.
Cavalier G et al.Ageing of refrigerated truck insulation.
Direct link to download this article via Fridoc: http://goo.gl/J7KTMl
The insulation is decreasing during the lifetime of the equipment and the K value is increasing. This ageing depends on several criteria such as the level of maintenance by the owner and the temperature of the transported product.
The French regulation, like Italian or Spanish ones, requires a K-value test for all the ATP equipment after 12 years to renew their ATP certificate.
The analysis of 110 K-value tests of in-service refrigerated transport equipment made by Cemafroid shows that it is possible to evaluate the ageing of the insulation of the bodies.
It underlines that after 12 years, all the tested pieces of equipment are still compliant with ATP with K-values far under 0.7 W/m2.K. Moreover it shows that nearly 30% of the tested pieces of equipment have still a reinforced insulation (K lower than 0.4W/m2.K).
The authors conclude that it should be necessary to conduct a global statistical analysis of the thousands of figures available in the ATP tests stations and to measure the K-value ageing at least all over the 6 first years of life of an equipment.
Cavalier G et al.Ageing of refrigerated truck insulation.
Direct link to download this article via Fridoc: http://goo.gl/J7KTMl