Emerson Climate Technologies Brings Greater Control and Added Protection to the Refrigerated Transport Industry
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Results
Shipping containers now equipped with the most reliable temperature control available.
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Industry’s first container refrigeration to precisely maintain -35º C (-31º F) in any ambient temperature.
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Energy efficiency increased by as much as 30%.
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Usable life of sea containers extended by 10 years.
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A wider variety of cargo can now be shipped.
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Many freight transporters able to increase cargo capacity by as much as 2.6%.
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Emerson Technology & Services
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Digital Scroll™ technology and compressors from Copeland.
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Application
The continued advancement of Digital Scroll™ technology into the refrigerated transport industry to create compressors that help to better protect perishable cargo in sea containers.
Customer
Thermo King is a division of Ingersoll-Rand and a leading manufacturer of climate control systems for global transportation industries.
Challenge
Sea containers face some of the worst operating conditions imaginable. They travel to every corner of the world, through extreme temperatures, sometimes running for hours on end in a high ambient environment. Therefore, compressor reliability is crucial. Thermo King needed a compressor sturdy enough to withstand the rigors of over-the-ocean shipping, yet one that would perform precisely to an extremely narrow – and extremely low – temperature range.
For Copeland, the challenge was to continue to carefully modify its scroll design to meet the unique requirements of the refrigerated transport industry, especially the harsher demands of ocean-going vessels. Thermo King selected Copeland® and its Digital Scroll™ technology because it was confident both the company and its compressors could successfully make the transition from traditional refrigeration applications to this complicated, specialized task.
Solution
Emerson Climate Technologies worked closely with Thermo King to custom-design the Digital Scroll™ technology to power the company’s MagnumÒ heating and cooling unit. The result is the first container refrigeration unit with the ability to precisely maintain -35º C (-31º F) in any ambient temperature condition.
Copeland® engineers designed a more robust scroll that could guard against the heat buildup and gas re-expansion associated with refrigerated transport conditions. By incorporating additional new design features, such as vapor injection – which increases system capacity while keeping the scroll elements cool – the compressors can run more efficiently at continuous operation.
Digital Scroll™ offers cooling equipment manufacturers an innovative new way to modulate the capacity of the compressor from 10 to 100 percent to precisely match the refrigeration load. This approach has been shown to increase energy efficiency by as much as 30 percent in transport applications and to hold a precise temperature to plus or minus half a degree. This means transport companies can ship a wider variety of cargo at various temperature levels with just one refrigerated container unit. The technology can also maximize product freshness, reduce bacteria growth, increase shelf life and better maintain the quality of the product when it reaches its destination.
Two of the largest markets greatly impacted by the application of this new technology are frozen fish and meats. Fish transported for 4 weeks at -18º C will lose an estimated 16 weeks of shelf life; fish transported at -35º C will lose only two weeks of shelf life. Meats transported and stored at -35º rather than -18º C will maintain better quality and a longer shelf life due to retention of the attributes of fatty tissues in their original state.
The technology also extends the usable life of containers. Currently, deep-frozen shipments (-29º C/-20.2º F) are limited to containers that are less than five years old. With Copeland’s Digital Scroll™ compressors, Thermo King’s Magnum offers cooling capacity to maintain -29º C throughout the 15-year life of the container.
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