Cryopak, a leader in temperature control packaging and temperature monitoring devices offers freezing conditioning services from its Maromme, France location. We sat down with the General Manager of the Cryopak Maromme location, William Boulay, to gain insight into this topic in something we call: “Q&A With William Boulay”.
- Cryopak – William, could you tell us more about conditioning, why someone would be interested in this, and what some of the issues are?
WB – Conditioning, simply stated, is a service that we provide which consists of the freezing of large volumes of refrigerants or a customer’s products for a defined period within our Maromme facility.
The interest we see in this service is from customers that do not have enough freezing space or prefer to keep their cold storage for finished product and not raw materials.
Managing the freezing of a full pallet is not simple. As a provider we must guarantee the freezing time, and we also must manage a stock with multiple dates of freezing. Depending on quantities being requested we need to anticipate more than one month of stock due to the freezing process.
- Cryopak – What types of companies and industries would be looking for a service like this?
WB – Pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and home delivery food kit companies are the most common industries that have a need for this type of service. We also have freight forwarders that are looking for this extra service and extra space.
- Cryopak – How long does it take to freeze an entire pallet of gel packs?
WB – The freezing time of a pallet is dependent on several parameters: weight of the pallet, the type of refrigerants, the pack out, the total charge of the freezer and the power of the freezer. A customer could expect the freezing time to range from one week to four weeks.
- Cryopak – How do you know that all the gel packs are frozen?
WB – We can calculate the time necessary to freeze a pallet depending on the external parameters (type of products to freeze, packaging, sizes of the pallet and layout of the pallet). We are using Smart CAE software modeling tools to detail the freezing time at every point. It is critical to guarantee freezing of every pack in every box on every pallet.
An additional 15% in freezing time is added to guarantee the freezing process due to the uncertainty on all the parameters (i.e., weight, thickness of the corrugated box, temperature of the freezer).
- Cryopak – What are the things that a company who needs to do this need to be aware of?
WB – Pack outs can be improved to accelerate the freezing time and to reduce security stock. Cryopak has accumulated significant experience in providing these improvements and to be able to reduce up to 50% of the freezing time. The traceability in real-time with dataloggers of the freezers and the freezing process is important. Cryopak currently uses the Mirador System (available through Cryopak Digital).
- Cryopak – Is there anything else you would like to add?
WB – The inclusion of this freezer has been incredibly important to our success here. We have studied the freezing trends of gel packs and refrigerants and have several tools at our disposal to predict the freezing time of a pallet of gel packs. To grow we want to continue to expand our manufacturing footprint and cold chain product offerings globally, to better serve our customers’ needs in their local markets. We view offering these conditioning services as a vital differentiating point, and we welcome the opportunity to discuss this need with both our customers and anyone that is new to what Cryopak offers.
About Cryopak
Cryopak, a subsidiary of Integreon Global, manufactures items for temperature-sensitive shipping needs, including insulated shipping containers, gel packs, phase change materials and temperature monitoring devices. We also offer package design and testing services in our ISTA-certified package testing lab through sister company, DDL. Our packaging engineers can help ensure that your products will arrive within the specified temperature range and undamaged from the hazards of distribution. With Cryopak, you can expect quality materials and superior service from an industry-leading team of experts whose primary goal is to protect the integrity of your products. Serving companies in the pharmaceutical, life science, biotech, food and electronics industries, our company is headquartered in Edison, New Jersey and Montreal, Quebec, Canada with locations throughout the United States, Canada, and France to serve clients across the globe.
To learn more about Cryopak visit www.Cryopak.com.
About Integreon Global
Founded in 1990, Integreon is a complete packaging solutions provider dedicated to providing goods and services to maintain the integrity of our clients’ products. Our team includes a full complement of engineers, designers, and manufacturing specialists with the collective skills, gathered in one close-knit organization, to assure easy access to leading experts. In addition to Cryopak, Integreon Global is also the parent company to Cryopak Digital, DDL, LaunchWorks and NexKemia.
For more information visit www.IntegreonGlobal.com.
