Carrier Transicold marks golden anniversary

In 2018, Carrier Transicold will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the refrigeration system design that helped revolutionize the global transport of perishable and frozen goods via shipping container.

Showcasing its legacy of leadership, Carrier Transicold is highlighting 50 years of container refrigeration innovation at Intermodal Europe 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

“The year ahead marks the golden anniversary of Carrier’s pioneering front-wall or ‘picture frame’ container refrigeration unit design,” said David Appel, president of Carrier Transicold & Refrigeration Systems. “The front-wall design’s widespread adoption by the industry propelled expanded trade in refrigerated commodities, helping to feed a growing global population and enabling the consumption of agricultural goods virtually everywhere, at any time.”

Introduced in 1968, the self-contained system, which bolts onto the front end of an insulated shipping box, has defined the shape of generations of marine refrigeration systems.

Carrier’s original electrically powered Frostmaster models were the forerunners of today’s NaturaLINE and PrimeLINE units. Prior to 1968, ocean transport of refrigerated cargo primarily was the domain of dedicated vessels with refrigerated holds below deck. By enabling the refrigeration of containers, Carrier added versatility and efficiency to shipping. Ultimately, refrigerated containers have enabled the quick loading and unloading of uniformly sized boxes and eliminated additional handling and transfers of perishable-laden pallets, as traditionally required.

As the container shipping industry has grown exponentially to carry $4 trillion worth of goods annually, nearly 80% of seaborne perishable cargo moves by refrigerated containers. Many of those containers are efficiently temperature-controlled by Carrier Transicold systems. To date, Carrier Transicold has sold more than 1.2 million of its front-wall container refrigeration units.

Even so, container refrigeration has improved and advanced over the years. Carrier Transicold has led the industry with many container refrigeration innovations to improve cargo protection, environmental sustainability, performance and efficiency, including:

•The NaturaLINE unit, the first container refrigeration system to use a natural refrigerant—which responds to concerns about refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP). It uses carbon dioxide (CO2) with an ultra-low global warming potential of 1. The efficient, closed loop system also achieves deep-frozen temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius. Similarly, in the 1990s, after the Montreal Protocol agreement, Carrier Transicold led the industry in the conversion of container refrigeration systems to non-ozone depleting refrigerants.

•XtendFRESH atmosphere control, the first system to manage oxygen and CO2 levels within a container that also has an integrated ethylene removal capability. The system helps extend shipping distances of perishables beyond what refrigeration alone can do, and is a successor to Carrier Transicold’s EverFresh system, which was the first integrated atmosphere control system for containers.

•The PrimeLINE unit, which introduced digital scroll compressor technology for use with the refrigerant R-134a, enabling higher efficiencies resulting in reduced fuel consumption and emissions related to shipboard energy production.

For more information, visit www.transicold.carrier.com.