WO2008133374A1

WO2008133374A1 - Cool-keeping system

Info

Publication number: WO2008133374A1
Application number: PCT/KR2007/003875
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yun Seong Bae
Original assignee: TAPS International Co Ltd
Current assignee: TAPS International Co Ltd
Priority date: 2007-04-26
Filing date: 2007-08-13
Publication date: 2008-11-06
Anticipated expiration: 2009-10-26
Also published as: KR20080096089A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a cool-keeping system which can store or convey an article of storage within a desired temperature range for a long time. More particularly, the invention relates to a cool-keeping system which achieves an effect of extending the time for keeping under cold insulation, which time has never been achieved with conventional single-layer cool- keeping systems, by installing a partition member inside a first box, which is located on the outer side, and introducing a coolant into the space between the first box and the partition member and the space between the partition member and the article of storage, thereby to dispose an insulating material and a material having high latent heat or high heat capacity in an alternating manner.

Description

COOL-KEEPING SYSTEM

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a cool-keeping system which can store or convey an article of storage within a desired temperature range for a long time. More particularly, the invention relates to a cool-keeping system which achieves an effect of extending the time for keeping under cold insulation, which time has never been achieved with conventional single-layer cool-keeping systems, by installing a partition member inside a first box, which is located on the outer side, and introducing a coolant into the space between the first box and the partition member and the space between the partition member and the article of storage, thereby to dispose an insulating material and a material having high latent heat or high heat capacity in an alternating manner. Background Art

[2] In general, iceboxes are box-shaped vessels used for transporting an article of storage in a refrigerated or frozen state by means of a cooling material such as ice or dry ice. Many of such iceboxes are open type with a closing lid covering the top open part, and have all of the outer surfaces and inner surfaces made of synthetic resins, with the insulating material used therein being polyurethane, polystyrene foam or the like.

[3] The capacity of such an icebox varies from about 4 to about 40 L, and the cold insulating capability is directly proportional to the amount of the cooling material, the type of which may also affect the cold insulating capability to some extent.

[4] For example, in the case of an icebox having a capacity of 20 to 25 L, which is commonly used in general purposes, when 4 kg of ice is placed in the icebox and left under a temperature of about 3O⁰C, the time for which the temperature of the bottom inside the icebox is maintained at or below 5⁰C is approximately 15 hours on the average.

[5] If dry ice is used instead of ice, the time for keeping under cold insulation is approximately doubled, and is more effective.

[6] However, when an article of storage is stored together with such cooling materials in the same space, ice and dry ice rapidly turn to liquid water and gaseous carbon dioxide, respectively, and it is in turn difficult to maintain the refrigerating or freezing effect for a long time. This problem becomes more serious in the case of purchasing goods from online shopping malls through the Internet or from television shopping channels, in which case delivery of goods takes a longer time compared with the case of purchasing goods in person.

[7] Furthermore, when dry ice is used as the cooling material inside the icebox as described above, since the sublimation point of dry ice is very low down to -78.5⁰C or below, direct contact of the article of storage with dry ice inside the icebox may lead to cold damage of the article of storage, which causes another problem.

[8] In an attempt to prevent such problem caused by cold damage, there has been traditionally used a simple method of placing the article of storage inside a small-sized box, placing this small-sized box inside a large-sized box containing a portion of a cooling material, and then filling the inside of the large-sized box with an additional portion of the cooling material.

[9] However, this method suffers from difficulties in loading the cooling material evenly and uniformly around the small-sized box, and there is a risk that the small-sized box may be tipped over to one side during transfer. In this case, the probability of failing the temperature control for the article of storage is markedly increased.

[10] Further, if the cooling material is filled to the rim so as to solve such problem of tipping, excessive consumption of cooling materials may cause another problem of economic inefficiency.

[11] Particularly in the case of expensive pharmaceutical products such as vaccines, in addition to the economical problem, loss in vaccine titer due to cold damage has been a main cause for repeated inoculation of vaccine, while a vaccine maintained under good temperature control would give sufficient efficacy by a single inoculation.

[12] Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) has provided the "Guidelines on the International Packaging and Shipping of Vaccines" and is recommending to include the guidelines in technical specifications and requisites. In particular, the WHO classified vaccines into various categories, and specified the minimum and maximum allowable temperatures to which the vaccines can be exposed during the time for international distribution and shipping of at least 48 hours. Accordingly, every vaccine manufacturer must guarantee that the packaging materials used satisfy the following criteria ("Guidelines on the International Packaging and Shipping of Vaccines," 2005, WHO/IVB/05.23).

[13] - Class A packaging: Prior to and at the time of packing, the vaccines must be kept within the storage temperature limits recommended by the manufacturer, and the vaccines must be packed to ensure that the temperature of the vaccines inside the insulated package does not rise above +8⁰C in continuous outside ambient temperatures of +43⁰C for a period of at least 48 hours during transportation.

[14] - Class B packaging: Prior to and at the time of packing, the vaccines must be kept within the storage temperature limits recommended by the manufacturer, and the vaccines must be packed to ensure that the temperature of the vaccines inside the insulated package does not rise above +3O⁰C in continuous outside ambient temperatures of +43⁰C for a period of at least 48 hours during transportation. [15] - Class C packaging: Prior to and at the time of packing, the vaccines must be kept within the storage temperature limits recommended by the manufacturer, and the vaccines must be packed to ensure that the temperature of the vaccines inside the insulated package does not rise above +3O⁰C in continuous outside ambient temperatures of +43⁰C for a period of at least 48 hours; and the temperature of the vaccines inside the insulated package does not fall below +2⁰C in continuous external temperatures of -5⁰C for a period of at least 48 hours during transportation.

[16] Table 1 [Table 1] [Table ]

[17] Table 1 in the above indicates the classification of vaccines based on the thermal stability of the respective vaccines, provided as a guideline for international packaging and shipping.

[18] However, a packaging system which is economically efficient and systemically well- established, while satisfying such tightened criteria for vaccine packaging and shipping, is still not developed, despite the critical need for such packaging system in various aspects. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[19] The present invention has been conceived in order to solve the problems described above, and thus it is an object of the present invention to provide a new cool-keeping system which can significantly extend the time for keeping under cold insulation by alternately disposing an insulating material and a material having high latent heat or high heat capacity. Technical Solution

[20] To achieve the object as described above, the cool-keeping system of the present invention comprises:

[21] A first box comprising a first bottom plate, and first walls rising integratively and vertically from the edges of the first bottom plate;

[22] A removable lid installed to cover the upper edges of the first walls of the first box to shield the inside of the box from the outside;

[23] A partition member comprising second walls which are provided inside the first box respectively in parallel to the first walls;

[24] A first coolant disposed in between the first walls and the second walls; and

[25] A second coolant provided on the inner surfaces of the second walls.

[26] The partition member is preferably a second box comprising a second bottom plate which is integratively and horizontally extended from the lower edges of the second walls, and the second walls.

[27] It is also preferable that the first coolant is further disposed in between the first bottom plate and the second bottom plate.

[28] Furthermore, the cool-keeping system may further comprise a coolant tray which is disposed parallel to the lid, and which is disposed in contact with wall supports formed on the inner side of the first walls, or on the inner side or outer side of the second walls, or is disposed in contact with the upper edges of the second walls.

[29] The cool-keeping system also preferably further comprises the first coolant above the coolant tray.

[30] The cool-keeping system also preferably further comprises the second coolant on the second bottom plate.

[31] The cool-keeping system preferably has the second coolant to cover the article of storage stored in the internal space formed by the second walls.

[32] Furthermore, it is preferable that the first coolant and the second coolant are cool- keeping packs comprising a liquid material, an absorbent for absorbing the liquid material, and skin parts for holding the liquid material and the absorbent.

[33] It is preferable that the skin parts are formed by bonding the opposite edges of the front surface and the back surface, and the last edge, which is bonded later than the other three edges, has blockers formed in deep parts of both sides to prevent escaping of the absorbent.

[34] It is also preferable that the temperature of the first coolant at the time of initiating cold insulation is at, below or above the freezing point of the first coolant, and the temperature of the second coolant is at or above the freezing point of the second coolant. [35] The liquid material is preferably water.

[36] The temperature of water in the first coolant at the time of initiating cold insulation is preferably at, below or above O⁰C, and the temperature of water in the second coolant is preferably at or above O⁰C.

Advantageous Effects

[37] The present invention can fundamentally prevent any undesired cold damage by preventing direct contact between an article of storage and a cold coolant, and the time for keeping under cold insulation can be significantly extended by alternately disposing an insulating material and a coolant having high latent heat or high heat capacity.

[38] In particular, with regard to the application with vaccines, the present invention satisfies the tightened criteria for transportation, distribution and packaging of vaccines, enables development of economically efficient packaging materials and design of systemic packaging systems, and can bring forth an effect of promoting exportation of vaccines through the optimization of distribution costs and packaging. In addition, the present invention can increase the competitive power for price by reducing any unnecessary spaces inside the package container, guarantees safety of the vaccines during long distance transportation, and can prevent returning of products or any legal problems associated therewith by preventing the dew condensation phenomenon resulting from differences in the internal temperatures.

[39] The present invention is expected to greatly contribute in establishing more reliable product distribution systems, by being utilized not only in the pharmaceutical industries such as in vaccines, but also for product distribution in the dairy, agricultural and marine industries. Brief Description of the Drawings

[40] Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the state in which the individual components constituting the cool-keeping system of the present invention are combined.

[41] Fig. 2 is a planar view showing the relation in which the first box vs. the first coolant, and the second box vs. the second coolant of the present invention are combined. Mode for the Invention

[42] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. First, it should be noted that upon assigning reference numerals to each of the components in the drawings, identical components were assigned with identical numerals as far as possible, although the components appear in different drawings. Also, in the following description, a number of specific embodiments involving specific components are illustrated, and it will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art that such specific embodiments have been provided to aid in general understanding of the present invention, and the present invention can be carried out even without such specific embodiments. Furthermore, in describing the present invention, wherever it was judged that detailed illustration of a known function or constitution that is related to the present invention may rather render the gist of the invention unnecessarily ambiguous, the detailed illustration was omitted.

[43] Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the state in which the individual components constituting the cool-keeping system of the present invention are combined, and Fig. 2 is a planar view of the cool-keeping system of the invention thus combined, excluding some parts such as lid.

[44] First, the cool-keeping system of the present invention comprises, as an essential component, a first box 10 formed from a first bottom plate 11 (not shown) and first walls 12 which rise vertically from the edges of the first bottom plate 11 (not shown), and is integrated with the first bottom plate 11 (not shown). This first box 10 is preferably made of an expanded synthetic resin product having an excellent insulating effect.

[45] Then, a removable lid 40 covering the upper edges of the first walls 12 of the first box 10 to shield the inside of the first box from the outside. By covering the first box 10 with the lid 40, the article of storage inside the box can be benefitted from a basic effect of protection from the air outside.

[46] Conventional cool-keeping systems such as iceboxes are intended to achieve the purpose of cold insulation only by adding a coolant to the inside of the constitution described above, but there were problems in such conventional systems as previously explained.

[47] A major feature of the present invention is that second walls 22 which are in parallel to the first walls 12 of the first box 10 are included inside the first box 10.

[48] As the second walls 22 made of an insulating material are additionally introduced, the heat from the outside or the chill cannot easily affect the article of storage, and the time for sustaining cold insulation is extended.

[49] Furthermore, remarkable improvements can be achieved in the aspects of uniform distribution of the coolant and prevention of coolant waste by the use of an appropriate amount, as compared with the conventional form in which a coolant is filled inside a larger box and introducing a smaller box containing an article of storage into the larger box.

[50] Also, by introducing a coolant in between the second walls 22 and the first walls 12, the chill may be maintained longer, and thereby the effect of cold insulation may also be sustained longer.

[51] A partition member 20' (not shown) comprising the second walls 22 may be fixed to the first box 10, or may be removably joined to the first box through a constitution such as reentrant slit.

[52] More preferably, a second bottom plate 21 (not shown) which is horizontally extended from the lower edges of the second walls 22 and is integrated with the second walls 22, may be provided to form a second box 20 together with the second walls 22.

[53] When a first coolant 50 is disposed in between the second bottom plate 21 (not shown) of the second box 20 and the first bottom plate 11 (not shown) of the first box 10, the structure of "insulating material-coolant-insulating material" can be applied to the bottom surface of the article of storage, as the same is applied to the side surfaces.

[54] Meanwhile, the upper surface of the article of storage can also have a double insulating structure by introducing a coolant tray 30.

[55] Specifically, when a coolant tray 30 which is parallel to the lid 40, and is brought into contact with the box by being rested on wall supports 19 and 29 (not shown) that are formed on the inside of the first walls 12, or on the inside or outside of the second walls 22, or on the upper edges of the second walls 22, is provided, and the first coolant 50 is introduced above the coolant tray, the system of "lid 40-first coolant 50-coolant tray 30" attains the structure of "insulating material-coolant-insulating material." Thus, the six surfaces surrounding the article of storage are provided with the aforementioned structure.

[56] Another feature of the present invention is that not only the insulating material but also the coolant surround the article of storage in a dual manner.

[57] In general, the coolant used is typically a material having high specific heat or high heat capacity, which material does not easily undergo temperature change per se even under the temperature changes of the environment. When such coolant is further provided adjacently to the article of storage, the article of storage can be well maintained at a constant temperature.

[58] However, since the second coolant 60 provided adjacently to the article of storage as such is employed to aid in keeping the temperature of the article of storage constant, and the second coolant should not cause any cold damage, cold insulation should be initiated at a temperature at or above the freezing point of the second coolant 60 itself.

[59] Such second coolant 60 may be introduced to the four side surfaces of the article of storage, that is, the inner side surfaces of the second walls 22, and is preferably further provided at the bottom surface of the article of storage, that is, the upper surface of the second bottom plate 21 (not shown), and at the upper surface of the article of storage, that is, the lid 40 or the bottom surface of the coolant tray 30.

[60] Meanwhile, since the space between the walls 12 and 22 and the space between the bottom plates 11 (not shown) and 21 (not shown) of the present invention are planar- shaped spaces, a coolant having an irregular shape when frozen may not be suitable for application. Particularly when the thickness of one side is thicker than the thickness of other sides, the coolant may not be inserted into the planar-shaped space.

[61] Therefore, it is preferable to use a coolant comprising absorbents 52 and 62 which control the shape of a liquid material before freezing. In other words, it is preferable to use a cool-keeping pack comprising a liquid material, absorbents 52 and 62 for absorbing the liquid material, and skin parts 51 and 61 for holding the liquid material and the absorbents 52 and 62.

[62] The cool-keeping pack is suitable for the present invention because the liquid material is frozen in a state such that most of the liquid material is absorbed into the absorbents 52 and 62 upon freezing, and the shape is uniformly planar.

[63] However, in the case of introducing the absorbents 52 and 62 and then injecting the liquid material into the skin parts 51 and 61, there may be difficulties in sealing the cool-keeping pack due to floating of the absorbents 52 and 62.

[64] Therefore, when bonding the opposite edges of the front surface and the back surface of the skin parts 51 and 61, it is preferable to form blockers on the two seams of the edge which is bonded later than the other edges, so as to suppress escaping of the absorbents 52 and 62 upon floating. Such blockers can be simply formed by bonding at certain sites.

[65] Another major feature of the present invention is that water can be used as the medium for the coolant used.

[66] It has been previously mentioned that coolants have high specific heat or heat capacity so that the temperature change in the coolants themselves is slow despite the change in ambient temperature.

[67] Among them, water in particular has remarkably high latent heat compared to other materials of similar molecular weights. Thus, the heat absorbed and dissipated by water during phase change may induce the temperature change in the article of storage more evenly.

[68] Inter alia, since water itself is environmentally friendly, it is also advantageous in that handling of water is much easier compared with other organic or inorganic gel phase coolants.

[69] It has been mentioned that it is preferable that cold insulation is initiated at a temperature at or above the freezing point of the above-described second coolant 60 of the present invention. On the other hand, it is sufficient for the temperature of the first coolant 50 if cold insulation is initiated at a temperature at or below the freezing point in the case where the cold insulation effect is highly demanded, and at or above the freezing point in the case where the cold insulation effect is less demanded. If water is used as the liquid material of the coolant, the temperature may be appropriately selected around O⁰C. [70] Preferred embodiments of the present invention have been thus far illustrated and explained, but the present invention is not limited to the specific examples described above, and any person having ordinary skill in the art would understand that various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be construed to be limited to the above examples, and the scope should be defined by the following claims as well as equivalents to the claims.

Claims

[1] A cool-keeping system comprising: a first box comprising a first bottom plate, and first walls rising integratively and vertically from the edges of the first bottom plate; a removable lid installed to cover the upper edges of the first walls of the first box to shield the inside of the box from the outside; a partition member comprising second walls which are provided inside the first box respectively in parallel to the first walls; a first coolant disposed in between the first walls and the second walls; and a second coolant provided on the inner surfaces of the second walls.

[2] The cool-keeping system according to claim 1, wherein the partition member is a second box comprising a second bottom plate which is integratively and horizontally extended from the lower edges of the second walls, and the second walls.

[3] The cool-keeping system according to claim 2, wherein the first coolant is further disposed in between the first bottom plate and the second bottom plate.

[4] The cool-keeping system according to claim 1, further comprising a coolant tray which is disposed parallel to the lid, and which is disposed in contact with wall supports formed on the inner side of the first walls, or on the inner side or outer side of the second walls, or is disposed in contact with the upper edges of the second walls.

[5] The cool-keeping system according to claim 4, wherein the first coolant is further provided above the coolant tray.

[6] The cool-keeping system according to claim 3, wherein the second coolant is further provided on the second bottom plate.

[7] The cool-keeping system according to claim 1, wherein the second coolant is further provided to cover the article of storage stored in the space formed inside the second walls.

[8] The cool-keeping system according to claim 1, wherein the first coolant and the second coolant are each a cool-keeping pack comprising: A liquid material;

An absorbent for absorbing the liquid material; and Skin parts for holding the liquid material and the absorbent.

[9] The cool-keeping system according to claim 8, wherein the skin parts are formed by bonding the opposite edges of the front surface and the back surface, and the edge which is bonded later than the other three edges, has blockers formed in deep parts of both sides to prevent escaping of the absorbent.

[10] The cool-keeping system according to claim 1, wherein at the time of initiating cold insulation, the temperature of the first coolant is at, below or above the freezing point of the first coolant, and the temperature of the second coolant is at or above the freezing point of the second coolant.

[11] The cool-keeping system according to claim 8, wherein the liquid material is water.

[12] The cool-keeping system according to claim 11, wherein the temperature of water in the first coolant at the time of initiating cold insulation is O⁰C, below or above, and the temperature of water in the second coolant is O⁰C or above.