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Carrier Transicold Commemorates 50 Years of Innovation

[ November 29, 2017   //   ]

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.

“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 innovative self-contained system, which bolts onto the front end of an insulated shipping box, has defined the shape of generations of marine refrigeration systems that followed.

“Over five decades, many system enhancements have refined the performance of our container refrigeration systems but the fundamental all-in-one design that easily attaches to and perfectly complements an insulated shipping container endures,” Appel said. “Equally enduring is
Carrier Transicold’s commitment to innovation with exciting new developments over the years and more underway to serve ever-changing customer needs.”

Carrier’s original electrically-powered Frostmaster® models were theforerunners 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 the shipping process. 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 percent 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 today’s 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, following the Montreal Protocol agreement, Carrier Transicold led the industry in the conversion of container refrigeration systems to non-ozone depleting
refrigerants.
* XtendFRESH(tm) 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 pioneering EverFresh® system, which was thefirst 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. The PrimeLINE unit has outsold all competitive units for 10 years running.

“On any given day, Carrier Transicold container refrigeration systems help protect over $9 billion worth of refrigerated cargo traveling around the world,” Appel said. “We are grateful to our many customers for putting their trust in us these past 50 years and look forward with
great anticipation to the next 50.”

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