Cold rooms play an important role in contemporary living yet the work they do mostly goes unnoticed. Take a laboratory for example. Within a laboratory environment there are lots of temperature sensitive equipment and products. Each item must be stored in the correct climate. When required temperatures fall below room temperature, a cold room ensures items are housed effectively so they remain safe to use and in the best condition.
Xuexiang Refrigeration can design and manufacture all types of blast cold room for you
And that’s not all they do.
Here’s all you need to know about what a cold room is and why your lab needs one.
A cold room is a temperature-controlled space which sustains a climate below room temperature to keep specialist items preserved for a certain duration. Designed for commercial use, these large refrigeration chambers permanently remain at a pre-determined
low temperature accompanied by humidity control.
Types
Cold rooms can be made in many different styles and sizes including: laboratory cold rooms, modular laboratory cold rooms, walk-in cold rooms, modular freezers, walk-in freezers, cold rooms for vehicles to enable transportation of goods and more.
Design
Temperatures and scale vary widely from sector to sector. What must always be the sam for a cold room to be effective is superb insulation. Good insulation is key. Any cold room’s insulating materials must be poor conductors of heat and suitable for the range of
temperatures you need your cold room to sustain. The room’s robust insulation has to provide an impenetrable barrier to external heat in any weather. Choice of insulating material plus the array of external temperatures the insulating material must withstand are important factors to consider for any cold room design.
Insulating materials must be able to guarantee the temperature inside the cold room will remain stable, regardless of what’s happening outside. Even the slightest slip in insulation quality could cause damage to stored items due to condensation, freezing, quickened
deterioration and more.
Regulations
Compliance is another major factor for any cold room design. From the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in America to the UK’s MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency) there are lots of industry regulations and guidelines for safe preservation of goods
which must be followed.
For the healthcare industry, strict conditions exist for safe storage of resources which must be maintained to ensure everything from levels of light to humidity adhere to required limits.
Custom Design
Critical use means bespoke cold rooms are often necessary accompanied by tailored, complex ranges of temperature control settings. Expert cold room installation companies will design, install and maintain a custom system for you that’s built to your bespoke
specifications. ....More
Key uses
Playing an essential role in the preservation of perishable food, medicine, plants, chemicals, textiles, artwork and more, cold rooms are widely used by a vast range sectors including:
healthcare, horticulture, hospitality, retail and manufacturing.
For the medical and healthcare industry in particular, cold rooms are vital to ensure equipment, medicines, vaccines, cleaning agents, specialist treatments and tools are stored free from damage and safe for use via consistent temperature control.
By storing products and equipment at low temperatures, cold rooms work to ensure damaging chemical and biological activity stimulated by heat are stalled. The result? Our wide-ranging storage and logistical needs as mass-consumers, can be met efficiently over prolonged timescales.
From fashion to retail, food production, large-scale manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and artisan design, across the globe so much of the convenience and choice we enjoy daily is dependent on effective cold room storage.
Without them, everything from fresh meat to life-saving medicine and heat-sensitive materials would be out of reach. The absence of refrigeration would mean precious goods wouldn’t last the long journeys items take from their humble beginnings as raw materials to
the complex products we see in our shops as well as hospitals, fashion houses and pharmacies.
On top of that, without cold rooms companies wouldn’t be able to guarantee goods would perform as they should. The fall out would be huge and reputations would quickly be ruined. Amazing isn’t it – the important role cold rooms play in our everyday lives?
Like the fridges we have in our homes, cold rooms can maintain a variety of temperatures. Cold room systems work by warming refrigerant then pushing the cooling refrigerant through the room’s cooling system.
To begin, the gas refrigerant is put under pressure in the compressor. The refrigerant absorbs the energy produced, heats up and expands. The now heated refrigerant is pushed out of the compressor towards the cold room’s tightly insulated interior.
During transit, the refrigerant’s temperature drops and it returns to liquid form. As the still- travelling refrigerant cools, it cools the cold room’s interior and the air around it. The refrigerant continues to pass through the system until the whole process starts again.
Meanwhile, your cold room maintains a consistent cold temperature, preventing chemical reactions taking place and items becoming damaged.
Need an exceptional, reliable cold room for your pharmaceutical or medical environment? Get world-class, bespoke design, installation and maintenance for your cold room today. We provide medical laboratory cold rooms, pharmaceutical cold rooms, consultation services
and more for healthcare companies around the world, including the NHS.