Cooling element with sub-cooling protection

Abstract

A cooling element for cooling goods to be chilled is proposed, comprising a shell with at least one heat transfer wall for exchanging thermal energy with the goods. The cooling element further comprises at least one fluid space proximate to the heat transfer wall and at least one storage space separated from the fluid space by at least one separating element, wherein the storage space is configured to hold a supply of cooling medium in the solid aggregate state. The separating element is configured to substantially separate the supply of cooling medium in the solid aggregate state from the fluid space and to enable the cooling medium in the liquid aggregate state to pass over from the storage space to the fluid space.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates to a cooling element for cooling goods to be cooled as well as a refrigerated container with a cooling element according to the invention. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for cooling goods to be cooled using a cooling element according to the invention as well as a method for manufacturing a cooling element. Such cooling elements, refrigerated containers and methods may be used in particular in the field of pharmacy and medicine for the transport of pharmaceutical and / or medical samples. But also other applications are possible.BACKGROUND ART[0002]Cooling elements are used in a large number of fields and applications. As examples, which are, however, not concluding, various sciences such as chemistry and biology as well as medicine and medical engineering are here to be mentioned. Also in pharmacy, such cooling elements are used for example to keep and / or to transport drugs at an optimum temperature. Additionally, ther...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides a cooling element that avoids the problems of known cooling elements, such as initial damaging sub-cooling and the need for additional work steps or material. The cooling element is designed to reduce the temperature of sensitive goods during transportation and to provide reliable information on the cooling temperature and duration. The cooling element uses a phase separation of a coolant from the solid state to the liquid state, which allows for a spatial separation of the coolant from the goods to be cooled. The covering of the cooling element has heat transfer walls for exchanging thermal energy with the goods to be cooled. The cooling element has a fluid space and a storage space separated by a separating element, which can be a mechanical or thermal separation. The solid state of the coolant can be a viscous state or a liquid state, and the liquid state can have a low viscosity or a high viscosity."

Problems solved by technology

Such cooling elements generally have no own active cooling, in particular no power supply.

However, the disadvantage of such cooling elements or cold packs is that such pre-freezing or sub-cooling to a temperature below the target temperature of the goods to be cooled usually causes temperatures well below phase transition between the solid state of matter and the liquid state of matter of the coolant.

For many types of goods to be cooled, for example in the food industry and / or pharmacy, such sub-cooling of the goods to be cooled involves partly irreversible damage.

When used in households or for food, freezer burn or other damage may occur.

In the field of pharmacy or biology, sensitive samples and drugs may become completely useless by sub-cooling.

Certainly, such “passive” insulation concepts reduce the described problem of initial sub-cooling of the goods to be cooled since the additional layer acts as a “buffer” to build up a temperature gradient between the cooling element and the goods to be cooled, but in such systems, significantly more costly and expensive work steps involving additional handling steps are required since both additional materials (for example an internal box or intermediate layers) and additional operations are required when packing the merchandise.

A further disadvantage of purely passive buffer insulations is that the total service life of the cooling elements is comparatively low.

However, the disadvantages of such structure are comparable with the above-described disadvantages of JP 101 11 057.

Again, a complex structure with additional handling steps is necessary.

Furthermore, the total cooling duration is again limited through the pre-heated intermediate element.

However, also the solution described in WO 00 / 12409 is comparably complex.

Moreover, the internal layer, which again resembles a “pre-heated” layer, limits the entire useful life of the cooling element.

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