Insulated Transfer Container for Fresh Food Cold Chain
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing systems for delivering fresh and frozen foods often interrupt the cold chain during transportation from retail to the consumer, leading to inconvenience and food spoilage, as they lack adequate cooling measures and flexible delivery times.
Innovation Solution
A system with a central picking station and decentralized pick-up stations using standardized transfer containers with insulation or cooling devices, maintaining different temperature levels to ensure continuous cold chain integrity from production to consumption, allowing flexible delivery and preventing food spoilage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If goods are transported from retail to consumer without dedicated refrigeration, then transport costs are reduced, but the cold chain is interrupted causing food spoilage
Solution Approach 1:
The transfer containers are pre-cooled at the central picking station before goods are loaded, and the cold chain is maintained throughout transport. This preliminary cooling action ensures that the cold chain integrity is preserved during transportation without requiring active refrigeration during transit, thereby reducing transport costs while maintaining food safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces transfer containers as an intermediary element between the retail storage system and the consumer's home refrigerator. These containers serve as a mobile cold storage intermediary that maintains the cold chain during transport and temporary storage at decentralized locations, eliminating the need for continuous active refrigeration while preserving food quality.
2Device complexity
If delivery is made at fixed retail hours, then operational simplicity is maintained, but consumer flexibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the delivery system into centralized picking operations and decentralized pickup locations. The central picking station operates during fixed hours with simplified procedures, while multiple decentralized transfer points (including consumer homes) provide flexible pickup options. This segmentation allows operational simplicity to be maintained at the core while providing consumer flexibility at the periphery.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables consumers to self-pickup their orders at decentralized transfer points at their convenience. The automated transfer container system and identification protocols allow consumers to retrieve their goods without requiring retail staff intervention, thus maintaining operational simplicity for the provider while granting maximum flexibility to consumers.
3Reliability
If consumer presence is required for delivery, then delivery security is improved, but consumer convenience is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The transfer container acts as a secure intermediary that holds the goods until the consumer is ready to collect them. The container includes identification mechanisms that ensure only the authorized consumer can access their order, maintaining delivery security without requiring the consumer to be present at a specific delivery time or location. The consumer can collect their order at any decentralized transfer point at their convenience.
4Reliability
If multiple temperature zones are provided in transfer containers, then food quality for different products is maintained, but container complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The transfer container is designed with different thermal zones having different insulation properties. Certain areas of the transfer box are initially cooled to a greater or lesser degree than others, and insulation between compartments ensures that respective temperature levels are maintained. This local differentiation of thermal properties allows the container to handle diverse food items with different temperature requirements without requiring complex active refrigeration systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This system ensures uninterrupted cold chains, increasing consumer flexibility in receiving goods, reducing food waste, and saving costs by eliminating the need for retail services and expensive packaging, while maintaining food quality through targeted cooling measures.
Implementation Method 1
The transfer container (13) includes insulation or a cooling device for keeping the goods contained within it cool or cooling them. The transfer container has different compartments suitable for cold chains with varying temperature levels. This can be achieved by insulating only specific areas, and potentially to varying degrees.
Implementation Method 2
The transfer container (13) includes insulation or a cooling device for keeping the goods contained within it cool or cooling them.
Data Source
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AI summary
The system (1) has a central commissioning station (11) for commissioning goods. A goods basket (13) e.g. cooling box, receives the commissioned goods. The basket includes a heat and/or cold insulated outer wall for cooling and/or maintaining cooling of the goods, which are received in the basket. A decentral collection station (14) stores the basket and deliver the determined basket to a corresponding identified consumer. A data exchange connection is provided between a decentral consumer station (10) e.g. personal computer, and the commissioning station for transmitting commissioning orders. An independent claim is also included for a method for providing consumer goods.