AcuTemp Offers Line of Prequalified Boxes

AcuTemp Thermal Systems (Dayton, OH) has added a line of five passive AcuTemp boxes. Qualified to ISTA’s 7D test protocol, the units reduce cost through reduced box size and weight, and are fully recyclable, says Todd DeVore, director of product development and quality, AcuTemp Thermal Systems.

The boxes build out a thermal solutions line that includes AcuTemp’s thermal pallet shippers for air and ground transport. For delivering temperature-sensitive vaccines, drugs, and specimens to the point of care, the company offers mobile units including the AcuTemp AX27L (formerly the VaxiCool) and AX56L (formerly HemaCool) active container, and the AcuTemp PX1L (formerly VaxiPac) hard-shelled passive carrying case.

DeVore says with the addition of the qualified shipping boxes, AcuTemp uniquely offers a full line of thermal management solutions.

“We are branching out to reach customers who don’t want to go through custom passive shipper development [but rather use an] accelerated solution qualified against recognized standards,” DeVore says.

For customers with their own ambient profile requirements, AcuTemp will design custom boxes, or qualify modified off-the-shelf systems.

The new shippers feature payload volumes of less than 1 L up to 21 L, for maintaining 2–8Ëš C temperatures for 48 hours, and 2–30Ëš C for 72 hours. The boxes feature ThermoCor vacuum insulation panels. The high-R-Value insulation allows using fewer coolant materials, which supports a high volumetric efficiency, DeVore says.

“If you design for the same volume of cargo for the same shipment duration under the same ambient conditions, you will very likely end up with a box smaller on the outside dimensions,” he says.

Polyethylene and EPS are used for shock absorption and as barriers for isolating frozen and refrigerated gel packs.

For 2010 production, AcuTemp is planning a 5-cu-ft active cooling and heating shipper that will provide larger cargo capacity than the AX27L and the company’s AX56L mobile transporters.

“This is being developed for the military, but it will also be commercialized,” DeVore says. “[The unit] will carry all required and recognized certification for use globally, accept ac power input from anywhere in the world, and feature the same or greater precision as our RKN pallet shipper, with further enhanced data-logging capability.”