Gel Weight Estimation for Cold-Chain Packaging

Abstract

Cold-chain packaging is critical to shipments of temperature-sensitive products. The simplest practice is to put products inside an insulated shipping container with a sufficient coolant amount to maintain a certain temperature during the distribution process. In this study, a 12 x 12 x 11½” expanded polystyrene insulated container with 2” wall thickness was used along with non-toxic gel pack coolant. Temperature data was collected under exterior temperature conditions of 60F, 90F, and 113F. The data was plotted and equations were derived for estimating the amount of gel packs needed for a given trip duration, product threshold temperature, and exterior temperature. In addition, Gel Pack Estimator, an Excel application, was developed based on artificial neural network technology.