Due to the make-up of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals, it’s critical to store and transport them in cold temperatures to ensure their effectiveness. Let’s take a look at how maintaining the cold chain with proper equipment, like high speed doors, plays a large role in the pharmaceutical industry.
It’s a costly issue that goes well beyond food and beverage, or other refrigerated goods such as pharmaceuticals. Food Logistics reported that while refrigeration accounts for 60 percent of the electricity used for refrigerated warehouses, energy still accounts for 15 percent of a non-refrigerated warehouse’s operating budget.
Money lost to energy bills – especially when it isn’t necessary – is an issue any midsize to large facility can appreciate, regardless of the goods you move.
Standard high speed doors are not engineered to provide insulation value, with operating speed being the most important feature. Operating at 80” per second, the bi-parting Barrier Glider ensures pallets of vaccines can be moved in and out of a freezer environment quickly and efficiently. At 3” thick, the Barrier Glider uses the Thermal-Flex Sealing System to maintain environmental separation up to minus 20 degrees F. Battling convection concerns is the primary advantage of this door type and it makes for an excellent solution for facilities storing pharmaceuticals.
In contrast, traditional heavy doors with excellent R-values typically move very slowly. These doors are good for long-term storage. However, for pharmaceuticals with high demand, temporary storage that requires multiple entries for ongoing shipments make slow-moving doors a poor choice.
In locations that lack cold storage warehouses and pharmaceutical storage, high speed freezer doors can play an important role in maintaining the minus 20 degrees F threshold required for specific pharmaceuticals. In these traditional refrigeration areas, high speed doors will be the best option for high-turnover products.
Today, more than ever, there is a real premium on facilities that can handle temperature-sensitive medications and products that require ultracold storage space. Some distributors and shippers are building refrigerator and freezer farms in response to this challenge. For example, UPS has two giant freezer farms that can store pharmaceuticals at temperatures up to minus 80 degrees C.1
While high speed freezer doors can help separate a wide range of temperatures, they don’t work as effectively when temperatures dip colder than minus 29 degrees C. Traditional, slow-moving freezer doors are likely a better candidate in these environments.
Logistics operations play an important role in helping maintain the effectiveness of vaccines and all pharmaceuticals on a daily basis. With the help of high speed, cold storage doors, we can help ensure effective, safe distribution of life saving vaccines.
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