The Current Challenges in the Business of Insulated Shipping Covers
The shipping industry is a trillion-dollar industry that is still booming partly due to the practicality and significance of insulated pallets for shipping. Even though its practicality and significance are not limited to shipping transport alone, thermal pallet covers are economical for businesses and life-savers to patients.
What are insulated shipping covers?
Insulated shipping containers / shipping container liners are cover shields used in packaging and distributing products that are thermo-sensitive. Certain foods, pharmaceuticals, blood or organs for transplant, botanic materials, frozen vaccines, and industrial chemicals need to be packaged in such insulated coverings. Frozen foods and pharmaceutical drugs may decompose or negatively react if not strictly kept below a specific temperature.
Types of insulated shipping blankets
According to Astro Asia, there are four types:
- Cargo Quilts
- Insulated Shipping Blankets
- Foil blanket
- Insulating Blankets
Why are insulated pallet covers needed?
The importance of insulated pallet covers should not be understated. A lot of spending and expertise goes into the cryopreservation of transported products every year. Certain items must always be kept in their optimum temperatures, be it room temperature of about 278F (250C) or even at extremes below zero. Shipping transporters make use of insulated shipping blankets to maintain the desired temperature (either hot or cold) and degree of moisture (either dry or wet). Organizations and businesses request that their materials or products be packaged and transported in a temperature-controlled setting so that these don’t get rendered ineffective.
Shippers maintain products’ freshness carried in insulated pallet covers. In this way, the packaged product can serve its purpose effectively as heat and other environmental factors will not adversely affect it. They protect the product items from environmental contamination while en route. Thermal blankets for shipping act on the principle of insulation (balancing the interaction between conduction, radiation, and convection). Depending on the type of thermal pallet cover, there are air filtering mechanics that help maintain a fixed condition for the transported goods in the shipping container. Therefore, it is rare for bacteria to invade and grow in shipping containers with thermal pallet blankets in use.
Challenges with thermal pallet covers during the pandemic
Most of the products that the thermal pallet blankets protect require sustaining them in the shipping container at sub-zero temperatures. Regardless of travel distance and the number of days it takes to reach the destination, innovative technology in the business of insulated shipping covers guarantees a well-preserved and safe product package. However, the Covid-19 Pandemic currently presents new challenges to insulated covers.
Foremost of them is pressure placed on shipping companies to prioritize massive transportation of the newly produced Covid vaccines, versus focus on other products. Many shipping containers are filled to capacity with the vaccines made by Pfitzer and other pharmaceutical giants. Hence, there is competitive demand for thermal pallet blankets or insulated pallet covers between exporters of all varieties of goods and pharmaceutical companies.
The pre-existing challenge of steadily maintaining the cold chain – a system that permanently keeps shipped goods in a permanent cold state through the course of the entire journey. Once broken, the cold chain defeats the ultimate purpose of insulated pallet covers and renders the goods unusable upon arrival. Maintaining this without any fluctuation in temperatures is quite expensive and requires a measure of available resources.
Summary
The Shipping industry is a trillion-dollar industry that is still booming partly due to the practicality and significance of insulated pallets for shipping. Even though its practicality and significance are not limited to shipping transport alone, thermal pallet covers are economical for businesses and life-savers to patients.
