Numerous written commentaries expertly describe subpar walk-in refrigeration units. They uncover poorly maintained freezers, highlight ongoing coolroom issues that haven’t been properly addressed, and generally provide a guide to improving energy efficiency within leaky refrigerated environments. As worthy as those deftly compiled guides undoubtedly are, they only ever talk about system flaws, not system efficiency. Today, we’re flipping that approach on its head by holding up a model of an energy efficient cooling setup.

Illustrating the Ideal Coolroom Configuration 

An impeccably configured walk-in freezer isn’t affected by the opening of an accessway. A plastic curtain acts as a kind of airlock, although it’s the exchange of cold and warm air, not atmospheric pressure that’s segregated by the vinyl strips. The refrigeration unit emulates that environment-isolating feature by discharging proportionate quantities of chilled air into the sealed chamber. Furthermore, the low-energy output appliance, the one fastened high on the coolroom wall, isn’t influenced by the changing outside temperature or any shortcomings created by the chemical refrigerant. In other words, the chamber is absolutely sealed, the refrigeration unit is functioning without producing any system losses, and the stored contents are surely staying fresh.

Identifying the Factors That Break This Ideal 

Wear and age are the twin rogue factors that undermine everything described in the last paragraph, which is why an ideal system may as well be a mythical creature. Even the equipment’s primary functions inhibit any potential energy savings by condensing the moisture in the local atmosphere. That moisture freezes or runs in icy rivulets. It seeps into metal parts, behind insulated panels, and wreaks havoc on all freezer and coolroom parts. Sure, the erosion of the system doesn’t take place overnight, but it’s slowly, ever so slowly, wearing down what once was a near perfect refrigerated structure. Over time, the cooling envelope will fade, even fracture, until the equipment and the room are no longer energy efficient.

Maintenance programs strengthen energy boosting factors while they attenuate system-detrimental factors. Curiously, time has almost stopped for the chilled contents in here, but environmental time is in flux. Ice and chilled water are threatening the structure and the cooling equipment. Condensate clouds float as a fine mist, icy deposits cause pipes and wall panels to expand and contract, and metal parts experience accelerated oxidisation. Beyond the effects of that ice factor, there’s the human factor to tackle. Fortunately, a sound management strategy provides the training and guides necessary to handle that particular energy inefficiency culprit.

Today, clear plastic swing doors and plastic strip curtains are considered a cold storage room staple. The space-segregating PVC panels prevent dirty air from circulating, they help cold storage areas to keep their goods cool, and also generally eliminate other zone-propagating invaders, including noise. There’s little that can go wrong with the tough plastic access points, although they are susceptible to the following site threats.

Physical Impacts 

A sweep of a staff members’ hand pushes aside the panel. No damage is done, so the workflow continues. In point of fact, the workflow is optimised because there’s no waiting for a rigid door to open or close. Still, there are other travellers crossing the coolroom floor. Trolleys loaded with meat cuts hit the clear plastic swing doors. Then there are forklifts cruising the indoor highways. The operators of these heavier vehicles take care when they cross one cooling zone into the next, but some damage is likely when plastic meets a loaded metal chassis.

Environmental Damage 

Tough engineering plastics won’t fail when the temperature drops precipitously low. The material is designed to handle the arctic cold. However, when installed on a loading dock, perhaps as a barrier while the warehouse door is raised, there are a handful of external threats that will weaken the plastic. Primarily, ultraviolet radiation (UV) discolours PVC. Combined with constant wear and tear, with large pallets of sharp objects passing through the entryway, the plastic panels and strips will turn a brownish colour. Generally speaking, the clear plastic swing doors and plastic strip curtains retain elasticity, but a small amount of polymer brittleness will seep into the material.

Susceptible to Mechanical Activity 

Transparent vinyl curtains swing closed on a rail system, they’re concealed behind a large warehouse door, and some are located a short distance behind strong freezer accessways. Similarly, clear plastic swing doors work on their own, plus they’re supported by mechanical opening and closing systems. When a single curtain strip becomes kinked, it ends up trapped in a gap between one of these doors and the door frame. Meanwhile, a rail system fails because of corrosion. The result is an energy leaking plastic barrier, one that could potentially damage the coolroom door.

Fortunately, a few plastic curtain strips are easy enough to replace. A large panel on a plastic swing door isn’t that much harder to replace, so problems with this environment segregator are readily addressed. Keep that fact in mind when plastic transparency fails, too, for this issue is considered a health and safety risk, one that could obscure an approaching forklift as it travels between cold zones.

Door closer systems use spring-loaded assemblies to hasten the sealing cycle. These are mechanically tensioned components, plus there are pneumatic and hydraulic variants available. To all appearances, the product looks like a plain hinge and its accompanying housing. On closer inspection, there’s some real fluid and mechanical muscle backing coolroom and freezer door closing mechanisms.

Assures Threshold Continuity 

A strict binary configuration rules coolroom doors. That entryway is engineered to be either open or closed. When open, the catering worker quickly walks into the chilled enclosure, accesses the stored commodity, then he closes the door. If it didn’t close, there’d be trouble. In plain speaking terms, the precisely maintained arctic environment inside the chamber would be destroyed because the enclosure seal was no longer functioning properly. Design engineers use a two-part engineering strategy to maintain seal continuity. It all begins with the door hinges.

Two-Part Door Closer Systems 

First of all, this isn’t an application that tolerates wide open doors. The design prevents loosely yawning doors by installing spring-loaded hinges. Alternatively, depending on the size of the walk-in entryway, solid stainless steel hinges are fitted to the door frame. Either way, the heavily insulated panel should swing closed with little effort. Next, there’re all kinds of overlapping sections that might stop the door from closing all the way. A thick gasket may be warped, a strip of frame insulation could be deformed, or some foreign matter could be stopping the door. Door closing systems use a special latching assembly to sidestep these situations.

Introducing Latching Mechanisms 

Basically, the hook segment is fastened to the coolroom entry frame. A roller mechanism is installed on the door, with its housing exactly aligned opposite the hook. When coolrooms and freezers close their access portals, the roller section snaps home into the hook. Naturally, these are stainless steel parts, not weak metal components, so the door closer systems cope easily with spring-loaded hinges or manually applied force. Of course, a hydraulic dampening mechanism within the primary closer assembly helps to augment that robust feature.

Accurately installed door closer systems prevent the “cracked open” conditions we accept in our homes. In the home, that circumstance loses energy, and the homeowner receives a commensurately higher electricity bill. In walk-in coolrooms and freezers, such an event causes food spoilage and product loss, so the door closure device must function as described. Happily, some advanced closers do include an electrical feedback feature, so the central control panel will raise the alarm if the door isn’t seated.

Alarm systems are employed when a sensor-equipped machine needs to catch a home occupant’s attention. They call out a warning so that we know a fire is spreading or carbon monoxide is silently filling a room. Coolroom warning bells satisfy a similar function. They exist to alert the kitchen staff of a failure, an event that’s threatening the chilled product. Here’s a peek into the functions and uses of these coolroom warning bells.

Equips the Coolroom with a Voice 

A temperature management system is basically a feedback device. The temperature is set on a thermostat, a sensor records the thermal reading inside the sealed enclosure, and it’s fed back to the controller. If that temperature doesn’t match the thermostat’s setting, an alarm is sounded. It’s either a High-Temp or Low-Temp warning bell, an audible indicator that something has gone wrong. The kitchen personnel now hear this warning, they take action, and the stored perishable product is safeguarded.

Why Are Warning Bells Important? 

Because the alarm has sounded, someone can take action. If the refrigeration unit is damaged, the warning bells are sounding. If the airflow is hampered or an inlet duct is blocked, the bells are sounding. Again, an action is taken. Sometimes the blockage is correctable and airflow obstructions are removed. The alarm can then be reset because the perishable contents are safe. Of course, that temperature alarm may indicate a deeper issue. Perhaps the refrigeration unit isn’t operating at capacity, so it’s time to call out the repair professionals.

Evaluating Alarm Conditions 

A fully-featured coolroom sentinel is one smart guardian. It monitors the internal environment for product threatening conditions. The system also issues an audible warning when the AC power supply fails. Likely backed by rechargeable batteries, the alarm module continues ringing the bell when a blackout occurs. Next, how about a provision that guards against door opening problems? A simple switch is all that’s required this time. It issues a bleating alarm when a door ajar event is detected.

A modern modular alarm unit is packed with possible alarms. There’s a panic alarm, something that protects a coolroom guest from entrapment. A press of a specially recessed button engages this warning bell when someone is trapped inside the walk-in unit. Then there are audible temperature alerts, an automated signal that protects the spoilable contents inside the cooler. Finally, low voltage, door ajar, and refrigeration unit failure alarms are also available. They’re there to protect the product, and they’re there to protect lives.

Door hardware kits introduce walk-in coolrooms and freezers to many curiously shaped components. There are spring-loaded mechanisms to close that final crucial gap and create a perfect seal. Additionally, there are plastic curtains to soften the interface between the outside environment and the chill inner chamber. Floor guide rollers are just another member of this vital mechanical sealing group. Here’s a walkthrough that illustrates the role of these ground-level guides.

What are Floor Guide Rollers? 

Designed as seal-essential rolling door components, these guides, brackets, and wheels support heavy coolroom doors and move them along accurately established grooves. In other words, this is a mechanical entryway solution that enables sliding walk-in doors to function properly. Keep that notion firmly in mind as we consider the fixed railings that transport the rollers. Certainly, those smoothly rotating wheels are important fittings, but the wheeled constructs aren’t built to create that crucial seal we just highlighted. No, it’s the location of the guides, the wheel rails that decide seal integrity. But wait, the floor guide rollers don’t handle all of this back-breaking work, do they?

It’s A Family Affair 

A glance into a roller guide inventory reveals a veritable smorgasbord of metal parts. There are h-type fixtures and base plates with nylon stoppers, plus many more floor guide components. Meanwhile, up top, hanging roller assemblies support the weight of heavily insulated doors, the slab-like panels that slide effortlessly on grooved rails. Made from die-cast alloys, the toughened rollers, brackets, and extended guides, are built to expedite entry while delivering a guide system that guarantees gap-free opening and closing.

Assessing Entryway Sealing Hardware 

A modular cooler with beautifully assembled composite panels on every interior surface is a wonderful sight to behold, but it can also be quickly rendered ineffective if the door hardware isn’t configured correctly. Essentially, the floor guide system, the rails and mechanical routeing assemblies must be accurately aligned so that the floor guide rollers convey the supported door to its decreed location. There are door gaskets to consider, rail assemblies, and the heavy duty rollers. Supplementary additions to this layout include transparent plastic curtains, plate-constrained nylon stoppers, and offset guide plates.

The profile of each floor guide roller is typically designed to accommodate a central furrow. It’s this circular depression that runs smoothly along an extruded track, a rail that makes the doors glide steadily inward and outward. As it snaps into place and closes, a series of flexible gaskets give life to a perfect seal, one that’s every bit as sound as a hinged hardware solution and its hydraulic door clamping mechanism.

Mastic is a semi-solid paste, a sealant that’s commonly employed in many industrial and commercial settings. Importantly, this sealant can be formulated as a “non-skinning” product, but more on this property later. Meanwhile, a comparable silicone sealant exhibits similar properties. It’s flexible, highly temperature capable, and designed to quickly adhere surfaces.

Neutral Cure Silicone Sealants 

The liquid rubber is pressed out of a tube by a caulking gun. Chemically neutral by design, the malleable compound lacks a plastic backbone. Instead, the inert silicon creates an elasticized barrier, an insulating glue that adheres while flexing. That’s an important quality for a sealed chamber that will contract invisibly as the arctic climate takes hold. Again, because of the silicon core, the stretchy seal adheres with non-toxic strength.

Mastic as a Refrigeration Sealant 

This is a pasty material, like the sealants used to support bathroom tiles. An added non-skinning property then approximates the permanently stretchy feature found in silicone, which means Mastic also creates a flexing coolroom seal, one that’s as elastic as it is airtight. Seemingly, one more barrier between the two terms has fallen. In point of fact, many industry types use silicone and mastic as interchangeable terms. Granted, silicone was once considered a sealant while Mastic was regarded a builder’s friend, a sealant for the bathroom, but formula advances have washed away these differences until their two product lines share many common features.

The Versatile Mortar in a Refrigerated Chamber 

At the end of the day, both of these products are sourced from different chemical domains, but they accommodate the same functions. The original Mastic came from a tree, but it’s now made synthetically. Silicone sealants came from rubber trees, but they’re also formulated synthetically now, yet folk continue to swap their brand names and chemical terms. Regardless of the name, picture older Mastic as the soft jointing agent used by builders. Conversely, silicone was the lubricating liquid that sealed small flanges and oiled moving parts. In this form, though, the paste and gel, they both exist eternally as a semi-cured sealant, a product that acts as a temperature, dust, and moisture barrier.

Used in wall joints, glass and plastic window seals, and as gap fillers, both silicone and Mastic are capable of creating a flexible barrier, one that won’t crack or fracture when the frosty and perhaps moist refrigerated enclosure contracts then expands in response to the temperature variances that are part-and-parcel of a coolroom or freezer’s operational existence.

If a coolroom is eating into the company energy budget, an all in caps “Keep That Door Shut” sign works wonders. That sign can stay, but we’re going to add a little more potency to this energy savings plan by suggesting a few essential tips. Once armed with this information, every staff member will know exactly how to keep any walk-in cooler in optimal working condition.

Protect Cabinet Gaskets 

Tough elastomers compress reliably when coolroom doors open and close. However, that dependable property wears down over time. Check the gaskets for cracks or signs of wear. Sometimes the seal is exposed to a grimy hand or a slightly corrosive fluid. A milk spill, for example, is harmless, but the sticky, acidic fluid could combine with a dirty stain to weaken the seal. A periodic cleaning routine averts such events.

Refrigeration Unit Maintenance 

Even if the powered compressor is humming happily, it may be gorging on the coolers energy. Refrigerators work as efficient enclosure coolers, but their energy eating habits increase over time. Check the refrigerator coils for dirt and grime deposits. This thick coating can affect cooling efficiency, so arrange for a coil cleaning procedure at least twice a year.

Encourage Airflow Proficiency 

Airflow patterns in an enclosed walk-in cooler are relatively easy to predict. Just make sure all stored commodities are optimally arranged so that airflow dead spots are eliminated. Stack all cans and boxes closely together. Better yet, purchase wireframe storage shelves. These shelving units are designed to promote airflow, to remove potential obstructions from the chilly cabinet.

Working with Unit Capacity 

At the bottom end of the coolroom scale, special reach-in cabinets avoid energy wastage by eliminating the man-sized spaces we employ in walk-in chambers. Use these devices for storing small beverage containers and dairy products. They’re modular appliances, which means each one is equipped with a small power consumption footprint. Then, when the reach-in enclosures are full, turn to the larger walk-in coolers to accommodate a grander storage plan.

The first line of defence crops up at the door and its gaskets. Keep that defence strong by training staff members to make sure the entryway is properly closed after it has been accessed. Clean the seals, the refrigerator coils, and do ensure all airflow obstacles are removed from the coolroom. Many specialist retailers offer proprietary wireframe shelving units for this purpose, so take advantage of these outlets. Finally, incorporate a maintenance service, an expert contractor who will keep the cooling gear in tip-top shape all year around.

Freezers are energy gluttons when they operate inefficiently. They work around-the-clock, so they painfully exaggerate those power consumption figures. The 24/7 refrigeration cycle is as it should be, of course, for there are perishable commodities stored inside the insulated cabinets. Inefficient workings, however, are not welcome in freezer equipment. Here are some useful energy saving tips for restoring workload balance to your freezer.

Operational Transgressions 

Kitchen workers needs access to refrigerated food, but there’s really no excuse for keeping that insulation-critical seal broken for several minutes at a time. Incautiously opened freezer entryways account for around six percent of a freezer’s total energy losses.

Entryway Addendums 

There are rare instances where an insulated chamber’s door must be kept open. Sliding doors in a meat packing facility open their seals to allow pallet jacks and forklift trucks access to frozen joints of meat. In this case, plastic-lined door curtains should be fitted to the entryway as an energy barrier. Similar barriers are available for man-sized freezer doors. Install them if increased foot traffic compromises the seal.

Educate Personnel 

Instead of creating a piecemeal power saving strategy, coordinate the effort by establishing a smart energy saving plan. Train everyone to follow this plan. This approach may take more time, but it pays off in the end. Freezer logistics is one example of this energy management strategy in motion. Trained catering workers draw on this logistics knowledge to fill one walk-in unit to capacity while a backup is left inactive until it’s required.

Scheduled Maintenance 

Dirty refrigeration coils block system airflow. Elsewhere, a poorly aligned thermostat sensor sends false readings back to a controller. Correct these issues by scheduling a maintenance plan. Significant energy savings are recovered when the refrigeration gear is periodically cleaned and tuned.

Become an Airflow Manager

The plastic coated shelves used in walk-in freezers aren’t there for decoration. The design maximises airflow so that chilly air reaches every corner of the freezer chamber. In service of this goal, adopt a commodities storage plan that improves air circulation. Distribute containers evenly, then purchase shelves and tables that act in accordance with this layout policy.

Pages of tips are required to save energy in a hardworking freezer, but they’re easily condensed into a single sheet of paper when an energy management plan is taught. Other than this training, always use Energy Star approved equipment, and protect that rating by initiating a first-rate maintenance program.

Temperature mapping is a procedure that forms a dynamic, thermally-active picture of what’s taking place within a cooling unit. Generally speaking, we accomplish this process by placing special monitoring devices throughout the cooling enclosure. Then, as the data is collated, a mapped thermal image is produced, one that illustrates the location of any warm spots. Remedial action is the next step. Before that, though, we need our monitoring devices.

Installing Data Logging Monitors 

Electronic monitors are first on our agenda. These devices measure localized temperature variances while creating a time-based log. Hours and days of data are recorded, with the temperature spikes and dips generating a real-time graph of the overall conditions inside the freezer. The temperature probes are handy, in an of themselves, but their true purpose only comes to light when their results are combined.

Real-Time Mapping 

Spikes in the temperature axis begin to make sense as we pair results with the time the event took place. A door, for example, may have been left open during the midnight shift, but the incautious practice hasn’t escaped the attention of the time mapping apparatus. Let’s put the time domain to the side for a moment, though, while we consider the spatial aspects. Remember, there’s a group of strategically positioned temperature probes in use here, and they’re all adding their input to the map. If a particularly nasty spike is generated on one of these monitors, well, the location of that unit needs to be checked out on the coolroom map. In this case, it’s likely that an insulating panel is faulty and energy losses are taking place.

Decoding the Coolroom Image 

The various drops and ramps on the temperature mapping scale look like an inky sprawl to the casual observer, but an expert refrigeration engineer sees the whole picture as he studies the progressing line. Convection currents are possibly being hampered by a wall of poorly arranged storage materials for example. Fortunately, corrective action strikes swiftly when the problem is located. In this example, full cooling distribution is restored when the airflow problem is fixed.

Regular temperature probes are handy, certainly, but their output only provides a limited thermal profile. Electronic data logging monitors (EDLMs), on the other hand, collate the thermal data and add a time axis to the plotted graph. Finally, a spatial element ties into the recording procedure as the intelligently located probes provide positional information, data that flows from every nook and cranny within the insulated storage unit.

Contemporary coolrooms are fully enclosed chambers. There’s real thermal seclusion here, except for that one conduit connecting the isolated enclosure to the outside. This is the air inlet channel, a conduit that reaches outside the system. Not to worry, there are filters in place to stop airborne contaminants in their dirty tracks. But what about the temperature of that air? Just how do external temperature factors affect coolrooms and freezers?

It’s the Little Details 

In planning for the bigger issues, we can miss the smaller problems. A door seal is repaired, for instance, but the damaged door clasp goes unnoticed. Freezers and coolrooms won’t discriminate between a tiny error and a gaping problem, not when they can use both issues to cause significant energy leaks. Likewise, the outside environment is anything but a constant. It climbs in the summer and drops precipitously in the winter to produce a system-fatiguing variance factor.

Determining the External Thermal Envelope 

A temperature differential exists in the inlet channel. The energy, the warm or hot air pulled into the vent, is being told by a thermostat to cool way down, perhaps below 0°C. The laws of energy conservation are happy enough to accommodate this thermostatic requirement, but heat can only be removed from the air as fast as the refrigeration system allows. That’s where the evaporator and condenser coils enter the cooling formula, for these parts will absorb the heat, but they can only do so as fast as their mechanical innards and the refrigeration medium allows.

Assessing Outer Temperature Loads 

There are differential equations and thermal dynamics formulas that lend this theory concrete shape, but we don’t require the aid of intricate mathematical theorems, not when we’re just trying to add context to a relatively simple processing environment. Suffice to say, it takes great quantities of refrigerating energy to offset that temperature differential. If the required thermal setting is approximately 0°C, then a 37°C day will impact the system. That impact grows when lower temperatures are desired, such as those found in a freezer, for a much larger differential exists between the hottest summer afternoon and the coldest arctic environment.

Capable coolrooms and freezers address internal thermal factors. The finest systems take that operational principle a step further. They maintain that chilled air level, no matter how hot (or cold) the weather becomes outside the refrigeration envelope. This outer thermal envelope is beyond the system’s control, but the refrigeration unit will quickly accommodate the differential, thus maintaining a uniform temperature coefficient that offsets the prejudicing influence of the outdoor air.

Biomedical freezers and refrigerators are designed to keep blood, cell cultures, and other biomedical samples cool. More than this, they’re built to control multiple environmental domains, including the dryness and sterility levels inside the sealed chamber. In order to accomplish these demanding tasks, state-of-the-art cooling components are incorporated into each unit’s build. That’s a broad strokes description of a complex process, but where are the details? What gifts these clinically rated coolers with their sample-preserving credentials?

The Reliability Factor 

Scores of marketable domestic and commercial appliances lower their interior temperatures with great efficiency, but that’s not enough in a clinical setting. The chilled units in a hospital or doctor’s office preserve blood samples, cell cultures, and many other organic specimens. They do so by uniformly cooling these samples. Then, once the samples are properly stored, this temperature setting is precisely maintained. A digitally accurate thermostat takes on this role, but there are also internal monitoring circuits and real-time digital loggers to ensure the environment is reliably maintained.

Cryogenically Efficient 

In biomedical storage facilities, cryogenics form the backbone of a new breed of refrigerants, with hydrocarbon-based coolants providing a finitely controllable cooling environment. Blood plasma is stored in clinical freezers, in this manner, as are vaccines and other pharmacological supplies. Meanwhile, the thermodynamic properties of the hydrocarbon medium add potent storage power to laboratory refrigerators. The accessible profile employed here uses glass doors and shelves, but the utilitarian build never undermines the unit’s core capabilities when the cryogenic cooler is flowing.

Environmental Differences 

A standard cooler, whether a refrigerator or a freezer, sends the temperature plummeting while other atmospheric attributes escape management. Ice crystals form in standard freezers, for instance. Cellular samples would be destroyed by this crystallization effect, so advanced humidity controls are required. Airborne moisture and surface frost crystals are eliminated by removing condensation from the lab-oriented cooling equation. This degree of environmental control also attends to contamination control. Sterile conditions are kept satisfactorily high by employing easy-wipe stainless steel surfaces and bacteria-resistant coatings.

The insides of biomedical freezers and refrigerators mirror their workplaces. If a laboratory is run under a series of clinical guidelines, then the cooling unit will adopt the same layout. Digital innards, advanced refrigerants, and real-time monitors accommodate this design philosophy. The resulting storage enclosure is then classed as a stasis device, an appliance that suspends cellular activity by keeping the interior at a user-desired setting, one that won’t vary by a single thermal degree or drop of condensed moisture.

We’ve touched briefly upon gaskets when discussing walk-in freezers, but now it’s time to properly study this system necessity. Join us as we hover a critical eye over sealing technology as it relates to walk-ins, the subzero realms that can’t preserve their arctic interiors without a leak deterring mechanism. The necessity of proper gasketing for the maintenance of walk-in freezers begins here and now with a visual inspection.

Inspecting Gaskets for Damage 

Pliable extrusion act as an interface between the door, its frame, and the frosty space beyond. As such, it’s classed as a mechanically active product. Hinged doors close tightly and compress the gasket. Sliding doors brush abrasively past the seal while sliding home. The inner environment is protected, obviously, but time and repetitive action work against the hardened rubber to cause wear. Inspect the gasket for tears and general wear. A long and ragged tear can fold back upon itself and create a sliver of space, a leakage path. Energy escapes through the tear and the newly widened pathway. General wear is harder to spot. The losses are proportionally smaller, but they will accumulate over time, so check and recheck the seal.

Establish High Sealing Standards 

Polymer design technology tends to promote materials that can withstand high temperatures, but those same designs also accommodate lower temperature extremes. An optimally manufactured walk-in freezer gasket takes this principle and uses it to produce pliable rubbers that will compress but not crack when the thermostat calls for a deep frost. Weigh the low-temperature performance rating of extruded PVC, ABS, and other relevant polymer families before selecting the ideal candidate, one that will exhibit its full range of mechanical capabilities over a selected coldness spread.

Preventative Maintenance Turns the Corner

As extrusion engineering refines the production of seals, new problems rear their ugly heads. The specially tailored rubber remains mechanically intact when other tough plastics become brittle, but what about that cleverly extruded profile? It’s the perfect sheltered spot for bacteria to prosper, so turn the edge over and clean it thoroughly. Extruded gasketing products compress more efficiently and therefore create a better seal, but they also need to be regularly wiped down with an antibiotic agent.

Old style seals were built of fallible rubber pads. The evolution of the walk-in freezer has seen this inefficient solution fall away as newly extruded gaskets create next generation sealing solutions. Still, as advanced as these materials undoubtedly are, they still require a preventative maintenance check, a timely inspection that ascertains mechanical and material integrity.

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