Twenty years of cold chain

Frost has always been a headache in cold storage operations. Low-temperature storage requires regular defrosting, while high-temperature storage requires constant defrosting. Nowadays, every cold chain company needs to establish a department related to frost.

This is all caused by evaporative coolers; regardless of the model, frost will form below -3 degrees Celsius. Increased frost formation creates a frost layer.

This frost layer acts like a coat during the cooling process, causing the evaporation temperature to drop and the refrigerant circulation to decrease, which inevitably reduces the cooling efficiency.

In a typical meat processing workshop, when frost accumulates to a certain level, it must be defrosted for six hours before further processing can begin. During defrosting, the main unit needs to be shut down, which inevitably leads to a temperature increase. To quickly cool the main unit to room temperature, fans are required for subsequent cooling, making the entire process extremely cumbersome.

In Tongxing's conference room, Luan Pingxin demonstrated the prepared presentation slides, first introducing the various shortcomings of traditional coolers, and then analyzing the market prospects of "automatic switching defrosting".

"Low-temperature storage facilities that frequently reach minus thirty degrees Celsius are not within the scope of our research and development. We focus on defrosting, not de-icing, which is the fundamental premise of the project. Its main application areas are pre-cooling rooms in fruit, vegetable and meat processing workshops and production-based cold chain parks. If our product can provide uninterrupted refrigeration power, firstly, it will solve the defrosting cost for enterprises, eliminate the need for defrosting equipment, and eliminate the energy consumption cost in the defrosting process."

"Secondly, the scheduled shutdown for defrosting, at best, causes large fluctuations in the temperature inside the storage room; at worst, it constitutes an interruption of the cold chain."

Luan Pingxin's statement is not an exaggeration; the very essence of a "chain" is uninterrupted flow. A strict cold chain, from farm to consumer, should not have even a minute's interruption in temperature control.

Because these are all temperature-sensitive products, they are extremely prone to bacterial growth. For those who are truly technical, "extremely prone" means "at any time".

"Third, if the defrosting process is eliminated, the freshness of refrigerated fruits and vegetables will inevitably be improved and the loss of moisture will be reduced. We will draw specific numerical conclusions through experiments later."

What were just a few formal words from a technical person stirred a wave of emotion in the audience.

In fact, the very mention of processing and pre-cooling rooms reveals their promising future. High temperature, low temperature, and ultra-low temperature refrigeration, strictly speaking, belong to different categories of refrigeration technology. Among these three, high-temperature equipment operating around zero degrees Celsius has the most promising market prospects. The reason is simple: pre-cooling has the widest range of applications, while processing offers the greatest profit margin and is a crucial component of many emerging cold chain industrial parks.

If such a product could be launched on the market...

It's like a product appearing out of nowhere. At that point, the question won't be how Tongxing promotes it, but rather who to partner with. Partnering with large industrial and trading groups, with an annual output starting at 100,000 units, translates to billions in revenue. This prediction is not an exaggeration at all. Equipment that can truly meet the needs of cold chain enterprises of all sizes will attract manufacturers in droves.

To reiterate, while many people want to approach this from this angle, their confidence in the topic is not high. Moreover, unlike university research centers, corporate R&D personnel are most worried about stretching the project too far, expending a great deal of resources, and ultimately achieving unsatisfactory results, which could have a significant impact on them. This is a common concern for all professionals.

But since Luan Pingxin can say these things, he already has a set of established technical principles. In addition to research and development, there is also an equally important testing phase, which can only be fully implemented in a setting like Tongxing.

"My idea is to divide the main body of the cooler into two independent parts, allowing air to enter both parts simultaneously. Part A provides cooling power and frosts up, while Part B uses circulating air for defrosting. The key technology here is how to switch between Part A and Part B by adjusting the load."

"Our goal is to convert frost into moisture and return it to the air circulation by regularly switching between coolers, instead of letting it accumulate as much as in traditional coolers. Simply put, frost from unit A is defrosted by unit B, and frost from unit B is defrosted by unit A. During defrosting, the other unit provides cooling. You can refer to the functions we want to achieve in the context of inverter air conditioners."

These words enlightened many people present and also helped them break free from their previous ways of thinking. "Slimming down" and "doing less" are popular terms in many industries today, and "less is more" is regarded as a golden rule in many fields.

In the field of cold chain technology, people are also working on slimming down and lightweighting is seen as a trend. Therefore, people only think about how to implement a single cooler, and the idea of ​​having two coolers was not considered from the beginning.

However, in Luan Pingxin's view, functionality is paramount, and the primary consideration for cold chain logistics is to do everything possible to ensure proper refrigeration; no one would consider adding an extra installation step as a standard. Of course, everything must be based on data.

However, Qingyan Refrigeration not only brought a large framework with it, but also many of the people accompanying it were from the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Longda University. This touched many of the Mingda University students at Tongxing R&D Center. Returning to the pure technical field with them made them feel that the word "R&D" was more fitting.

Throughout the entire session, Hu Shutong remained silent, mainly because Luan Pingxin's words left him no room to speak. He had initially thought that he might need to add some information about the future prospects, but it was clear that Luan was not just a "tech geek"; he had a unique understanding of the various needs of the upstream and downstream of the cold chain in terms of equipment.

Tongxing's R&D center was initially established with guidance from Luan Pingxin, and her influence can be seen in every subsequent step. Hu Shutong even felt that Luan Pingxin had already technically secured a way for the R&D center to survive.

In the past, we attracted talent, bringing together people from major universities who were interested in technology and equipment to Tongxing. We also built a strong reputation, starting with the transformation of Longyao Pharmaceutical to open up new opportunities, and continuously making a name for ourselves with flower gardens, individual warehouses, and various other small businesses.

However, Tongxing cannot just do things on paper, nor can it forge ahead solely for applause and praise. Whether it is a large-scale or small-scale endeavor, it should set some real goals for itself.

She knew he could be a particularly stubborn person at times, but doing all this didn't change the R&D center's original intention. We were still working on the front lines of technology, still contributing to the industry. So what was the difference between outlining the vision and actually building the technical equipment?

This reminded Hu Shutong of the little note she had made on New Year's Eve. She was making notes based on what she had said on New Year's Eve. This meeting was for both teams, but it also seemed to be saying something else entirely—

Shutong, it's time for us to cash in.

Technology has its power, and this is just the beginning.

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.