JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013 - 49

the damage, fill the hole with adhesive and a
new piece of core, add filler to the container
surface and then attach a pre-made patch
laminate, fixate the patch and let it cure. This
procedure restores the full strength of the
sandwich panel.

Assured quality expectations
When transporting high-value, temperaturesensitive healthcare products, the inevitable
container damages must be confined to
areas as small as possible. A truck fork may
cause damage destroying the entire core
on a section of the container wall. A large
piece of insulation is destroyed, but still the
cargo in the cargo hold must remain within
its temperature tolerance up until the time
it can be transferred to another refrigerated
storage place. Climate chamber tests have
proven that even with several damaged areas
the size of a football where the entire core
material is removed, the container still keeps
the specified cargo hold temperature of
2-8°C for over 30 hours on battery power at
an ambient temperatures of 30°C.

Prototype series
A prototype series of 20 RAP e2 containers
was launched in mid-2011. The benefits of
the sandwich composite container concept
were seen early on, and shortly thereafter
serial production commenced. The development programme of the new container
model took approximately four years from
idea to the time the first 20 prototypes had
been tested and evaluated in the field.

More information

One of the largest challenges for the development team was to introduce the use of
composite materials to the predominantly
aluminium-friendly aviation industry and
aviation authorities (EASA and FAA). All
materials intended to be used in components inside a commercial aircraft are strictly
regulated and any new material has to be
proven to the aviation authorities before use.
Aluminium is a well-known isotropic homogenous material in the aviation industry
and different grades, qualities and alloys are
already approved by the aviation authorities.
This makes it easier to implement.
Designing a container made of composite
materials made it more difficult, but the
expected benefits made it worth the effort.
The vast amount of variables when manufacturing composite materials may generate
very different material properties. Trying
to certify dry fibres, resins and manufacturing techniques individually would result
in extensive, time-consuming and costly
approval proceedings. This is why very few
suppliers of such goods have done it, generally with immense financial support from
large aircraft manufacturers.
In order to avoid this problem, no approval
proceedings for individual materials were
initiated. Instead, the finished container
setup was approved, a much quicker and
economically-viable solution to be able to
rapidly introduce the product to the market.
Verifying with the aviation authorities that
the container setup always matches the
original design, there are strict quality and
tolerance guidelines that the design and
production organizations have to comply
with. Every produced component is logged

Envirotainer is a world leader in secure cold chain logistics solutions, primarily within the
healthcare and biotech industries. Prepreg manufacturers and NASA have also used the
company’s services for their temperature-sensitive products. Envirotainer manufactures and
leases active temperature-controlled container solutions for air transportation, including
validation, support and service.

and receives a serial number from which
production dates, moulds used, temperatures, humidity, etc. can be determined.
Deviations from design data are always
reported. Any major design changes have
to undergo rigorous testing to validate the
construction with the authorities. When
working with aviation authorities, the
responsibilities of engineers and technicians
are immense, always pushing Envirotainer to
lead the market on innovative high-tech and
high-quality products.

A prize-winning concept
The composite container was received very
positively, attracting great attention on the
market. The concept won the Cool Chain
Excellence Award for Innovation in Quality
Distribution in Basel 2012, and Envirotainer
was awarded Sweden’s “Export Hermes”
prize in August 2012 for extraordinary
export performance.

A huge demand
Pharmaceutical and healthcare companies
need to ensure that their products are kept
within the specified temperature tolerance,
usually +2 to +8°C or at controlled room
temperature +15 to +25°C, throughout
the entire cold chain. This creates a huge
demand for high-quality and high-safety
temperature-controlled transportation
solutions.

Conclusion
The RAP e2 container is an optimal sandwich composite solution using virtually all
of the benefits associated with such designs.
Structural integrity is guaranteed by the
sandwich design where the lightweight core
material acts both as sandwich core material
and as insulation. The change from metal
sheets and frames to glass-fibre-reinforced
polyester in walls and doors eliminates all
thermal bridges in contrast to traditional
metal sheets and framing, and the robustness of the sandwich materials substantially
improves the impact/damage tolerance and
thus the lifetime of the product. n

The company plays an especially important role in the transportation of temperature-sensitive healthcare products. Last year, it worked with more than 400 companies within the
pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, helping to transport the equivalent of 75,000 pallets
to more than 100 countries around the world.

No80 April 2013 /

More information:
www.envirotainer.com
david.egertz@envirotainer.com
hakan.johansson@envirotainer.com

Feature Aeronautics

The development team consisted of an
internal team of composite and mechanical
engineers co-operating with FEM consultants, in close partnership with suppliers.

Certification process

jec composites magazine 49

http://www.envirotainer.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013

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