All-Electric Reefer Unit Goes No Where But Uses Less Power Doing It
We think of trailers as cargo conveyances, carrying their payloads from shipper to receiver. But some never move because they’re meant to store products on-site.
We think of trailers as cargo conveyances, on the move, carrying their payloads from shipper to receiver and making money for their owners. The truth is, much of the time trailers are sitting still in yards and terminals, waiting to be loaded or unloaded.
And there’s a whole ‘nother category of trailers that never get out of where they’re parked because they’re meant to store products on-site. Carrier Transicold had these vehicles in mind when it enhanced the efficiency of an all-electric reefer unit.
Ad Loading...
Transicold’s new Vector 8100 E-Drive reefer consumes 20% less electricity while delivering up to 4% higher capacity than the model it succeeds, the Vector 5100, the company said in a release. It’s part of the engine-driven Vector series which have fewer parts than earlier models, but the E-Drive has even fewer because it no engine.
“Designed especially for supermarkets, produce warehouses, food distribution centers and other businesses that use refrigerated trailers for on-site cold storage, the innovative Vector 8100 unit provides quiet electric operation without the noise, emissions and fuel consumption associated with diesel-powered units,” said Mark Fragnito, a product manager.
The latest Vector models use an efficient and fully sealed electric scroll compressor that has 70% fewer moving parts and is 200 pounds lighter than the reciprocating compressor it replaces. This contributes to a 13% weight reduction for the Vector 8100 unit.
“Our original engineless Vector model was well received by customers when introduced in 2010,” said Fragnito. “Supermarkets and produce distribution centers that used diesel-powered trailers for temporary or portable cold storage found it to be a more environmentally sustainable and cost-effective option than using diesel-powered units."
“In addition to reducing noise and emissions, plugging into an electric power source reduces operating costs by up to 70 percent compared with running on diesel, he said.”
Ad Loading...
As an example of its ultra-high-efficiency design, the Vector 8100 achieves 15% to 25% more BTUs of cooling per kilowatt consumed at typical rating conditions than previous designs, he said. The Vector 8100 also adds the APX control system that has a large illuminated dashboard display that provides on-screen temperature graphing, and a USB dock to facilitate data downloads and software uploads.
The standard Vector 8100 E-Drive runs on 460-volt power, but units can be ordered with Transicold’s optional Flex Power dual voltage system for running on 230 volts.
Can the addition of a pulsing brake lamp on the back of a trailer prevent rear-end collisions? FMCSA seems to think so, if its exemptions are any indication.
Trailers are 13 feet, 6 inches high, right? Not for Hub Group, which developed a special 14-foot-high trailer spec for a dedicated customer based in California. Learn more in the Trailer Talk blog.
A new round of emissions control regulations decreed by the California Air Resource Board will begin affecting refrigerated trailer and TRU design and operations next year.
You don’t always know what’s in the trailers that pass you on the road. But some of those trailers are carrying something a little more dangerous that frozen food or new bedding…like, maybe, a nuclear weapon. But this isn’t an ordinary trailer; this is a trailer specifically made to not only carry this type of payload, but protect it at all costs.
“We don’t only deliver freight. We deliver awareness.” That’s what Jim Barrett, president and CEO of Road Scholar Transport, likes to say about the Dunmore, Pennsylvania-based carrier’s “awareness fleet.” Its latest trailer wrap honors the everyday heroes of the pandemic.
Groendyke Transport watched the number of rear-end collisions with its trailers rise steadily until it tried an unorthodox and then unapproved method of alerting following drivers that its trucks were applying brakes and slowing down.
In places such as New York City and Detroit, overwhelmed hospitals and mortuaries are using refrigerated trailers to store the bodies of people killed by COVID-19.
