ATLANTA — Stoughton Trailers, as part of its effort to offer a complete product line to customers, introduced a refrigerated trailer line – PureBlue.

This gives Stoughton a full line of trailers, including dry van, grain, livestock, intermodal chassis, and now refrigerated trailer that debuted at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show.

The company spent two years developing the trailer, using proven components, customer input, and thorough testing,

Stoughton officials told reporters that PureBlue's innovative design and attention to detail provide lightweight trailers without sacrificing strength, with features that help maintain more consistent temperatures, reduce maintenance, and improve safety.

An aluminum scuff and integral composite scuff liner help prevent damage while loading and unloading the trailer. The sidewall and scuff have no rivets that loads can snag and tear out.

Stoughton is providing a heavy-duty non-skid duct floor as the preferred floor in the new refrigerated trailer. This durable floor provides optimum support to loads even in high-use areas. The fully enclosed floor design has a knurled edge top surface for skid resistance. There is no wood in the entire structure, which extends the life of the trailer.

Stoughton offers several additional optional floors. The 5.25-inch extruded aluminum cross members in the bay area provide a strong yet lightweight floor substructure, and steel cross members are an available option.

Stoughton has included several design elements to protect the trailer against air loss and to keep out water.

The platen foamed sides and roof ensure that the trailer is fully insulated in 360 degrees with no voids or uneven areas to further increase its thermal efficiency. In addition, Stoughton designed a composite mounting box for the refrigeration unit to help keep the heat of the reefer’s diesel engine from penetrating into the trailer.

Stoughton’s composite rear door design optimizes thermal efficiency plus it reduces weight, providing a lightweight, strong, thermally efficient rear door. The bonded side posts in the new refrigerated trailer reduce the number of holes in the sidewalls to further aid in preventing moisture intrusion, in addition to offering a smooth side ideal for graphic applications.

Like Stoughton dry van trailers, the PureBlue refrigerated trailer comes standard with the new, stronger, rear underride guard at no additional cost or weight.

This is actually not Stoughton’s first time getting into the refrigerated trailer business, noted company officials in response to a question about why European-technology trailer materials are not used. In the ‘90s, it teamed up with Alcoa for Stoughton Composites, which “was probably the closest product into this market that used European sandwich panels,” says Stoughton’s Todd Eicher, Manager - Product Engineering R&D. “But it was unique in a way that was more difficult for customers to repair because the repair methods were different.”

With the PureBlue, “we’ve purposely endeavored to keep design familiar. So they'll be able to maintain it without having to retrain workforce or be bound to some exotic materials.”

The new Stoughton PureBlue refrigerated trailer will be available in early 2018.