The evolution of refrigeration controlling solutions for scientific and medical applications

Pharmaceuticals and healthcare services have continued to attract a high level of interest in recent years, with a big boost due to Covid-19. Attention has also grown in product storage solutions for scientific / medical purposes due to the high economical and strategic value of the products themselves. In that way, refrigerators, freezers and even ultra low temperature freezers acquired great importance to ensure that the product is preserved in the best possible way and in compliant conditions.

The reliability of the solution in terms of temperature recording and content preservation is mission critical and most scientific/medical regulations require recording and display of the minimum and maximum temperatures reached inside the unit at different intervals, usually on a daily basis. Of course temperature recordings have to be done in all conditions, even during a blackout. In fact it is necessary to understand which countermeasures have to be taken: scrapping the products or keeping them stored.

The temperature recordings and countermeasures taken can be managed manually with the operator that records on paper, authenticates and then files them, or automatically thanks to new generation controllers. Connectivity options allow easy export and storage of all the information to perform good automatic temperature management and battery backup options are aimed to ensure system reliability during a blackout. A predictable trend in scientific applications, inherited from the food service market, is the energy efficiency.

The possibility to rapidly adopt variable speed solutions, such as compressors and fans, is becoming more and more important to improve the performance and energy efficiency of the refrigerated unit. The variable speed solutions also reduce vibrations and the noise of moving parts, improving acoustic comfort in the environments where the units are installed. One growing trend is the progressive abandonment of manual operations, in favour of new generation units with integrated connectivity. The main purpose is to reduce as much as possible the manual tasks that require know-how, responsibilities and direct costs for trained personnel, replacing these with automated routines and WiFi communication also to allow remote technical support. Remote support opens new business opportunities to service companies that can offer 24/7 monitoring and very rapid interventions in case of alarms, avoiding their customers to waste any products.