Sofrigam developing NextGen advanced pallet shippers

news-releasesSofrigam S.A
August 5th 2019

Rueil Malmaison, France: – Temperature-controlled logistics and pharmaceutical cold chain packaging specialist Sofrigam S.A. has announced a ‘new concept’ pallet shipper for temperature-controlled products that is reusable and more easily handled.

Sofrigam’s unveiling of the new concept came as part of its appearance at the recent 19th DHL Global Life Sciences Conference in Florida, featured during an address by its senior R&D Engineer, Vincent Bailleul.

New concept pallet shipper

Sofrigam used the event to present its recently introduced flat-pack Pallet Shipper cold chain transportation of pharmaceutical products. M. Bailleul told the conference that Sofrigam was currently studying a new concept of reusable, removable Quarter PAG/PMC insulated containers that would be easier to erect and strike down, lighter, optimized for interior volume and more robust to handle multiple long distance trips.

Above all, the new generation pallet shippers would incorporate very high insulation performance to ensure the maintenance of the cold chain throughout extended and successive shipments.

Reverse logistics

In a subsequent interview, Vincent Bailleul revealed: “Everything began with the age-old question that arises when addressing the topic of Reverse Logistics: how many times can our Pallet Shippers be used?”

“This question was all the more pressing as we had just developed our range of flat-pack Pallet Shippers that were easy to assemble and disassemble and essentially ideal in configuration for a reusable Pallet Shipper,” M. Bailleul continued.

“However, it was impossible for us to assess how many times one of these Pallet Shippers could be used. At Sofrigam, rather than use a crystal ball we prefer to test and measure. Therefore, the idea of a pilot phase readily emerged,” he explained.

Proving the concept

Since Sofrigam, has production sites in France and USA, it decided to ship Pallet Shippers across the Atlantic from one site to the other, observing and recording any damage sustained by the container on each trip.

As expected, the corners of the shippers suffered most wear and tear but Sofrigam has resisted the temptation to make these stronger on the new design, preferring instead to make the corners replaceable.

Replaceable components

As Vincent Bailleul explains:

“We wanted to retain the advantages of our flat-pack Pallet Shipper, particularly the lightness because this criterion is of paramount importance to our clients; given that the mass has a direct impact on the cost of air freight and therefore on the overall cost of their supply chain.

“This is why sometimes, ironically, we have not looked for more resistant materials. For the corners, for example, we have not changed the materials to make them more resistant. Our preference was to make them easy to replace. This outcome is more satisfactory because the reusable solution is still light and does not represent a huge cost compared with the Initial Pallet Shipper,” said M. Bailleul.

Consistent performance

Sofrigam has also gone to great lengths to ensure that the reusable solution does not degrade in performance over multiple shipments, commissioning its thermal center of excellence at Ater Métrologie to test the performance of a new Pallet Shipper against one that had been used four times.

“The result shows that the temperature is actually a little higher in the used Pallet Shipper. The shape of the curve is exactly the same but has shifted upwards. The difference is between 0.5 and 1.0°C, however the temperature of the products is perfectly maintained between +2 and +8°C,” said M. Bailleul.

About Sofrigam

With over 40 years of experience, Sofrigam provide a comprehensive portfolio of innovative packaging and related solutions that allow pharmaceutical and other clients to optimize their temperature-controlled logistic chains.

From its French roots, Sofrigam has become a global company, operating in the USA, Canada, UK and across Europe, with manufacturing centers in North America and Europe.

Sofrigam manufactures a range of standard and made-to-measure thermal packaging products, including cartons, cases, bags and pouches that cover every step in the cool chain, from manufacturer to end-user.

It also offers customized services designed to achieve secure, cost effective and ecological cold chain logistics in shipping, storage and packaging.

Sofrigam Services accompany clients through every step of the logistics chain while prioritizing safety of goods and reducing costs. Advanced software and other solutions allow clients to audit their cold chains, monitor shipments, analyze logistics lanes, manage Inventory and optimize ordering.

Sofrigam can also deliver best Time to Market through thermal simulation equipment combined with its ‘cut & glue’ customization process that gives customers the ability to adapt any catalog product to its own needs with development time reduced to as little as 15 days.