Friday, February 28, 2020

New Cargo Cover Designed to Exclude Coronavirus from Freight Shipments

Cold Supply Chain Protection for Palletised Consignments
Shipping News Feature

UK – US – WORLDWIDE – TLX Cargo, headquartered in the UK and with distributors around the world, uses the technology of thin reflective insulation to produce insulating pallet covers to protect freight moving along the cold supply chain. Now, with concerns over Covid-19 spreading the company says it is producing the world's first cargo cover to be built from viral barrier material to aid in the fight against the coronavirus.

Part of TLX Insulation Ltd which specialises in cool chain fabrics, TLX Cargo Commercial Director, Thomas Hunt says the company’s new TLX WEB15 cover fabric aims to seal cargo against viruses during transportation, continuing:

“Our clients have been faced with the problem that although they can control their products against viral contamination within their premises, they are unable to assure their customers that the container itself is not contaminated. We took the problem to our partner company Web Dynamics Ltd, who have over twenty years’ experience in manufacturing viral barrier materials.”

The result of these discussions is TLX WEB15, a breathable, waterproof, cargo cover built from viral barrier material, that is now on offer to the company's customers world-wide. The product is a two part system involving a cover and base, sealed with tape meaning no stitching.

The cover, that exhausts water vapour, uses material that is a barrier to viruses between 0.1 – 0.2 microns. This enables customers to deliver their product confident that each pallet load is transported and delivered under controlled conditions irrespective of the external environment

The material used has passed testing by Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake City, US, the world’s leading laboratory for viral barrier testing. The Web 15 fabric used in this new cover passed the Nelson test when the bacteriophage applied at a pressure of 14 kPa (2 pounds per square inch) failed to permeate from one side of the material to the other.