Cold Link Africa October 2020 | Page 4

NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Ahead of the next generation
By John Ackermann
COLD LINK AFRICA
PUBLISHED BY Interact Media Defined (Pty) Ltd
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Greater operational flexibility,
unrivalled temperature control
and ground-breaking cost
efficiency was at the heart of the
innovative design of the Advancer.
Launched internationally in June 2020,
Thermo King’s Advancer trailer unit is years
ahead of market trends and customer
demands for better fuel efficiency, lower
environmental impact, less maintenance,
tighter temperature control and faster
pulldown when needed.
Compared to what was Thermo
King’s top of the range, the SLXi,
the Advancer has only one v-belt
compared with two, only one pulley
bearing compared with nine and one
belt tensioner compared to five. Fewer
bearings, less maintenance and fewer
replacement parts required.
Oil changes are needed every 3 000
hours and a major service only after
9 000 hours. All these design features
increase uptime and reduce life cycle
maintenance cost.
The Advancer is designed for all future
trends in drive power: diesel, gas, electric
and solar.
Flexibility in drive power is only one of
the innovative features of the Advancer
that will add to the bottom line of all
operators going into the future.
As to the drive power that will
emerge as the industry standard in
the future, remains a guess. With this in
mind, Thermo Kind have designed the
Advancer, to provide a solution for any
of the possibilities. This means that in
future customers will be able to make a
choice of drive motor to fit in place of
the current diesel technology.
This may be LNG (Liquified Natural
Gas) or CNG (Compressed Natural Gas),
or simply an electrical drive fed by some
form of external generator. Way ahead
of what is currently in use, a partnership
with international axle manufacturer
BPW, aims to offer an axle driven
generator with a power pack as another
form of drive power for the Advancer.
This patented system is currently
being tested and should be available
within 12 months.
The three models available, the
A-360, A-400 and A-500, offer cooling
capacities of 15 600, 16 200 and 19 500
watts at 0/30 o C according to ATP ratings.
The A-500 with a cooling capacity of 10
400 watts at -20 o C box temperature and
30 o C ambient, offers the largest cooling
capacity of all units on the market.
Without a corresponding high air flow
volume, the cooling capacity will have
marginal impact on fast pull down or an
even temperature distribution throughout
the trailer. With the change to 48V DC
fan evaporator motors on the Advancer,
GEA Thermo King
air volume is independent of the unit
engine speed and is selectable between
rapid pull down, pull down, set point
control or maximum set point control.
Maximum air flows range from 5 500
m 3 /hr on the A-360 to 6 000m 3 /hr on the
A-500. At these air flow volumes and
throw, together with 30% more surface
area on the condenser and evaporator,
pull down is rapid and coupled with
a more efficient drive train, requires
less fuel to attain temperature. In
accordance with European regulations
(NRMM) diesel engine power has been
limited to 19kW.
With the engine directly coupled to
the compressor, the drive efficiency is
above 92% compared with 70 to 80%
of a diesel driven alternator to drive AC
motors for the fans and compressor, as
used on some competitor units.
The barrel type evaporator fans have
a throw of 15.6m to cater for maximum
length semi- trailers – given the fact
that the fans have their own electric
drive motors, means that these can be
operated at full capacity even when the
unit drive is on low speed, which allows
for the unit as a whole to be optimised to
run more fuel efficiently.
With the electronic governed fuel
system and the limitation of the diesel
engine to 19kW, fuel economy is at least
30% better than similar trailer units.
An electronic fuel management system,
standard on the A-400 and A-500, provides
the driver with real time fuel consumption
data displayed on the control panel.
Fuel tank levels, actual and average
consumption, running hours left are some
of the data indicated and stored in
memory for downloading remotely or by
connecting a handheld reader.
Compared with the SLXi, cooling
capacity has been increased by 30%
and this was achieved by having larger
surface areas on the evaporator and
condenser coils.
All major service components are
accessible from the front of the unit
to reduce time of maintenance and
repair tasks. The selection and placing of
components have reduced piping joints
to minimise protentional leaks. Current
European legislation calls for a ban on
refrigerants with a GWP>2500 (from
2020) and is applicable for stationary
refrigeration installations and is not
applicable to transport refrigeration units.
Despite this law not being applicable
to the transport industry, as far back as
2015, Thermo King took the decision to
change to the refrigerant of most units
to R452A which has a GWP 2141. This
complies to this standard whilst also
ensuring the life cycle environmental
impact is minimised by fuel efficiency
and rapid cooling rates. Temperature
control deviation is within 0,2 o C by
a newly developed logic controller
matched with power modulation
of evaporator fan speed. The close
accuracy of control is maintained when
transporting fresh or frozen products.
Factory fitted solar panels on the top
of the Advancer provides power for
charging the built-in battery. Additional
panels can be fitted to the roof of the
vehicle to provide more power storage
capacity.
A DC to DC Charger (incorporated
in the electric motor of the unit)
converts 48V to 12V for charging the
battery and this together with the
factory fitted solar panels on the top
of the Advancer, provides power for
independently charging the built-in
battery. This eliminates the need for an
Continued on page 7
With the hybrid feature the driver can change the operation of the Advancer to all
electric when low carbon emissions are required, or noise levels are to be reduced.
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www.coldlinkafrica.co.za COLD LINK AFRICA • October 2020