Cold Room Panel Supplier

Sunnyda Cold Room Panel

You have wide choices on cold room panel. The steel of cold room panel, be PPGI or galvalume steel 0.4-0.8mm. The density of cold room panel range is 38-55 kg/m3. The thickness of cold room panel range is 50-200mm. The width of cold room panel is 980mm 1120mm and others can be customized.

The length of cold room panel has no limit, can be cut to size as per your project needs, one order could include dozens of hundreds of lengths, but restricted by sea container 40HQ maximum length 11.85m.

Cold room panel comes to you with full set of accessories, include channels profiles and ceiling hanging materials. Yes cold room panel door, both handle and electrical doors are excellent airtight.

For freezer, floor process is very important, as per requirement put anti-water film, XPS insulation, heating wire, and concrete layer, and ditch on the ground to make cold room panel go down to prevent cold air from escaping. When finish installation, cut line on cold room panel to break the cold bridge.

Cold room panel delivery time is usually 7 days.

Order or no order, we’ll be happy to support your business!

Cold Room Panel: The Ultimate FAQ Guide

• Chapter 1: What is Cold Room Panel?
• Chapter 2: Why Should You Build a Cold Room?
• Chapter 3: What Kind of Industries Requires Cold Rooms?
• Chapter 4: What Materials can you use to make a Cold Room Panel?
• Chapter 5: What are the Different Types of Cold Room Panels?
• Chapter 6: How Long can a Cold Room Panel Last?
  
• Chapter 7: What is R-value?
• Chapter 8: What is a Thermal Bow?
• Chapter 9: What are the Important Construction Specifications of a Cold Room Panel?
  
• Chapter 10: How can you Maintain a Cold Room Panel?
• Chapter 11: How much can a Cold Room Panel Cost?
• Chapter 12: How can you Construct a Cold Room using a Cold Room Panel?
  
• Chapter 13: How do you Clean Cold Room Panels?
  
• Chapter 14: How can you Test the Quality of the Cold Room Panel?
  
• Chapter 15: How do you Insulate the Cold Room Panel?
• Chapter 16: What are the Main Components of the Cold Room Panel? What are the SIPs Panels?
• Chapter 17: What are the SIPs Panels?
• Chapter 18: How do you Prevent Mould in Cold Room Panel?
• Chapter 19: How do you Join the Cold Room Panel?

This guide, you are going to learn about the R-value, structure, type of material, features, components, and uses of cold room panels, amongst other critical aspects.

So, if you want to be an expert in cold room panels, read this guide.

What is a Cold Room Panel?

Cold room panels are unique kinds of structural insulated panels that you can use to construct cold storage units with controlled environmental temperatures.

They have better quality joints and are more insulated than standard insulation panels.

Figure 1 Cold room storage unit

Why Should You Build a Cold Room?

A cold room is a refrigeration chamber or a warehouse that you can use to store products at a specific temperature.

Usually the temperature is below that of the surrounding environment.

A cold room is necessary for the process dealing with goods that have a short shelf life under average room temperatures.

When you store these goods at a lower temperature, the rate of biological or chemical activity reduce significantly.

So does the rate of deterioration.

Figure 2 Cold room panel

What Kind of Industries Requires Cold Rooms?

Any industry that requires preservation of products at a lower temperature than the surrounding environment will need a cold room.

They include but not limited to:

• Chemical processing
• Slaughterhouses and abattoirs
• Pharmaceutical industries
• Food and drinks industries
• Retail supermarkets and restaurants
• Electronics and computer products
• Fisheries
• Agricultural and horticultural products etc.

What Materials can you use to make a Cold Room Panel?

You can choose a variety of materials to construct a cold room panel.

The choice of appropriate material highly depends on the application and environmental conditions where you will build the cold room will.

Figure 3 Structure of cold room panel

· The Sandwich Faces

The sandwich surfaces are the outer shell of the cold room panel and enclose the core.

You can select from the following material for constructing the sandwich panel.

· Steel

Steel is the most used material because of its high stability under different environmental conditions and diverse applications.

It is coated and galvanized against corrosion and rusting.

You can also use stainless steel when you are storing food products because it is rust free and safe for food products.

However, stainless steel is costly and is only feasible for the storage of high-value products.

· Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic

You will use this material to avoid corrosion when you store chemicals and salty materials in the cold room.

It is more fragile and prone to fracture compared to metal sheets hence only suitable for constructing the inner faces of the panel.

· Aluminium

You can use aluminium when building cold room storage for agricultural produce.

It is very resistant to salts and chemicals.

However, it has high thermal expansion and cost more compared to mild steel.

· The Core

The core is the part of a cold room panel that offers thermal insulation.

You can construct the core using different materials with different thickness depending on the requirements of your application.

· Polyurethane (PU)

This material is a high-performance insulation material formed after mixing an isocyanate with a polyol blend.

Rigid polyurethane has excellent thermal insulation properties and very light in weight.

Polyurethane has very low thermal conductivity and high thermal resistance (R-value) at a given thickness.

They are perfect for preventing energy loss and co₂ emission.

PU fire rate B2, density 40kg/m3.

· Polyisocyanurate (PIR)

This material is an improved version of PU.

During manufacturing, the reaction of MDI and polyol happens at elevated temperatures compared to that for the production of PU.

The ratio of MDI to polyol is higher in PIR than PU, and the higher the ratio, the better the thermal insulation properties.

Generally, this material has superior insulation properties compared to PU. It can also withstand elevated temperatures for elongated periods compared to PU because it has excellent fire rating values than PUR.

As a result, you will spend more money on PIR compared to PU.

PIR fire rate B1, and density 42kg/m3.

What are the Different Types of Cold Room Panels?

Figure 4 Cold room panel structure

There are three types of cold room panels.

• Celling/Roof panel
• Wall panel
• Floor panel

What are the Features of Good Material for Constructing Cold Room Panel?

A suitable material for constructing a cold room panel should possess the following features:

• Lightweight
• Poor heat transfer
• Great mechanical strength
• High thermal resistance
• Excellent dimensional stability over a wide range of temperature
• Resistant to corrosion
• Resistant to biodegradation
• High fire resistance
• Repellant to mould growth
• Easy to process and coat
• Weather fast

How Long can a Cold Room Panel Last?

The shelf life of a cold room panel will depend on the quality of materials used for its construction, environmental conditions, application, and maintenance services.

With proper care and regular maintenance services, then the cold room panels can last more than ten years before the need for replacement.

What is R-value?

R-value, also known as resistance value, is a rating system for grading materials used for insulation.

It uses thermal resistance to grade the products.

Materials with better insulation properties have a higher R-value rating.

The value is affected the material thickness, type, and density.

When you are using a multilayered insulator installation, you can determine the R-value through the addition of the value of each layer.

What is a Thermal Bow?

The thermal bow is a force that develops as a result of the temperature difference between the external and internal surfaces of the insulating materials.

You have to appropriately fix the cold room panels during installation to distribute these forces evenly and avoid undesired deformities.

To prevent deformities, you can adopt the following recommendations when the panel length exceeds 26 feet:

• Select a thicker material
• Construct a thermal cut or expansion joint in the panel
• Use a white-coloured panel
• Use repetitive patterns on the exposed outer shell.
• Liberate temperatures by reducing tension on fixing screws
• Construct the panel under a shade

What Specification Should You Consider when Buying a Cold Room Panel?

Figure 5 Structure of cold room panel

Before purchasing any cold room panel, you must consider specific construction requirements at the site of cold room placement.

These considerations include;

· Dimensions of the Cold Room

Dimensions of the cold room will influence the length and thickness of the cold room panels.

You should understand the environmental temperature and humidity before selecting the most appropriate panel thickness for your cold room construction.

You will need thicker panels when you want to construct cold rooms, which can maintain very low temperatures.

· Insulation

You can choose to use either PIR or PU as your core material, depending on the application requirements.

You will calculate the appropriate panel thickness depending on the average environmental temperature, cold room operating temperature, and heat inflow.

· Vapour Barrier

You must install a water vapour, which is a vapour resistant membrane, on the hottest side of the cold room to prevent the entry of air containing vapour.

Air vapour can foam ice and destroy the insulation chamber if the cold room is operating below the freezing point.

The impermeability of the vapour barrier depends on the environmental temperatures, operating temperatures, and relative humidity.

· Thermal Requirements

The thermal requirement depends on the properties of the core material you are using and helps calculate the most appropriate panel thickness to use.

· Air Chamber

You will install the chamber over the cold room enclosure for panel protection.

You need to ensure that materials for making air chambers are authentic and free from damages.

· Seal

You have to seal the joints to protect against heat loss and moisture entry on both the interior and exterior sides.

You can either use silicone or butyl or any other suitable material for sealing.

What are the Important Construction Specifications of a Cold Room Panel?

You should have the following information when placing an order for cold room panels for proper construction of the desired design.

• Location where you will build the cold room
• Kind of materials the cold room will be preserving
• Size of cold room
• Total amount of products the cold room will be holding
• Temperatures of the incoming products
• Desired operating temperature of the cold room
• Amount of time you need to lower the product temperature to the desired temperatures
• Size of the cold room door

How can you Maintain a Cold Room Panel?

Proper maintenance of cold room panels will ensure longevity and efficiency in cold room storage.

You can implement the following tips and good practices to ensure efficient panel function.

• Regularly inspect and repair tension of ceiling fastening.
• Check general detailing and slip joints of the cold room panel and repair accordingly before they develop into major concerns.
• Insect performance of the sealants at panel base to ensure water is not entering the panels.
• Put in place measures to reduce panel damages during routine stock handling inside and around the cold room.
• Install walkways to help with movements around the roof during maintenance.
• Schedule regular panel cleaning and not exceeding six months. Follow the manufacturer’s guidelines on how to clean the panels using the correct concentration of cleaning detergents.
• Inspect the panels for any visible bulging, which is an indication that water has entered into the panel.

Water ingression can happen through slips joints with poor seals, a damaged panel, and a gap formed between the panel and bottom channel. Identify the point of ingression and repair immediately.

How much can a Cold Room Panel Cost?

The price of a cold room panel significantly varies to the material used in construction and the thickness of the cold room panel.

You will pay more for panels manufactured using PIR compared to those constructed using PU panel.

Similarly, if you use stainless steel, then the price will be higher compared to other types of shelling material.

Figure 6 PU Panel

How can you Construct a Cold Room using a Cold Room Panel?

Here are some of the key factors you should consider about the cold room panel:

· Wall and Roof Panels

You can construct a cold room by joining together different panels.

For wall and roof panels, you can choose the male and female interlocking panels, cam locks, or the hooked panels.

After joining them, you can enhance insulation by sealing the joints using silicon, butyl, or foam.

· Floor Preparation

Ensure that the floor is level before installation. You can use different techniques to prepare the floor depending on the nature of your application

When making a floor for freezers, you will have to protect the floor against freezing.

You can achieve protection through channelling in natural air for ventilation, using electric resistance or tubes with glycol water.

When preparing a floor for general purpose cold room, then you can organize the structure as follows:

• At the lowest section, place hollow vaults of brick tubes.
• Follow it with concrete filling.
• Third, place vapour barrier consisting of a bituminous
• Install insulating plates, stuck and interposed sealant (bituminous adhesive)
• Put an impermeable material to insulate against water originating from the concreate
• Follow it with a reinforced concrete of about 120 mm thick and has a thermal resistance of 200 Kg/cm². Install an armature electrically soldered grating composed of rods measuring 150 mm in length and 5 mm diameter.
• Finally, place a retracting seal which has a depth equal to one third the thickness of the reinforced concrete and between 5 -10 mm thick.
• Ensure that you install a smooth flowing anti-vapour barrier that does not leave any hollow space and allow for ingression of water vapour.

What Factors can Affect the Performance of a Cold Room Panel?

The preservation of stored products to the desired quality can be affected by several factors which include:

• Properties of packages, containers, and products stored.
• The placement or the filling method used in the cold store
• The structure and surface area of the evaporator
• The temperature difference between the surface of evaporator and room temperature
• Air dispersion/movement inside the cold room
• The enclosure shape and cold storage temperature range

How do you Clean Cold Room Panels?

You should schedule regular cleaning of cold room panels to maintain high standards of hygiene, especially when you are dealing with food products.

Follow these tips for proper cleaning of a cold room panel.

• Use clean water to thoroughly rinse the surface of the panel from top to bottom to remove dirt and avoid bacteria and mould multiplication.
• Use less aggressive cleaners, solution, and detergents for cleaning the panels. Concentrated and harsh cleaners will damage the surfaces of the panel.

Dilute the concentration of the cleaners to less than 5% and keep its pH range of between 4 and 9.

You can use white spirit to remove grease and oil stains then rinse with clean water.

• Take extra care when using hoses for high-pressure cleaning.

Maintain at least a distance of 30 cms between the hose and panel surface and a maximum pressure of 50 bars.

Incline the hose so that the water does not hit the panel at a right angle.

Maintain fluid with temperatures between 30°C and 50°C because using a cleaning solution with more than 70°C will damage the panels.

• When cleaning the panel joints, point the high-pressure cleaner downwards to prevent water from getting into the joints and damaging them.

Remove dirt traces suing nonabrasive cleaners.

• Ensure that you immediately rinse any washing solutions from the surface of a panel using clean water to avoid oxidation.

As a rule of thumb, the detergents should not take more than 5 minutes before rinsing.

How can you Test the Quality of the Cold Room Panel?

You can test the quality of a cold room panel according to laid down procedures for testing the quality of thermal insulation materials.

These procedures vary from one test to the other and from one international or national standard to the other.

The following are some of the necessary quality tests and associated standards that you must perform on cold room panels.

• Thermal conductivity test (EN 12667).
• Dimensiaonal stability test (EN 1603, EN 1604 and EN 1605)
• Water performance test: Water absorption (EN 12088, EN 1609 and EN 12087), and vapour transmission (EN 13469 and EN 12086).
• Mechanical test: compression (EN 826), bending (EN 12089), shear (EN 12090), creep (EN 1606), and tensile (EN 1607 and EN 1608).
• Acoustic tests: Dynamic stiffness (EN 29052-1) and sound absorption (ISO 354)

How do you Insulate the Cold Room Panel?

Figure 7 Insulated cold room panel

The first step in insulating a cold room panel is choosing the most appropriate core material.

Also, the insulating material must be anti-rot, odour-free, fire, and vermin resistant and impermeable to water vapour ingression.

You can choose to use either polystyrene, polyurethane, or Styrofoam FR.

The thickness of the material will vary depending on the desired cold house operating temperature, the heat conductivity of the material, and the ambient air dew point.

Avoid heat bridges when fitting the cold room panel and insulate pipes that carry liquids or low-pressure refrigerants at low temperatures.

Seal the joints and provide an efficient vapour barrier to avoid ingression of water into the cold room.

The cold room door should be insulated at the same standard to that of the wall and fitted with door heater to prevent jamming of the seal with ice.

What are the Main Components of the Cold Room Panel?

A cold room panel consists of two main parts, the core, and the exterior/sandwich board.

Figure 8 Parts of cold room

· Core

You can use a variety of materials to construct the core of the cold room panel.

The core performs the actual thermal insulation.

Besides, the most commonly used materials are polyurethane (PUR) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) foams.

Also, the materials vary in insulation properties and fire tolerance.

· Sandwich Board/Face

Depending on the application, you can construct the exterior of a cold room panel using different materials such as metal sheets, oriented standard boards, etc.

The outer shell is composed of several layers to help protect the panel from environmental effects.  The layers include:

• Topcoat
• Primer-coat
• Pretreatment
• Galvanization
• The material, e.g., steel
• Galvanization
• Pretreatment
• Back-coat

The topside and backside pretreatment and coating will differ depending on the environmental conditions and application.

For example, the exterior face should be treated to protect against UV while the interior can be pre-coated against corrosion if storing chemicals.

Also, in cold rooms used for storing food materials, the surface should be coated using approved food safe materials or constructed using stainless steel.

You can select standard outer shells with predetermined factory size or request for a custom size sheets with preferred thickness level.

Thicker outer shells are more stable compared to thin shells.

What are the SIPs Panels?

Figure 9 SIP Wall

SIPs are Structural insulated panels used to construct walls, floors, and roofs of commercial and residential buildings.

SIPs consist of an insulating layer of rigid core sandwiched between two structural boards or facings.

You can use SIPs to make buildings/structures that are cost-effective, strong, and energy-efficient compared to conventional construction materials.

How do you Prevent Mould in Cold Room Panel?

The cold room environment can provide a suitable condition for the rapid multiplication of mould.

It results in contamination of stored products and health problems, which may arise from inhalation of spores or consumption of contaminated food products.

You can ensure that your cold room is free form mould by:

· Cleaning

Ensure that you clean the cold room at least once a month. Use appropriate disinfectant to wipe the surfaces.

Avoiding dusting or sweeping as these can dislodge spores into the air.

Instead, wipe the surfaces using wet nonabrasive materials then wipe dry with a dry cloth.

Check for any water leaks and repair them immediately.

Also, wipe out any liquid spills as soon as possible since liquids are known to support the exponential multiplication of mould.

· Material Storage

You should also correctly store organic and perishable products in cold rooms to discourage mould growth.

Place these products in plastic, and metal containers then store.

Avoid using cardboards because they have cellulose, which will facilitate faster mould multiplication.

You should avoid keeping porous materials and paper products in the cold room.

If you must store these materials in the cold room, then place them in non-porous containers and seal.

Construct the storage shelves using stainless steel.

You can also consider using wire shelving that promotes air circulation.

Always keep the cold room door closed to avoid entry of mould spores and water vapour from outside.

Avoid direct storage of items on the floor or in direct contact with the wall.

You should minimize access to cold rooms only to authorized staff.

How do you Join the Cold Room Panel?

Figure 10 Joining cold room panel

You will use different processes to join panels depending on the type of interlock the panel has.

For vertical and roof fittings, the panels can have either male and female interlocks, cam locks or tongue and groove type interlocks.

Again, for and female types, join the panels by pressing one panel against the panel next to it.

For the hooked panel, turn the eccentric hook using a square key to hook onto the metallic axle. The hooks have two positions.

That is, the first one is used to pull the hook into place and the second one to tighten.

The access holes on the opening and closing hexagons will be pressure-covered by a plastic stopper once you hook the panels.

Accurately fitted panels provide sufficient insulation at the joints. You can also seal the joints at the installation site for enhanced insulation.

You can use silicone to seal against water and air, butyl for water and vapour or foam seal if you want to maintain negative temperatures.

As we come to the end of this guide:

Probably you could be having more questions about cold room panels.

Or, you would like to import cold room panels for your applications.

Well, contact Sunnyda House for high quality and cost competitive cold room panels.