Gel Pack Ice Replacement

Description

How does it work

Chill Wrap™ Ice Replacement (or gel ice or slicka pad or coolant) uses the water-loving (hydrophylic) action of a special salt in a spectacular way.
It works by:

Absorbing water through the fabric surface
Trapping the water in a damp gel that can’t escape through the fabric
Freezing the gel to make ice
Because of the cellular structure the ice remains flexible
It can’t leak when thawed because the gel particles are too big to fit through the fabric.

See FDA page.

Chill Wrap Ice Replacement Preparation

Determine the amount of cooling required
A 12 cell sheet of Chill Wrap (36 grams per cell) will weigh 432 grams when saturated with cold fresh water. This is the same weight as, but occupies less volume than, 432 grams of flake or chip ice. It is suggested that 24 cells of frozen Chill Wrap (864 grams) produces a cooling effect similar to one kilogram of bagged ice, depending on the application.
As a rule of thumb, for 15kg of chilled product use 12 cells for periods of 1 to 16 hours, 24 cells for longer periods. Please note that the amount of Chill Wrap you use is directly proportional to the amount of heat it needs to absorb.
Get the Chill Wrap Ready
You can either use the desired number of precut sheets or tear the necessary sheets off if you are using Chill Wrap in a roll form.
Hydrate (Soak) the Chill Wrap
As each cell absorbs a pre-determined volume of water (36ml) no measuring is necessary. Sheets of the required size should be placed, fabric side downwards, in a tub of fresh water. Make sure there is sufficient water to hydrate all the pads without them being forced together. Allow about 1 litre per 24 cells.
Hydration should take about 20 minutes. It is preferable to leave the pads to soak for 1 to 2 hours to ensure good bonding between the water and the Super Absorbent Powder. Chill Wrap may be hydrated in warm water, without any detrimental effect on the product, if this suits your operation. Using warm water will shorten the hydration time.
Freeze the Hydrated Chill Wrap Sheets
Remove the hydrated sheets from the water and allow any surface water to drain away or shake the sheets. This will help prevent the sheets sticking together. Once hydrated, water will not be released from the cells but the material will have small amounts of moisture on its surface.
If you wish to stack the sheets during freezing, don’t stack them more than 5 high.
Store the Chill Wrap sheets in the Freezer
Once frozen the sheets may be stacked flat, or rolled for storage. For ease of handling the most common storage method is to stack the frozen sheets in a vented plastic crate.
Use Chill Wrap in your packaging
Ideally Chill Wrap should be placed flat across the upper surface of your product to provide even cooling. It may also be shaped to conform to the irregular shape of items or rolled into cylindrical form.
To absorb the maximum amount of heat conducted through your packaging Chill Wrap should be placed between your product and the package surfaces. If the product itself may generate heat during transit place a Chill Wrap sheet inside a polythene liner.