The packaging of life sciences products, and the struggle to
ship products at constant temperatures, could gain a boost from a new merger of
technology and package.
On June 21,
ThermoSafe Brands acquired GREENBOX, a shipping system from Entropy Solutions that uses a
pioneering phase-change technology to maintain narrow temperature ranges within
a package. Minneapolis-based Entropy, launched in 2003, developed Pure Temp phase-change material (PCM)
from vegetable-based fats and oils that can be added to a package substrate.
The
materials absorb heat as temperatures rise and the material melts, until the
PCMs reach their liquid phase at a specific temperature. When the temperature
begins to fall, the encapsulated PCMs again solidify and release latent heat.
The PCMs,
specifically devised to melt at a certain temperature point, have been
incorporated into Entropy’s GREENBOX shipping
packages. The boxes have been launched for healthcare applications for
life-saving drugs, used by Walmart
SpecialtyPharmacy, Abbott Laboratories, and the American Red Cross, among others.
The use of
renewable materials by Entropy has garnered recent awards, including the
Diamond honor at the DuPont Awards for
Packaging Innovation, its highest recognition. That global notice attracted Arlington
Heights, IL-based ThermoSafe, a unit of Tegrant
Corp. and a producer of life sciences and industrial shipping containers.
Besides
purchasing GREENBOX from Entropy and
increasing the manufacturing and distribution platform, ThermoSafe will work on
technology development with Entropy, said Entropy Solutions ceo Eric Lindquist
in an interview with Packaging
Strategies. ThermoSafe will use the PCMs in its current expanded
polystyrene (EPS) or polyurethane shipping containers for
temperature-controlled shipments.
“When we
developed phase change materials, we looked for a platform that could display
what the technology and the renewable materials could do,” he said. “Temperature
sensitive packaging made a lot of sense.”
