York's thin Thermo Motor Panel!
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AS REVEALED in CM last week York is now offering a thinwalled version of its Thermovan refrigerated semi-trailer.
It has an internal width of 2.43m (7ft 11.6in) compared with the 2.32m (7ft 7.3in) of the standard Thermovan.
To maintain the required standard of insulation the floor and roof thicknessas have been increased thus reducing the interior height by 78mm (3.1in).
York claims that the increase in width allowing metric pallets to be carried side by side, far outweighs any disadvantage because of a decrease in height.
The bodies for the thin-walled Thermovan will be built by Lecapitaine in France, a member of the KlegeFrance consortium.
The insulating material used is Klogecell which is of expanded pvc cellular construction with closed independent cells each containing an inert gas. York claims that other cellular materials with an equal density are more likely to absorb water (and thus increase in weight) than Klegecell.
The side walls are constructed from Klegecell bonded on the outside with pre-coated aluminium and on the inside with anodised aluminium.
The argument for using aluminium for the skinning material is that it conducts any heat sideways away from a "hot" point thus maintaining a low temperature gradient through the wall.
In the event of accident damage, the affected area is cut out with a router and built back up again using standard size insulating blocks of 2 5mm thickness.
Any repairs to the Thermovan must be carried out by York at the moment although the company is looking into the possibility of providing repair kits in the future.
York is hoping to sell up to 80 Thermovans next year although there is no prediction as to the percentage of Thin-walled variants.
The standard Thermovan to a typical UK specification without the refrigeration unit will cost £13,000 to £14,000 with the premium for the thin-walled unit being a further £700,