Cold Storage

Cold storages or cold storage warehouses are refrigeration facilities that can be artificially controlled and use a variety of cooling devices to maintain a stable environment with a low temperature. Among them, those whose temperature is maintained above 0 °C are called cooler storages, and those whose temperatures are below 0 °C are called freezer storages.

Cold storage is often used in the production, processing and storage of food, fruits and vegetables. Manufacturers of electronic products or chemical raw materials also require a refrigerated warehouse to keep their products in a low temperature environment. In some special flammable and explosive workplaces or industries, such as petrochemical plants, electronics factories, tobacco and wine factories, and defense industry, the safety level of all mechanical equipment must comply with the international explosion-proof standards, called explosion-proof cold storages.

Types of System Design

	Direct Expansion (DX) System	Secondary Refrigeration System
Principle	A refrigerant vapor expansion and compression cycle that uses the refrigerant to directly cool the desired payload via a cold plate.	A secondary coolant loop that uses chilled water or brine to reduce the operating refrigerant charge yet to allow for a large number of cooling devices to be serviced.
PRO	One-to-one system design. Easy to manage. When the scale is small, the unit price is lower.	More precise temperature control. System is more stable and the maintenance cost is lower. Units can support each other, thus the system is more flexible to loads.
CON	Units cannot support each other, and each system needs to consider the backup function.	When applied to low temperature freezer storages, the efficiency is relatively poor.

Transport Modes of Goods

	Walk-In Room	Roll-In Room
Method	Transport of goods using human muscle-power.	Transport of goods by various types of carts.
PRO	Good air tightness by using swing air-tight doors. Relatively low costs.	Transport of goods is convenient. Tools such as stackers, hydraulic pallet trucks, carts, etc. can be used.
CON	Only human-powered transport because of doorsill at the entrance/exit.	Relatively bad air tightness by using sliding or rolling doors. Entrance slope is limited by the size of the space. Relatively high costs.
Application	Small warehouses or storages.	Large warehouses or storages.