At the World Cargo Centre (WCC) Leipzig/Halle airport a cold store for air freight shipments was built for aircraft loads of temperature-sensitive goods to enable them to be stored at correct temperatures.

The cold store, operated by PortGround, can store goods at temperatures of +2°C to +25°C. Rotronic carried out a winter mapping assessment of the climate conditions. To ensure that customer requirements of PortGround GmbH were met.

Before mapping can take place in any warehouse or other storage facility, you must ensure you  identify the risk areas that could cause deviations in temperature and humidity leading to potential product quality problems.

General procedure
The control and fluidity of storage spaces are influenced by a number of factors. Once the risk areas have been identified, before mapping takes place a test must be developed, providing the following Information and the basis for each decision:

• Types of data to be generated – e.g. temperature, relative humidity and their measurement intervals
• Number of sensors required
• Deciding the positioning of the sensors
• Duration of the investigation
• Summer and winter mapping
• Requirements for calibration of the data loggers
• Acceptable limit values for temperature and relative humidity
• Report generation requirements

The data loggers are then positioned in the warehouse according to the model. Additional data loggers are then used in the identified risk areas where draughts from loading ramps, heat or cold radiation from external walls, solar heating through windows, heating by lamps, air circulation from traffic or the HVAC system could occur. Many factors can impact temperature and humidity conditions which is why the initial risk assessment of the specific site is critical.

Rotronic offers several solutions for thermal mapping, including stand alone data loggers and wireless data loggers. Stand alone data loggers are batch configured and data is batch downloaded for analysis and reporting via our HW4 software. Wireless loggers connect to our RMS platform and can provide live data during the mapping or alternatively where live connection is not possible or required data is automatically downloaded once loggers are back in range of a suitable gateway, via RMS data can be automatically analysed for deviations. For example our engineers can park at the office car park and all the devices automatically reconnect, download and deviation reports are generated without a single click of a button.

Based on the project master plan final reports will be generated with deviations listed. The basic information shown is listed below:

• Data with time and date
• Calculated values such as average, standard deviation, temperature minimum, temperature maximum, MKT.
• Deviation details and summary
• The characteristic of all data loggers over the test period
• The device settings
• Date and time of the test
• The calibration information

The position of individual sensors can be displayed in a graph to provide a quick overview of possible extremes in temperature and relative humidity. The outside temperature and humidity can also be recorded. Then, for example, a temperature peak can be associated with a time when the gates of the loading ramp were open.

HygroLog HL-1D is suitable for monitoring and recording conditions for  a wide range of applications across all industries, in commerce and for research organisations.

The compact logger is particularly suitable for monitoring high value products of all types during transportation to ensure that quality is maintained.

Simple USB interface and low cost makes these devices ideal for thermal mapping projects.

RMS-LOG and RMS-MLOG devices offer benefits of live data allowing monitoring of the mapping data ensuring devices are operating normally.  Automated download and reporting is a luxury but for large projects this can save significant time. The RMS-LOG provides accuracy of 0.8%rh and 0.1°C and with interchangeable probes calibration costs can be reduced.

Contact us to discuss thermal mapping services or products so you can undertake or thermal mapping yourself.

Flughafen Leipzig Halle GmbH – is a Subsidiary of Mitteledeutsche Flaghafen AG. Around 2.4 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of air freight were registered in 2017, making Leipzig airport the second largest cargo airport in Germany.

PortGround GmbH is a subsidiary of Mitteldeutsche Flaghafen AG, it offers ground handling, freight and other comprehensive services around the clock at the airports in Dresden and Leipzig/Halle airports.

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