JEC AWARD 2019 FINALIST: SAERTEX MATERIALS FOR REFRIGERATED TRAILER

SAERTEX is nominee among the final three projects in this year´s JEC WORLD Innovation Award competition in the category “land transportation”. Together with its partners WABASH National Corporation, NEG and Structural Composites, SAERTEX developed an innovative structural composite solution for a refrigerated trailer.

Conventional trailer walls are built with a foam in-place structure with an aluminum outer skin riveted to aluminum posts with wood inserts and a thermoplastic liner. The new molded structural composite approach is addressing equipment challenges that those refrigerated carriers have been facing for years: thermal efficiency, strength, weight and longevity.

SAERTEX has supported Wabash Trailers and its partners with initial laminate design and the selection of the reinforcement materials to achieve efficiency results of 28% regarding the thermal performance and 20% regarding weight savings.

The molded structural composite is made with a high-efficiency foam core, encapsulated in a shell of polymer-impregnated high performance Non-Crimp Fabrics and covered with a protective gel coat. The 20% weight saving and 28% improved thermal performance lead to a lower consumption of fossil fuels. The weight saving also gives an increased payload, which also reduces the fuel consumption.  Further resources can be saved due to the extended product life. 

The JEC INNOVATION AWARD final takes place during JEC WORLD in Paris on MAR 13, 2019. The ceremony starts at 4 p.m. at the Agora area of the show.