Pharmaceutical Cold Chain

This discrete client is an international leader in temperature control packaging systems that has been at the forefront of innovation and product certainty for more than 20 years. Manufacturing from strategically located, global manufacturing sites to customers throughout Europe, Middle East, Africa, India, Asia Pacific, and the Americas, they have forged long-standing partnerships with many of the world’s leading biotech, pharmaceutical, clinical research, and logistics companies to manage cold chain shipping challenges.

This client offers a diverse range of engineered cold chain packaging systems including vaccine shippers, parcel shippers, reusable shippers, palette shippers, and thermal palette covers. A personalized approach to customer service, a relentless drive to beneficially innovate, and a consistent commitment to quality have made them a trusted partner to the life sciences and logistics industries. Within these industries, absolute payload certainty is the critical cornerstone of success upon which considerations in production cost, convenience, and efficiency are layered.

This client invited Atlas Molded Products to explore a cold chain packaging production partnership based on our well-earned reputation for premium product quality and a solution-building mindset. Despite their many years in the industry and global network of manufacturing partnerships, perfection remains an elusive objective that merits thoughtful consideration every step of the way. When existing production partnerships were producing less-than-satisfactory solutions, Atlas Molded Products stepped in to improve processes and solve problems.

Challenges

Identify the specific client challenges and construction objectives.

Pharmaceutical and life science payloads demand absolute thermal certainty for transit times ranging from 24 to 72 hours. Any pack-out solution must incorporate predictable thermal protection over specified transit profiles and durable enough to withstand the rigors of the road. In the case of this client, they were using insulated packaging in several ways ranging from small portable coolers to pallet-size shippers, palette boxes, and fabricated buffer pads to be used as inserts.

Before establishing a partnership with Atlas Molded Products, this client was getting foam packaging products from several different sources in the U.S., often resulting in consistency issues. They were also encountering product failures around one line of thermal coolers where large quantities of products ending up cracking and leaking during transit or handling.

Building on the success of past consolidations in Europe and Asia, the client had a desire to reconfigure their U.S. supply chain to target larger industry leaders with a national footprint and strict quality program.

Solutions

Detail what Atlas did to solve those challenges and meet the client’s project objectives.

Atlas Molded Products partners with industry leaders of the highest caliber across many markets to assess situational specifics and solve problems where they exist. Targeting premium thermal performance in a durable, custom molded graphite enhanced polystyrene proved to be the perfect fit. Representing an innovative synthesis of graphite and polystyrene, GPS is comprised of many small pockets of air within a polymer matrix containing graphite. The graphite reflects radiant heat energy like a mirror increasing the material’s resistance to heat flow to achieve the leading edge of innovation in rigid foam packaging. Atlas uses GPS in meeting several of this client’s shipping insulation needs including in coolers, pallet-sized shipper panels, pallet boxes, and padded inserts.

When Atlas was invited to pursue a product development relationship with this client, one of the first issues to understand was cracking and denting of the insulated shipper components they had been using. In assessing the situation, Atlas determined that damages were due to material handling rather than cooler fabrication. In response, we instituted a robotic picker into our production processes to prevent newly molded parts from sustaining any damage on the line. Precisely engineered solutions require considering every challenge and finding the most effective efficient and comprehensive manufacturing process taking into consideration all facets including raw materials, expansion, molding, sorting, handling, and delivery.

Our nationwide footprint of 16 manufacturing locations helps establish Atlas Molded Products as North America’s leading manufacturer of molded polystyrene products. The ability to provide quality controlled, product consistency from any of many facilities is beneficially enhanced by regional proximity and transit costs. As this client continues to globalize, strong, consistent vendor relationships will be built on reliability and capacity for growth. Atlas’ ability to expand with market demand around this client’s needs is a key competitive advantage enjoyed by Atlas’ partners across many industries.

Conclusion

Summarize the overall solutions to client challenges to show why it matters to others.

Atlas Molded Products takes a leadership role in solution building for our clients across many segments of industrial and OEM production, commercial construction, and civil engineering. Our team’s willingness to assess situational specifics and devise right-fit resolutions to product or production challenges wherever they exist is an important part of what has made Atlas North America’s leading manufacturer of molded polystyrene products. An innovative mindset and an entrepreneurial spirit are common threads in all the clients we serve and the products we produce. Choose Atlas and change for good.

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