Great Dane Trailers displayed its ThermoGuard exclusive glass-reinforced thermoplastic interior liner for refrigerated trailers and its CorroGuard corrosion protection technology.
ThermoGuard is an innovative composite layer that seals the trailer's insulation and helps to maintain thermal efficiency over the life of the trailer.
“As refrigerated trailers with traditional liners age, they will experience insulation degradation, largely due to the normal aging of the trailer,” said company officials. “Traditional FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) liners are permeable and do not completely seal the insulation, which allows an ‘out gassing’ effect as the trailer ages.”
ThermoGuard helps to maintain excess cooling capacity, decreasing unit maintenance downtime, and expanding trailer productivity. With its uniform, puncture-resistant surface, it also helps to maintain a like-new appearance on the interior walls, which helps to increase a trailer's resale value.
Officials said ThermoGuard could potentially reduce cooling unit run time more than 1,000 hours over the course of five years.
By helping to maintain insulation performance over the life of the trailer, the cooling unit will not have to work as hard each year to make up for degrading insulation performance, they said. Lowering cooling unit run-time hours saves cooling unit fuel.
Corrosion control
Great Dane's CorroGuard is an exclusive spray-in-place thermoplastic elastomeric coating applied to suspensions and support gear to provide long-term protection from road abrasion and corrosion.
Even under normal operating conditions, trailer underbodies are subject to extremes — moisture, severe temperatures, road debris, and destructive de-icing materials. When paint coatings are abraded, those areas are left exposed, and if not maintained or repaired, the result is persistent deterioration and oxidation.
CorroGuard provides superior corrosion resistance and durability, said company officials, because it “is air and water tight, and will not peel, crack, warp, flake, or split under even the harshest of conditions. It remains pliable over time and withstands prolonged UV exposure.”
The coating is available on all the company's vans and refrigerated trailer models.
