The desire for increased energy efficiency is one of the major driving forces in the appliance industry.
As the appliance industry becomes increasingly competitive, refrigerator and freezer original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are challenged with changing energy standards, as well as the need to maximize quality and efficiency in their manufacturing facilities. In particular, they need to reduce the cycle times for the production of refrigerator and freezer cabinets in order to maximize the capacity utilization of their plants.
The development of polyurethane insulating foam that allows the foamed refrigerator cabinet to be demolded faster can help address this challenge. In the past, optimized additive and catalyst packages and improved foam processing technologies have led to significant advances in reducing demold times, but novel chemical approaches are now required to further reduce this process.