SkyCell introduces revolutionary new deep frozen container – The 1500DF

At SkyCell, we are always striving for safer and more efficient ways to transport life-saving medicines around the world. With this mission in mind, our passionate team of engineers has developed a revolutionary new container: The SkyCell 1500 DF.

SkyCell’s new deep frozen solution is capable of maintaining a steady temperature of minus 60° Celsius to minus 80° Celsius, while reducing the amount of dry-ice by more than half. Thus, an average of 1.75 million vials can be transported in a single aircraft. This is enough to vaccinate between 1.75 and 8.75 million people with the first vaccination, depending on the vaccine concentration. Compared to commonly used solutions, this increases the loading capacity per flight by up to 10 times.

SkyCell’s Swiss precision engineering and cutting-edge energy distribution system created a solution with an average independent run time of  120 hours with only 100kg of dry ice, a real game-changer. The 1500DF is easy to handle, with no extra equipment needed – only a pallet jacket is required to simply load the container onto a truck. To ensure safe handling, the outside surface of the 1500DF container is kept at a constant ambient temperature.

Currently, many countries and hospitals do not have deep frozen storage capabilities due to the high cost of ultra-cold freezers. To tackle this shortage, SkyCell’s new deep frozen container can be used as storage at the destination – including at a mobile hospital or vaccination camp. The independent runtime of 120h can be extended on site as required with the easy reloading of dry ice.

Products stored in the 1500DF container can touch the walls, therefore the usual space needed between the wall and a product for air circulation is not needed, and the container can be loaded to its maximum capacity. Throughout the entire journey, both the internal and ambient temperature can be monitored through IoT sensors. During transit, potential damage including seal damage and temperature excursions can be tracked to avoid spoilage.

Manufacturing of the 1500DF containers will begin in December, with a fleet of at least 100 to be ready in February. With the help of key airline partners around the world, SkyCell will help transport on average 50 containers per aircraft, holding around 30,000 vials per container, depending on the aircraft’s dry-ice regulations.

SkyCell’s highly innovative deep frozen containers allow pharma companies to optimise supply chains using data to predict and control risk. Using nearly one billion data-points on factors like temperature, location, and time, it enables SkyCell to be at the highest level of the market with a failure rate of less than 0.1 percent while reducing environmental and business costs.

Explore our safe and scalable solution for the Covid-19 vaccine distribution.