Development of miniature forced convection evaporator unit for transporting temperature sensitive goods

This paper highlights the development of a forced convection Miniature Evaporator unit for an intelligent portable and battery-powered medical carrier device. The device is being used to store and transport temperature-sensitive medical goods while preserving their potency by maintaining required temperature using a miniature vapour compression-based refrigeration system. In order to provide uniformity of cooling inside the cargo container and faster cooldown time, a forced air convection-based system was considered to be better than the conventional tube type evaporator like those used in refrigerators. Hence, a similar system was developed and its efficiency improved by varying the fan airflow, the number of fins on the evaporator, and the shape of ducts. Overall, uniformity of temperature inside the cargo chamber improved and cool down time reduced significantly with some increase in energy consumption.