Real-time monitoring for a range of storage, transit and safety-related refrigeration parameters.
United Kingdom
Provide connectivity solutions for a wide range of refrigeration applications.
Uninterrupted data connectivity for refrigeration monitoring for critical services and products.
Koolzone has developed and deployed highly innovative and new smart monitoring products and services.
Koolzone enhances smart refrigeration monitoring with Caburn Telecom connectivity.
Roaming SIM card solution provides failsafe connectivity for the firm’s global client base
KoolZone provides the most advanced real-time monitoring technology for global hospitality, logistics, pharmaceutical and healthcare customer base. From keeping food and drinks at the right temperature to monitoring cryogenic freezers at minus 196°C and commercial ovens at over 300°C, as well as the careful storage of medicines and laboratory stocks within safety parameters, KoolZone ensures a consistent stream of real-time temperature and critical control data including humidity, energy use, power supply, leak detection, door sensors, as well as ambient air quality and CO2 concentration.
Sensors placed inside refrigeration and freezer units take automatic temperature readings on a controllable schedule – from once to 250 times every day – with the resulting data stored securely in the cloud and accessible from any smartphone or tablet. SMS, email or phone alerts can be triggered instantly, or subject to predefined delay, if temperatures fluctuate beyond a predefined range – optimising reaction and remedy times. The company was founded by Steve Miller, who first had the idea to develop the technology when manually managing the storage of refrigerated insulin at home for his young son, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2007 aged two. KoolZone’s monitoring solutions are used across many sectors including hospitality, airline catering, food manufacturing, transport, warehousing, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and education.
KoolZone’s sensors operate using a high-powered wireless signal (with up to 20km range) to communicate with a local gateway outside the refrigerator, which streams temperature or other data to the cloud. As well as ensuring product quality is maintained for customers, businesses use evidence from archived temperature logs to remain compliant with food safety and pharmaceutical legislation, organisational policies on safety or cost control and convenience.
For many healthcare applications accurate, real-time temperature information is crucial to safeguard patient welfare, as well as protecting against significant cost of lost stock or products. Steve Miller, Managing Director of KoolZone explains: “Many of our pharmaceutical and healthcare customers need to store medicines at a relatively constant and continuous temperature for them to remain safe and effective – from a few degrees below zero right down to ultra-low and cryogenic freezers. Temperature fluctuations can damage sensitive medicines and chemicals, rendering them useless very quickly. In addition, these medicines can often be very expensive, so it’s possible to waste a million pounds of stock in a single fridge failure.”
Originally, KoolZone used wifi connectivity to transfer temperature data from gateway to cloud but it was too unreliable and wanted to add SIM card technology to increase installation speed, flexibility and streaming reliability. It needed the right partner to deliver this additional connectivity.
KoolZone invited a handful of top IoT connectivity specialists to tender for the project, with Caburn Telecom emerging as the winner – proposing a tailored roaming SIM card solution, backed up by significant support and service.
After a successful trial, KoolZone ordered SIM cards to be used across its global estate of connected gateways – all controlled through the Caburn M2M Insight management platform.
Roaming SIM cards from Caburn Telecom initially delivered a second layer of reliability and extra installation flexibility beyond an ethernet connection, but soon proved so easy to use and cost-effective that KoolZone adopted them as its primary connectivity method. “Having roaming SIM cards inside our gateways gives us several benefits,” explains Miller. “Firstly,we can activate connectivity instantly, even before the alternative ethernet connection is established. This is particularly useful in awkward, remote or hard-to-access deployment scenarios – or for sites with no available local area network (LAN).
“Secondly, combining roaming SIM cards – which automatically use the best possible network signal available – with wired ethernet means our customers benefit from almost uninterruptable connectivity. Data is accurate and available 24/7, with the roaming SIM and LAN connection serving as dual primary connection options if required.
“Hospitality businesses can ensure food and ingredients are the right temperature for customers and automate food safety compliance processes, while healthcare professionals have peace-of-mind that stored medicines are at a safe temperature and will work as expected.”
This connectivity protection is always important but especially so for KoolZone customers who need to provide temperature logs and other critical data for safety audits and regulatory compliance purposes. Caburn’s roaming SIM solution also helps KoolZone provide increased assurance to customers with vehicle-based refrigeration requirements, as the card automatically finds and uses the best available signal for mobile temperature monitoring and geolocation information whilst in transit.
The team also uses the intuitive Caburn M2M Insight platform, to manage its SIM estate. Individual cards can be grouped by a tariff, tagged with extra contextual information, and monitored for data and performance. KoolZone engineers can use the platform to activate new cards, change tariffs and suspend SIMs as needed. This remote maintenance and service provision saves KoolZone time and reduces cost.
Steve concludes: “We now use Caburn SIM cards across all of our new deployments. The connectivity has been so reliable that we’ve stopped worrying about the potential for any interruptions in temperature data streaming. We put the card in our gateway confident that the roaming SIM will keep the information flowing.
KoolZone provides an end-to-end monitoring solution, from sensors through to platform control for businesses in 15 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
Providing real-time monitoring technology for a global hospitality, logistics, pharmaceutical and healthcare customer base – across applications ranging from cryogenic freezers at minus 196°C to commercial ovens at over 300°C. KoolZone ensures a consistent stream of real-time temperature and critical control data.
The company’s core services include:
Temperature visibility management – data can be viewed by dashboard, floorplan, map, and by annotated photographs. Temperature warning notification – instant, automated SMS and email alerts communicate when temperatures stray beyond from a pre-defined range. Remote visibility and diagnostics – users can easily monitor temperatures via a mobile device or laptop. Fully configurable – to suit specific customer requirements. Auto logging – KoolZone provides safe and secure automatic data recording 24/7. Automatic food safety compliance – guaranteed gap-less food safety protocols, removing the risk of human error. Historical data records – archived information which is helpful in proving temperature compliance to food agencies.
KoolZone also provides other monitoring services to cover:
Instant, automated SMS and email alerts alert the moment temperatures stray from a pre-defined range.
users can easily monitor temperatures via a mobile device or laptop.
to suit specific customer requirements.
KoolZone provides safe and secure automatic data recording 24/7.
Guaranteed gap-less food safety protocols, removing the risk of human error.
Archived information which is helpful in proving temperature compliance to food agencies.
