Projects 03 of 04 · Food and cold chain

A cold store is judged in its second winter.

The national backbone cold-chain base in Shijiazhuang is planned at 450,000 m² on 995 mu — broken down in BIM, assembled as modules, and released in phases. The frame was detailed for a building that keeps growing.

450,000 m²planned at the Shijiazhuang base

995 muthe site it is planned on

13,000 m²two food workshops in Brazil

2phases released in sequence

What the building has to do

Five Decisions That Are Frozen the Day the Panels Lock

A food building is a process with a roof. A cold store is a temperature with walls. Both are judged by the client’s auditor and by the electricity bill, not by the drawing.

The temperature step

One zone or five, and how much difference between them. That single schedule sets the panel thickness, the door types and where the barriers run between rooms.

The envelope

Cold-room panels, cam-locked and vapour-tight, with every joint and corner detailed. On the warm face, the barrier is continuous — a gap of one fixing is a wet panel in two years.

The floor

Insulation under the slab and a heated threshold at the door, so the ground does not freeze and lift. This is the most expensive mistake in the building and the least visible.

Doors and traffic

How often, how wide, and whether a forklift will hit it in the first month. Door protection is a detail, not an accessory.

The roof above it

Plant, condensers and, on this project, a PV roof over the storage blocks. Whatever the roof carries is a frame decision made at the start or a problem solved at the end.

Before the panel order

Six Things We Ask a Food or Cold-Chain Client

Every one of them changes the drawing. None of them can be answered on site.

The temperature schedule

Room by room, including the ante-room and the loading dock, which are usually the two that get forgotten.

What is stored

Palletised, hanging, in bins, or loose. The handling decides the height and the floor, and the floor decides the frame.

Traffic through the door

Peak movements per hour, and whether the dock is inside or outside the envelope. The door is the weakest element and the busiest one.

Washdown and hygiene

Where water goes, what it touches, and which surfaces have to be cleanable. In food production this decides more details than the structure does.

Who does the refrigeration

The equipment lands on our steel. We ask for weights and hanger positions before we size the roof, not after the units arrive.

Who will audit it

Retailer, insurer or authority. Their checklist is the specification, and it is cheaper to read it now than to rebuild a wall later.

Built

From a National Base to Two Overseas Workshops

National backbone cold-chain base, ShijiazhuangPlanned at 450,000 m² on 995 mu. Components broken down in BIM and assembled as modules, with a PV roof over the storage blocks. Phases one and two come online in sequence, so the frame had to be detailed for a building that keeps growing.450,000 m² planned

Hebei Dingli FoodFood production building — the envelope and the floor carry the hygiene requirements, and the frame carries the plant above them.16,490 m²

Two food factory workshops, BrazilStructural members and cladding, 100 m and 40 m spans, shipped from Jinzhou as one kit for a food factory in South America.13,000 m²

The cold store as a capability — panels, vapour barrier, floor and the refrigeration interface — has its own page under Capabilities.

The other three

Other Sectors

01Industrial and manufacturingCranes, process loads and floors that work. 02Warehousing and logisticsDocks and traffic decide the building. 04Mining, energy and recyclingFuel, waste and heavy material handling.

Send the Temperature Schedule. We Will Show You Where the Box Usually Leaks.

Room temperatures, traffic and the products going in. From those three the envelope can be sized — and the running cost estimated before it is built.

Send the schedule