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Oxygen Absorber usage Instruction video

Oxygen Absorber: User Guide.

Oxygen Absorbers are born ready. This is fantastic but can present some issues to consider when handling and storing your oxygen absorbers.

 

Check out the video below taking you through the Step-by-Step process to insert Oxygen Absorbers into packets. Tips are also included to avoid some of the common pitfalls.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=821ZmPAZquo

Using Oxygen Absorbers

 

Step 1: Opening your Oxygen Absorber packet.

 

Cut your Oxygen Absorbers, making sure to steer clear of cutting the sachets.

 

Step 2: Removing the Oxygen Absorber sachets correctly.

 

Remove the amount of Oxygen Absorbers you wish to use from the packet. It is very important that you lay out the Oxygen Absorbers you want to use without each Oxygen Absorber touching each other.

If Oxygen Absorbers are touching each other for an extended period of time they will begin to activate.

 

Step 3: Placing your sachets with your product.

 

Grab the amount of Oxygen Absorbers you wish to place with your product you want to keep free from oxygen.

Place the amount of Oxygen Absorbers needed inside with the product, you can find the amount and size of Oxygen Absorbers needed by using our Oxygen Absorber calculator.

 

Step 4: Sealing your product or food item after packing.

 

Squeeze out as much oxygen as you possibly can and seal your product for extra protection.

Using a heat sealer, straightening iron or vacuum sealer is recommended after packing the item you want to keep free from oxygen.

 

Step 5: Resealing your remaining Oxygen Absorbers.

 

If you don’t use all of the Oxygen Absorbers present in the packet, reseal the remaining Oxygen Absorbers as quickly as possible.

We recommend resealing your remaining Oxygen Absorbers with a vacuum sealer.

If you don’t have a vacuum sealer readily available your next best option is to tape the packet tightly sealing the open space.

 

Tips to get the most from your Oxygen Absorbers

 

Tip 1: How not to take out your Oxygen Absorber sachets.

 

Do not take Oxygen Absorbers out and place in a pile while packing your product.

Exposing Oxygen Absorbers to the air as well as piling them together will cause the Oxygen Absorbers to heat up and start activating.

 

Tip 2: How not to reseal your remaining Oxygen Absorbers.

 

Do not tape with the packet loose or partially open. Leaving space for oxygen to enter will activate the remaining Absorbers and reduce their effectiveness.

When re-packing your Oxygen Absorbers make sure you squeeze out any remaining oxygen. A good seal will ensure your Absorbers maintain effectiveness.

Placing your Oxygen Absorbers in a container with oxygen still present will cause them to activate.

Signs that your oxygen absorbers are activating include visible condensation on the container or warm to the touch sachets.

 

Tip 3: Choose the correct Oxygen Absorber for your package.

 

Calculating your Oxygen Absorber needs you’ll require:

  • sealed package dimensions
  • weight of contents.

 

The formula

 

Or check out our handy online calculator here.

 

Check out Protection Experts Australia oxygen absorber range.  Reach out to our team who are happy to help find you the right product.

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How healthy is your cargo?

PUBLISHED BY ABSORTECH GROUP NOV 2022

The following article by Absortech Group explores the adage that prevention is better than cure. So too does this ring true when it comes to the health of your cargo and avoiding the effects of moisture damage.

The moisture damage doctor will see you now. 

Medical professionals know that prevention is better than cure. Yes, they have the fancy technology and expensive pharmaceuticals to successfully treat many illnesses and diseases. But it’s still much, much better to prevent the illness in the first place and keep people healthy.  

That’s why giving people regular check-ups, blood tests and screening them for underlying conditions is the best way to manage people’s health and deliver the best outcomes.  

“OK, you’ve reminded me about my annual check-up … but what does this have to do with my cargo?” A very good question. 

Well, checking the health of your moisture damage prevention and screening for any serious risks to your cargo is what we do at Absortech. Specifically, that’s what our Peace of Moisture Mind® process (POMM) is all about.  

Making the right diagnosis

See us as your moisture damage doctor. And see the very first step, Audit, as a check-up where we diagnose your situation and how to treat it. In the following steps (Dimension, Validate and Implement) we provide effective treatment and, like any good doctor, we follow up to make sure it’s working as planned. All to ensure that your cargo stays as healthy as possible — and you avoid the costly risks that can be lethal to your bottom line.  

  • For example, during the Audit, we might discover that the wooden pallets used for shipping are left outside in the rain before loading. And 3x the moisture protection is needed to compensate for this excess moisture…
  • Or we find that metal goods are being individually packed in special plastic bags, also with an in-bag desiccant, when the right container solution would save a lot of time and money — and be much more effective too…

Treat the whole container. Not just the cargo.

Because controlling and minimizing moisture in the container as a whole is the best prevention of all. And when you use other solutions or compensate with over-dimensioning, you’re effectively popping painkillers to feel healthy. But the source of your pain is still there. And the pain will keep coming back – trust your doctors on that.  

A full health check. With your clothes on.

Rest assured, we won’t ask you to strip off and cough. But a well-executed moisture damage prevention strategy needs to go deep into how goods are supplied, packaged, loaded and shipped. Covering the amounts and types of desiccants to be used, making sure they are available when needed, and educating personnel during packaging and loading. But it’s worth it – we do this together with you to ensure your goods arrive in the healthiest condition and you have complete peace of mind. 

Read more about the POMM moisture damage prevention process here. Reach out to our team at Protection Experts Australia to arrange your next check-up. 

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Understanding Container Rain

Moisture damage 101 – What is container rain?

PUBLISHED BY ABSORTECH GROUP 19 MAY 2022

The following article by Absortech Group takes a look at container rain. What is it and why don’t they just keep the roof closed?

The first thing to say about container rain is that it isn’t like normal rain. You won’t open a container door to see that it’s turned into the showers at the gym. But the moisture-damaging effect on precious cargo is certainly like leaving goods out in the rain.

In actual fact, container rain is more like the dewy moisture that collects on the outside of a cold glass of beer or lemonade on a hot summer’s day. And just like your glass, you’ll want to put some protection like a coaster down so that the moisture doesn’t damage the antique table that’s been in your partner’s family for three generations…

Dewly noted

The science goes like this: when warm air meets the cooler surface of a chilled glass or steel container walls and ceilings that cool at night, the moisture in the air condenses on that surface. This condensation creates small water drops, which are drawn to each other to create larger drops. And finally these drops get so big that they fall down onto your shipment of high-tech, sensitive electronics or finely graded, powdered chemicals.

So how much of a temperature drop is needed to make it “rain”? A drop of 5°C is often all it takes. Which, with the warm days and cool nights of shipping by sea, effectively means there’s always a big risk.

Container breathing as well?

Unfortunately, it gets even worse for our sea cargos. Because these long-haul voyages take weeks, there may be 20, 30 or even more of these day/night temperature changes. And each time, the air inside warms and expands during the day, spilling out of the container. Then contracts as it cools at night drawing in more humid sea air from the outside. This is known as container breathing, and it means new moisture (and rain) to protect against every time the container “breathes in”.

Wait a minute. Container disco!!!?

Whenever you close the container door a disco starts up inside, then when you open the door it immediately stops … Don’t worry, we made that up.

Just checking you’re still with us.

What can you do about container rain?

Quite a lot is the reassuring answer. All it takes to protect expensive cargo is a little extra care and a simple, cost-effective moisture prevention strategy:

1. Make sure the container doesn’t have holes or damaged doors

A container that’s in good condition only allows air and moisture to move in and out slowly. Which will make a huge difference. But you can also tape over the ventilation holes for almost all shipments – except certain organic materials like cocoa that contain a lot of moisture that will easily evaporate into the air and can cause container rain from within.

2. Make sure the container and its contents are dry at the very start

Containers are normally washed before loading. But to avoid leaving the container too wet, avoid high-pressure washing and make sure excess water is dried up.

And remember – the pallets, wooden dunnage and sometimes the goods themselves will also bring in extra moisture. When the temperature rises in the container during the day, this moisture on the floor and in the pallets, packaging material and goods will evaporate into the air. Increasing the humidity and, in turn, greatly increasing the risk of container rain once the air cools at night.

3. Take care of any extra moisture with high-quality, reliable desiccants

Once you’ve minimised the moisture in the container at the start and avoided too much air flow during the voyage, you just need the final, yet all-important touch – desiccants that you can rely on and that will give you and your cargo a generous buffer. A top-quality, cost-effective desiccant solution from a trusted supplier (cough Absortech) means you can remove excess moisture from the air. And prevent the build-up of moisture to levels where it causes container rain and damage to goods.

Container rain

Container rain happens when containers experience temperature changes during shipment and you also have humid air and/or excess water in the container.

Which can mean the vast majority of shipments. But hopefully this has given you a good grasp of container rain and how to avoid it.

This article was written by the Absortech Group appearing in the May 2022 Moisture Magazine. For further insights check out the Absortech Group Moisture Magazine. Protection Experts Australia is the exclusive distributor of Absortech products throughout Australia.

Pro-Ex offer a range of shipping desiccants to help you manage the risks of container rain, making sure your goods arrive in the condition they left. Contact us today.

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Build Supply Chain Resilience

Building in Supply Chain Resilience

PUBLISHED BY ABSORTECH GROUP 21 JULY 2021

Building in supply chain resilience should be a business priority. Pressures on our supply chains, congestion, delays and rising costs are unfortunately a familiar challenge facing business today. The following article by Absortech Group discusses how businesses need to adapt by building in supply chain resilience. Disruptions will continue, how will you respond?

Container shortages, increased costs, congested ports, delays … the pandemic has put untold pressure on traders, shippers, planners and the customers and supply chains that rely on them. What’s more, it looks like we won’t be getting back to normal until mid-2022. Unfortunately, there is no magic pill to remove these headaches. But there is a way to ease some of the pain and reduce your exposure to risk – moisture protection you can really trust.

Imagine the situation: you’ve spent a lot of time and effort putting in the groundwork for the shipment of your valuable goods. You’ve got your hands on the containers you need, found the optimal sailing, negotiated the best deal and everything’s going exactly to plan. But then the ship can’t dock and your cargo spends days sitting there in hot and humid weather or with condensation pooling in the container. And even when the container finds land perhaps it joins at the end of another line waiting for the backlog to clear. At times like this, you don’t want to be sweating on whether your moisture protection measures can cope.

Get peace of mind

We believe that you should never have to worry about the risk and costs of moisture damage to your goods. Especially at a time like this when there are more difficult shipping challenges to focus on. But we’ve got you covered – our Absortech range of calcium chloride-based desiccants and moisture protection solutions gives you over 10 times the effectiveness of traditional silica-based alternatives. And we have the know-how to make implementation quick, cost-effective, hassle-free and always tailor-made for the goods you ship.

Switching to the future

We think you could do with a helping hand during this current shipping crisis. But we also know a switch now will pay off in the long run – and far beyond 2022. Not only does 10 times the performance help you better safeguard goods and deliveries, but it also means you can reduce the weight and cost of your moisture protection going forward. And, with a lower CO2 footprint all the way to fully carbon-neutral solutions, Absortech’s range helps you sustainably build for a brighter future and a new, better normal.

You haven’t got time to worry about optimal moisture damage prevention, but that’s pretty much all we think about. So just gives us a call – we’re here to help.

This article was written by the Absortech Group appearing in the July 2021 Moisture Magazine. For further insights check out the Absortech Group Moisture Magazine. Protection Experts Australia is the exclusive distributor of Absortech products throughout Australia.

Pro-Ex offer a range of shipping desiccants to help you make sure your supply chain remains resilient to disruptions. Contact us today.

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3 Reasons moisture can damage your shipment

3 Ways Moisture Damages your Shipment

PUBLISHED BY ABSORTECH GROUP 14 JANUARY 2021

The first thing to know about moisture protection is that the enemy is everywhere. The air around you contains water. All it takes is changes in temperature for that moisture to condensate and become a threat to your products. When your products are loaded in a container, the moisture is already there. Although everything may look fine at the time of loading, circumstances will change over the course of the transportation.

Hopefully, we can shed some light on how moisture damage occurs and the alternatives available to avoid it.

#1 Temperature and relative humidity

The relative humidity measures the amount of humidity in the air, compared to the highest possible humidity, what the air can “hold”. For example, 100% Relative Humidity (RH) means that the air is totally saturated, therefore the air cannot hold more water vapor. The higher the relative humidity, the higher the risk for container rain that can damage your products.

However, the triggering factor is the temperature. Temperature affects the relative humidity because the highest possible humidity, what the air can “hold”, depends on the temperature.

A sudden fall in temperature can lead to condensation. And during a shipment, temperature varies with latitude, colder when approaching the Poles, but also during day and night, when temperatures drop.

Temperature is a key factor in the appearance of container rain. But it’s also a factor out of your control, unless you opt for using refrigerated containers for your shipments. It’s an expensive solution commonly used only for temperature-sensitive goods such as fresh food or pharmaceuticals.

#2 Adding moisture during loading and container breathing.

It’s common to accidentally add moisture to the container during loading. This is often because of wet or humid packaging around the products or the boxes that they’re placed in, or commodities that release moisture (like cocoa beans). Sometimes the reason for the packaging or boxes is to protect the products from moisture damage, while it actually increases the threat. Another factor that affects the moisture threat is the fact that no container is airtight. Even a container in great condition will have air and moisture moving in and out of it.

#3 Let it dry out.

Sometimes there isn’t enough time from washing a container to loading it with products. In that case, the container may contain a lot of extra water. This means trouble. It’s important to keep an extra eye out for water on the container floor. Also, if there is wood inside the container, such as pallets and dunnage, it needs to be dry. Otherwise, there is so much unnecessary water in the container that the risk is high that it will cause trouble.

The best way to protect your goods from moisture.

There are many ways to approach the moisture damage issue. We believe very firmly that the best way is to attack the root of the problem: The moisture itself.

Therefore, we use highly efficient calcium chloride desiccants that we dimension to your needs. We monitor how our solution protects your goods through the tracking of your shipments. This way we can tailor a solution that gives you just the protection you need.

This article was written by the Absortech Group appearing in the January 2021 Moisture Magazine. For further insights check out the Absortech Group Moisture Magazine. Protection Experts Australia is the exclusive distributor of Absortech products throughout Australia.

Pro-Ex offer a range of shipping desiccants to keep your cargo free from moisture damage. Contact us today.

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Comparing desiccants: Absorption rate isn’t everything

PUBLISHED BY ABSORTECH GROUP 10 AUGUST 2020

Wow, an absorption rate of 500%! I’m getting these desiccants pronto!

Hang on a sec. As we’ve gone through in this insights series, absorption rate isn’t the only thing to take into account. (This is the third and last article in the series, check the others out to get the whole picture). Sure, absorption rate is important. But so are other factors such as sweating, leakage, re-evaporation and installation accessories. Without taking these into consideration, the actual performance of the desiccants you choose may surprise you. In an unpleasant and costly way.

Let’s go through these factors, we hope it will help you avoid such unwanted surprises.

Sweating

A good desiccant shouldn’t show signs of sweating, because it can contaminate the cargo.

If droplets are found randomly over the breathing surface of the desiccant (the permeable side) it’s an indication that the desiccant materials are of low quality.

Leakage

Leakage can harm your cargo. Droplets found in the welded area on a desiccant indicates the welding equipment may be broken or unreliable. The droplets can also appear due to low quality of the materials welded together. This may lead to severe leaking, with increased moisture levels threatening to damage your shipment.

Re-evaporation

All desiccants will partly re-evaporate over the absorption cycle. It’s a result of changes in temperature and relative humidity during transportation. The fact that the absorption cycle occurs several times from loading to unloading a container is important to take into account. Low quality starch (the component binding moisture into gel in gel-based desiccants) can make the absorbing mix solid after the first absorption cycle. If that happens it will decrease the capacity of the second absorption cycle.

This parameter is especially important to keep in mind when considering climate chamber tests. During these tests, the temperature and humidity is constant. Because of this, you won’t be able to test the drop in performance of low quality calcium chloride desiccants due to re-evaporation.

Installation accessories

Different installation accessories are used by the different manufacturers. Selection of accessories vary because of the desiccant’s installation mode (horizontal or vertical) and the characteristics of the moisture absorber (especially for vertically installed desiccants).

Check that the installation devices are in good shape after the test. They shouldn’t show any signs of mechanical fatigue. The breaking of an installation device can cause the desiccant to drop into the cargo. If that desiccant stores moisture as liquid water, it could have severe consequences for your cargo. Another thing to consider here is that climate chamber tests don’t expose the desiccants to real conditions. For example, g-forces, bumping and jerking are common for a container shipped by boat, train or truck. These forces can affect the installation devices just the same as a careless loading or unloading process.

This article was written by the Absortech Group appearing in the August 2020 Moisture Magazine. For further insights check out the Absortech Group Moisture Magazine. Protection Experts Australia is the exclusive distributor of Absortech products throughout Australia.

Pro-Ex offer a range of shipping desiccants to cater for a variety of cargo and storage needs. Contact us today if you would like to learn more about the optimal shipping desiccant solution for you.

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Your Oxygen Absorber questions answered

We’ve put together a list of some of the most frequently asked questions our customers have asked us over the years. Our hope is they shed some light on a widely used but not always well understood product.

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Managing storage during COVID-19

Whilst COVID-19 marches across the globe, logistics finds itself in a state of flux.  Labour shortages, increased border controls and customs regulations are impacting once-reliable global distribution channels. Fortune magazine reported 94% of Fortune 1000 companies are seeing supply chain disruptions from COVID-19.1

Closer to home, localised shutdowns and restricted state border movements, with the threats of more, have increased the complexities of doing business today.

The certainties of our logistics channels are no longer. 

To this end, businesses are needing to adapt quickly and build resilience into their channels to cope with unexpected delays, mounting regulations and bottlenecks.

As containers stand idle and storage is increasingly relied upon, your products are exposed to temperature fluctuations and moisture damage. Unchecked moisture levels can result in corrosion, damaged packaging, peeling labels, mould and bad odours. Now more than ever, it’s important that your goods arrive in the same condition they left.

Protection Experts Australia offer a range of container and packaging desiccants to control moisture. Whether you are after fast-acting gel-based solutions, non-corrosive clay desiccants, reliable mineral desiccants or the ever-popular silica gel we have a desiccant solution to suit your unique circumstances. 

Check out our desiccant quiz to find out what desiccant best meets your needs.

If you’re looking to remove some of the uncertainties of 2020, contact us at Protection Experts Australia and we can work with you to make sure your goods arrive safely.

 

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Tips to control moisture in your home

As the days get shorter, night-time temperatures plunge and summer becomes a distant memory, spare a thought for your home as you bunker down for the winter months. Aside from the obvious temperature fluctuations, winter months present changes to our lifestyles that impact our households moisture levels.  We firmly shut our doors to the cold, […]