Cold Jet, a maker of dry ice production and blasting equipment, is helping support COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
The Loveland, Ohio-based company, which serves the plastics and rubber industries, said the vaccines must be kept very cold at -109.3° F during storage and shipment to remain "stable and viable."
And that, Cold Jet said, is where the company comes in by helping industry and governments safety distribute doses around the world with dry ice made from its machines.
Dry ice is made from recycled carbon dioxide. The material sublimates without creating waste or residue.
"Dosing dry ice directly into temperature-controlled thermal shippers is the only way to maintain that temperature level during transit and storage," said Wim Eeckelaers, managing director of EMEA, Cold Jet, in a statement. "At all points in the vaccine transportation and distribution cold chain, dry ice is needed to maintain temperature."
Cold Jet machines can produce up to 1,600 pounds of dry ice per hour and are engineered to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"From the packaging lines at a multinational pharmaceutical company to distribution centers at global logistics companies and locally within hundreds of communities around the world, Cold Jet machines are producing dry ice at all points in the vaccine distribution cold chain," the company said.
"The impact of COVID-19 on global health and the global economy has been painful, but Cold Jet is extremely proud to play such a vital part in the distribution process of a vaccine," Eeckelaers said.
Cold Jet provides environmental cleaning, surface preparation and parts finishing systems to manufacturers using dry ice as a blasting medium. The company also makes systems for the production, metering and packaging of dry ice.