Chillers and the People They Work For

A chiller can be incredibly common and may seem quite simple as well. Sometimes a chiller keeps your food fresh, like a refrigerator or freezer. Other times a chiller keeps your house at a reasonably comfortable temperature, like an air conditioner. A chiller may be hiding in a place that you least expect to find it. For example, many DVD players and laptops harbor a tiny little chiller that keeps the little motor running smoothly. On our end of the deal, a chiller makes life convenient and comfortable, and all we have to do is plug in the cord and pay the electric bill. However, a chiller can be much more serious and complex for the people whose lives depend on it functioning properly.

While most people use a chiller in the form of a refrigerator in order to keep food fresh and safe, some people need a chiller to keep food and drugs at very specific temperatures. In the food processing industry, a chiller must keep foods at certain temperatures during the preparation period, then at a different temperature for the packing stage, and then at another temperature for the shipment and storage stage. If a chiller malfunctions anywhere along the way, the food could be spoiled or develop colonies of bacteria. Every time there is a recall for an outbreak of salmonella, the situation might have been prevented with a properly functioning chiller.

Prescription drugs can be very tricky to work with as well. During the processing stage, certain ingredients must be mixed together at specific temperatures, and developers rely on a chiller for these steps. If the ingredients are mixed together at a temperature that is too low, then the ingredients will not homogenize thoroughly. If the ingredients are mixed together at a temperature that is too high, some of the active cultures and bacteria could be killed. It would be very dangerous for people to receive medications that have lost their healing power. People who take heart medications, or blood thinning medications, or even anti-psychotic prescriptions place their lives in the hands of the drug companies.

In some cases, a chiller is used in a very common way, but the results of a malfunction or technical failure could be disastrous. Think about hospitals and nursing homes, especially the ones that are many stories high. People who reside in these facilities often do not have the strength or capability of resisting high temperatures. Small summer heat waves could fatally injure these people who depend upon the staff at the facility to take care of their health. If the chiller that provides temperature control in the building were to falter, the end result could be tragic.