Opening doors of commercial refrigerators with a touch is already a reality.
At first sight, it seems that there is not much technology regard the doors used in commercial refrigeration equipment present in supermarkets and other retail establishments. But this is not the real situation.
Touch type doors, which open with a single touch of the user or only by approximation and that closes automatically are gaining space in developed countries.
In the offered system by companies such as the German Schott Flat Glass, the double-glazing doors, which are practically invisible, open automatically thanks to an integrated sensor which is activated due to the movement of the consumer in direction of the door. The sensor reacts to any movement within a defined radius of action. At the moment that the buyer’s hand approaches this radius of action, the doors open silently inside the refrigerator.
The reason for this development is not only the consumer’s convenience. Indeed, this is the least important factor for its adoption by supermarkets, which has been gaining force in countries in Europe. It provides, for example, an impacting purchase experience for the consumer, which is an increasingly important differential for retailers.
The great incentive for adopting the system is the saving which it allows, linked to sustainability.
The issue of the trend in using closed equipment in supermarkets has already been emphasized in the magazine previously, due to the energy saving which it brings. Preserving the cold better is seen today as an excellent way of reducing energy consumption.
According to studies of Schott, the use of double-glazing doors in closed cabinets saves up to 65% of the electricity compared with open cabinets. “To have an idea of the impact which the consumption of electricity in supermarkets has on the domestic economy, the latest study of the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras), performed in 2014, revealed that in that year the segment of Brazilian supermarkets consumed 8.6 GWh, the equivalent of 2.5% of the energy consumption in all the country and that it represented a cost of approximately R$ 3.5 billion only with electricity”, reports Maria Cristina Cardoso, Sales and Marketing directress for South America of Schott Flat Glass. The company presented its system in Brazil at the start of May 2018, during the supermarket sector trade fair APAS Show.
In the case of doors which do not even require the user’s touch to open, there are advantages also from the point of view of hygiene: as there is no contact of the hands with the doors, it avoids dirt and the possible contamination by bacteria and other elements.
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