Rinac produces mobile ICU facilities for COVID-19 relief with BASF’s Elastopir^® solutions 

• Fully insulated and modular built mobile ICU facilities support India’s pressing need for more hospital beds
• Elastopir^® equips facilities with superior fire resistance and increased energy efficiency
• Best-in-class insulating material, Elastopir, is used in healthcare facilities for the first time

Mumbai and Bangalore, India – December 10, 2020 – Rinac India Limited (Rinac), India’s leading insulated panel and refrigeration system producer, has recently produced mobile medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities made with BASF’s Elastopir^®, a high-quality polyurethane rigid foam insulation solution. Traditionally used in the construction of refrigerated spaces for cold storage and animal farming, Elastopir is being used for healthcare facilities for the first time. These facilities will support India’s urgent need for more hospital beds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each mobile medical facility unit has five beds and is entirely prefabricated, making it easy to configure the number of beds based on the needs. It can also be redeployed to different locations across the country using trailers.

“We need the ICU facilities to be fully airtight and insulated to ensure the safety of our healthcare workers and minimize transmission of the virus,” said Soji Abraham, Senior Vice President Strategy at Rinac India. “Thanks to BASF‘s Elastopir, the wall panels made with this excellent insulating material can help meet these requirements. With its extra high-temperature stability, the patients can recuperate comfortably with consistent indoor temperatures at 22-25 degrees celsius. Most importantly, Elastopir’s superior fire performance helps enhance the protection of these facilities against fires.”

By reducing air loss and solar gain, Elastopir lowers energy consumption and helps increase the facilities’ energy efficiency. For the same insulation performance, panels produced with Elastopir are 50%-100% thinner than other traditional materials such as concrete. With thinner walls and envelopes, the mobile ICU facilities have more usable space and higher flexibility during construction.

“BASF is also sponsoring* a unit of the ICU facility as part of its social engagement,” said Andy Postlethwaite, Senior Vice President of Performance Materials, Asia Pacific, BASF. “We aim to ‘go beyond’ by developing ever more innovative, sustainable solutions that help our customers, such as Rinac produce the highest quality and most energy-efficient insulation panels for their medical units.”

Apart from medical facilities, Elastopir can be widely used in cold stores and freezers to store perishable goods with its outstanding thermal insulation properties. The stable and consistent temperature and humidity levels can help keep food fresher and prolong the shelf-life. When used in livestock buildings, Elastopir helps farmers achieve lower heating bills, increase productivity, and improve animal health and working environments for the employees.

For more details about the mobile ICU, click here. For more information about Elastopir, click here.

*          Sponsorship of the ICU facility is by BASF South East Asia Pte. Ltd. and BASF East Asia Regional Headquarters Ltd.

About Rinac India Limited

Rinac India Limited is an integrated engineering solutions company. Nothing excites us more than engineering end-to-end solutions for the cold chain and modular construction industries. We set no limits to curiosity, innovation, and ingenuity; constantly questioning perfection and asking ourselves ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not’ every day. As a result, frontrunners in several industries come to us for total solutions in the cold chain and construction infrastructure. And they stay on for our domain expertise, technology leadership, service excellence, and customizing capabilities. Rinac offers solutions right from farm to plate for an uninterrupted cold chain, viz: harvest level pre coolers, ripening chambers, CA chambers, pack house, process refrigeration, cold ware houses, distribution & cold dispensing at retail for the following user segments: Agro, Hospitality, Pharma, Dairy, Food processing, Food service, Food Retail & Retail in the cold chain solution as well as vaccine warehouse, distribution storage and refrigerated trucks for distribution of Vaccines. In the construction solutions vertical, the company offers products right from concept to commissioning for the following user segments: Pharma, Food processing, Automobile, Textile, Telecom, Engineering & Retail. www.rinac.com.

About BASF

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. More than 117,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of €59 billion in 2019. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the U.S. Further information at www.basf.com.