TDG offers an 'ice' opportunity to TV inventors
International logistics and supply chain experts TDG embarked on a project to help inventors from the BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory programme create a warship made from ice.
The company was brought on-board as it owns one of the UK’s largest cold storage facilities in Tilbury, Essex. The property was the only place suitable to test out the theory that warships could be made from water frozen in moulds. The idea came from an inventor in the 1940s who suggested it could be possible to make an unsinkable aircraft carrier from wood pulp and ice, frozen into a mould.
BBC producers sought out the TDG Temperature Controlled depot in order to put the theory to the test. A team put the idea to the test by mixing 5,000 litres of water with the raw wood pulp and freezing it in a 20 foot long boat shaped mould. It took three weeks to freeze it in TDG’s Temperature Controlled facility before being launched in the Solent in Hampshire.
Jeff Mills, general manager at TDG’s cold store in Tilbury says: “We were delighted to be asked to take part in this experiment. In fact, we’re often asked to find new and innovative solutions to existing temperature controlled logistical issues.
“The warehouse in Tilbury usually houses fruit and meat so the ice boat was a bit of a departure for our employees. The BBC’s enquiry was possibly the most unusual we have received but we were more than able and very happy to help out. Now we’re back to business as normal in preparation for the forthcoming festive season which is always an extremely busy time for us.”
The episode of Bang Goes the Theory featuring TDG’s warehouse is on BBC1 at 7.30pm on Wednesday October 13th 2010.
