Cold Room Wall Sandwich Panels with PIR Core

Jawdah describes its cold room panels as suitable for spaces that need controlled temperature and reliable insulation. They use the same polyisocyanurate (PIR) core as the rest of the Jawdah wall range, and they are chosen for a cold room by thickness, facing material and joint detailing rather than by a separate product line.

This page is for owners, refrigeration contractors and consultants planning cold stores, chilled food areas, pharmaceutical storage or other conditioned rooms in Saudi Arabia. It explains how to read the Jawdah thermal data for a cold room, which design details matter most, and what to put in the RFQ.

A cold room is a box that must keep heat out continuously. Every square metre of wall, every joint and every penetration lets some heat in, and the refrigeration plant must remove it. A good cold room wall therefore combines an effective insulating core, metal skins that block air and moisture, joints that seal tightly, and internal faces that can be washed.

Sandwich panels meet these needs in one element. The insulated core does the thermal work, the two metal facings act as continuous barriers, and the factory-made edges allow a cold room to be assembled quickly inside an existing building or as a stand-alone structure.

Heat flows from the warm side to the cold side at a rate set by the temperature difference and by the U-value of the wall. Halving the U-value roughly halves the heat entering through that wall, which reduces the load on the refrigeration plant and the energy it uses.

A closed-cell foam such as PIR resists heat flow because most of its volume is small sealed cells. Jawdah gives a closed-cell content above ninety percent for its core, and the metal facings stop air and water vapour from reaching the foam. Together they keep the insulation dry and its performance stable over time.

Jawdah manufactures and supplies insulated panels in Saudi Arabia and helps project teams choose the panel based on project type, insulation needs and installation requirements. Send the room sizes, set temperature, heat-load results and finish requirements, and the Jawdah team will propose a panel build-up and a project-specific quotation.

For cold rooms the most relevant core properties are those that indicate stable insulation: closed-cell content and dimensional stability. Jawdah lists the following values for its PIR core. They describe the core material and are not a performance rating of the complete cold room.

Most cold room failures come from details, not from the panel. Thermal bridges at the wall-to-floor junction, unsealed joints, and service penetrations let warm, humid air reach cold surfaces, where it condenses and, in freezer rooms, turns to ice. Plan an insulated floor or a thermal break at the base, continuous sealing at every joint and corner, and sealed sleeves for pipes and cables.

Doors, pressure relief and lighting are part of the envelope too. Coordinate door openings and their frames with the panel layout early, and use Wall Flashings and hygienic corner trims that leave no ledges for dirt. For the general wall range and other profiles, see Wall Sandwich Panels.

Before handover, walk every joint inside and outside, look for gaps at the floor junction and around penetrations, and confirm that all trims are sealed. After the room reaches its set point, inspect the external face of the walls and corners for condensation lines, which indicate a thermal bridge or an air leak that should be corrected.

Clean internal faces with mild detergents compatible with the coating and rinse with clean water; avoid abrasive tools that scratch the finish and create places for bacteria to collect. Check door seals and joint sealants on a regular schedule, and repair any face damage promptly so that moisture cannot reach the core.

Set out the cold room on a level, prepared base so that panels stand plumb and joints close fully. Engage each panel lock completely and apply the joint sealant specified in the Installation Manual, which Jawdah provides in hard copy. Fix base and corner profiles before the ceiling panels are placed, and keep protective film on the internal faces until other trades have finished.

Pull down the room temperature gradually at commissioning, as is general practice, so that joints and sealants are not stressed by a sudden change.

These errors appear repeatedly on cold store projects and are easy to prevent at the design stage.

Jawdah lists cold storage rooms, food and production facilities and temperature-controlled facilities among the uses of its sandwich panel systems. In its own words, insulated panels can support cold rooms and temperature-controlled spaces when selected according to the project's thermal and technical requirements.

The panels use a PIR foam core, which the company states meets the DIN 4102 B2 fire classification. Jawdah supplies roof, wall and cold room panel systems to projects in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and other regions, and provides a Technical Data Sheet, a System Catalogue, an Installation Manual in hard copy and Tests in hard copy on request.

Jawdah facings are available in PPGI (pre-painted galvanised iron), aluminium, stainless steel and galvanised iron, with polyester or PVDF coating; Cloud White is the standard colour. For cold rooms the internal face matters most, because it is washed often and is in contact with stored products or packaging.

As a general rule, white pre-painted steel is the common internal face for general food storage, and stainless steel is preferred where strong cleaning chemicals, high humidity or strict hygiene audits are expected. The external face can be selected separately to suit the surrounding hall or the outdoor exposure.

Jawdah does not publish a thickness per cold room temperature. Use the wall thermal table below together with the refrigeration engineer's heat-load calculation: the larger the difference between the room set point and the surrounding air, the lower the wall U-value should be, which usually means a thicker panel.

The same logic applies to the cold room ceiling, which often uses the same wall panels spanning between walls or suspended from the structure; confirm that arrangement with the Jawdah team.