Eps Panel Maker’S Products in High Demand

Zer-O-Loc Enterprises Ltd., based in Richmond, B.C., was launched in 1969 when Bill Strand began making and selling walk-in coolers and freezers. Today, the company is the largest manufacturer of EPS insulated panels and doors in North America with sales last year topping 16 million.

Steady growth in the reputation of its product line and customer base, as well as innovation, have been the keys to the expansion of the company’s business, says Garry Peakman, major account representative. Both the Richmond and Brantford, Ontario facilities manufacture their own EPS from base polystyrene supplied by BASF. They purchased their first billet mold in 1981, to produce high quality insulation for their custom-made line of insulated panels. The new billet molds, now used at both plants, make EPS billets ranging from 16 ft. to 20ft. The EPS, slabbed to a variety of thicknesses, is clad with prepainted, galvanized steel to form an insulated panel. The finished panels have an R-value of 4.17 per inch. The panels can be adjusted in thickness to meet the R-value requirement of any particular application.

The company’s EPS insulated panel systems are used in the walls, doors and ceilings of industrial and commercial coolers and freezers, cold storage warehouses, process rooms, clean rooms, as well as exterior and non-refrigerated applications. Zer-O-Loc’s insulated panels were used in the construction of a building familiar to all commuters on Toronto’s 401 corridor, the huge Conestoga Cold Storage facility in Mississauga. Zer-O-Loc has sales offices in each of the production facilities, as well as in Kirkland, WA.