At the beginning of the 1970s, the Großkopf family founded a company under the management of Peter Großkopf to manufacture transport refrigeration systems. These were already characterised at that time by an environmentally friendly generator drive via V-belt drive from the truck engine as well as a self-supporting plastic housing with external evaporators for utilizing the full cargo space and noise reduction. By using R502 instead of R12 and the high-performance refrigerants R13B1 and R22 respectively, it was possible to double the refrigerating capacity. New highly efficient roller blowers for optimum air distribution made the otherwise necessary air duct systems superfluous, even in extremely long cargo holds.

The developments of the 80s were characterised by new logistical tasks. Multi-temperature zones on the refrigerated vehicles optimised route planning. Initially, fan systems with electric heating for up to three chamber-applications were developed for this purpose, and later split systems with extremely flat additional evaporators. The transport refrigeration machines were further optimised in terms of noise emissions by re-designing the speed of all components. When the hole in the ozone layer was discovered in the 1980s, Peter Großkopf immediately commissioned extensive research into environmentally friendly alternative refrigerants. Even then, German environmental policy demanded a GWP value below 2000 for all new refrigerants. All those with higher GWP values were only to be used as replacement refrigerants for transport refrigeration systems and were no longer to be filled into new equipment.

Promoted by the Ministry of the Environment, eight low-noise, low-emission and CFC-free refrigerated vehicles were presented in 1990 at the instigation of the German Federal Environment Agency. At the same time, FRIGOBLOCK was the first manufacturer of transport refrigeration machines worldwide to abandon the use of CFCs. R22 had already been replaced by R507, and the entire range was also converted to the then environmentally friendly high-performance refrigerant R410A. 

With a GWP value of less than 1800 at the time, this technology was 20 years ahead of the market. R410A, in addition to its low GWP value, was also chosen for its low specific energy consumption to produce evaporator discharge air temperatures down to -50 °C. 

From 2000 onwards, the hybrid system for long-distance and distribution transport was developed to series production readiness. The drive is provided by a 50 hp 3-cylinder Mercedes Common Rail diesel engine with 800 cm ³ or by the FRIGOBLOCK generator of the truck engine.

In addition to a fuel saving of 50 %, the cooling capacity was increased by more than 50 %. The total system weight decreased by 500 kg. Diesel emissions that are still common today in unfiltered industrial diesel engines, such as particulate emissions and nitrogen oxides, were already reduced by a factor of 1000 at that time. 

In parallel to the hybrid introduction, work was carried out on a new generation of high-performance refrigeration machines with a 2-stage refrigeration circuit and up to 3 external evaporators. In 2011, the development was awarded the German Refrigeration Prize for innovative, environmentally friendly developments in the field of transport refrigeration by the Federal Ministry for the Environment. The development of the inverter technology, used for the first time in transport refrigeration, for demand-oriented control of the refrigeration compressor and all fan motors as well as the use of the environmentally friendly refrigerant propene were all honoured.

With the start of the series production of a new generation of high-performance refrigeration systems with inverter technology, powered by new water-cooled generators that were suitable for fitting to the latest Euro VI truck engines of truck manufacturers, sales negotiations with interested parties were initiated. In 2015, following the approval of the German antitrust authorities, the company was sold to Ingersoll Rand with clear conditions attached.

A few months after the sale, Peter Großkopf decided to found Umweltstiftung Grosskopf GmbH. Since then, he has continued to dedicate his time and extensive knowledge to the continued development of future-oriented transport refrigeration machines he pioneered at FRIGOBLOCK. 

This happened on the one hand at the request of many customers, and on the other, as essential conditions and agreements that were promised personally by Ingersoll Rand / Thermo King before the sale were sadly never realised.