ARBS has announced the finalists for this year's industry awards and as usual, there are plenty of high calibre nominations.
CCN profiles some of the finalists including the three oustanding Young Achiever Award finalists - Stuart Bryson of Fantech, Vahid Vakiloroaya of Hi Air Australia and Brett Saunders of Hiflow Industries.
Stuart Bryson of Fantech has a vision to create leading edge software and develop a reliable IT hardware platform. Bryson has redeveloped the Fans by Fantech Product Selection Program version 5.0 and in doing so, made it quicker and easier for the HVAC industry to select, compare and schedule fans and silencers.
In fact, he wrote version 5.0 from scratch. To do this, Bryson liaised with consultants, contractors, draftspeople, salespeople and engineers to ensure the new user interface was clear and easy to use and that all the required functionality was included.
The feedback resulted in a basic mode for novice users, the incorporation of 2D DWG, DXF and 3D Revit files for all products, and an energy sustainability calculator.
Brett Saunders is the 32 year old founder and managing director of Hiflow Industries. Passionate about business and the HVAC&R industry, Saunders started Hiflow in November 2005. He has led his team to success by sharing his vision of being an industry leader by providing exceptional service delivery to his client base.
Now boasting offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and working with some of the largest clients and buildings within Australia, Saunders continues to inspire and motivate with his enthusiasm to expand his knowledge and identify future innovative ways to improve service delivery and operational efficiency across our industry sector.
Vahid Vakiloroaya of Hi Air Australia has 10 years’ experience as an engineer in HVAC systems. In his role, he designs, calculates and implements HVAC systems.
Vakiloroaya’s passion for HVAC engineering is based on improving the lives of other people, coupled with his novel designs and focus on sustainability. His commitment to energy efficiency is creating new opportunities for sustainable HVAC engineering.
For the past 18 months Vakiloroaya has been developing a new air conditioning system, the ‘Ultra Cooler’, which he hopes will reduce energy consumption by 60 per cent compared with traditional systems.
The education and training award is set to be another competitive category this year.
As the preeminent employer/industry association dedicated exclusively to the air conditioning and mechanical services industry, the Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors’ Association (AMCA) has a strong role to play as an educator.
A finalist in this year’s Outstanding Industry Education/Training Award is its 22052VIC Certificate IV in Drafting (Air Conditioning and Mechanical Services) program. This nationally accredited traineeship provides draftspersons with industry specific training in the air conditioning and mechanical services industry.
All training and assessments are undertaken in the workplace by qualified industry trainers and assessors. Participants select current mechanical projects as the structure to complete the workplace-based assignments.
Another prominent organisation training our future refrigerant technicians is Daikin Australia, providing web-based training for air conditioning technicians who are contributing to the next generation of thermal comfort in Australian homes.
The third finalist in this category is Heatcraft Australia, which has a longstanding commitment to provide trusted customer service to the trade. Last year, Heatcraft collaborated with NSW Granville TAFE to customise a refrigeration fundamentals course for select branch Customer Service Representatives (CSRs).
The four-day course contains both theory and practical components and is structured to give CSRs introductory knowledge of the refrigeration process and the products used in that process. More than 40 CSRs have completed the course to date.
Another category that always showcases outstanding excellence in the HVAC&R industry is the project excellence categories including the refrigeration project award.
Details of these categories are featured in the May edition of Climate Control News magazine. In this special edition of the magazine is a 70-page preview of the ARBS Exhibition to be held from May 20-22, 2014.
Finally, the ARBS 2014 gala awards dinner will see five inductees to the ARBS Hall of Fame.
These dedicated industry professionals have made huge contributions to industry, and we are pleased to celebrate their achievements. Inductees are Kevin Lee, Alan Obrart, Bill Siganto, Albert Watson and Alan Woodhouse.
Once again the ARBS Industry Awards gala dinner is shaping up to be another memorable evening on Wednesday, May 21, at the Grant Hyatt in Melbourne. For tickets go to www.arbs.com.au