Buffalo Trident research and development engineer Luke Dowling delivered a presentation at the roadshow on where products are heading and outlined a number of successful customer projects currently underway.
With over 60 staff at its Victorian facility, Buffalo Trident manufactures a wide range of heat exchange equipment.
Dowling says the company engaged in 15 months of development prior to the release of the LDV-D condenser in July.
“About 18 months ago we began working with customers using free heat and heat recovery from refrigeration,” he says. “A glycol-assisted defrost plant project delivered big financial savings and we are planning more transcritical CO2 projects in future.
“We are also looking at new tube sizes. The plan is to go smaller and [in October] we
begin adiabatic cooling trials.”
Currently coils can be manufactured in copper from 3/8” OD up to 5/8” OD up to lengths of six meters fin length. In addition to copper, Dowling said the company is looking to use stainless steel in future.
Buffalo’s products are suitable for evaporator or condenser application in refrigeration and air conditioning systems, fluid/glycol coolers, heat recovery, and coolant radiators for heavy machinery.
These designs can be applied with a range of refrigerants from R134A and R410A to R22 and R404A as well as secondary fluids such as glycol.
Bitzer’s head of industrial refrigeration, Tim Kroeger, says demand for ammonia is rising.
“As a result we are working with small to medium ammonia chillers, glycol evaporators, ammonia pump vessels, heat pumps and cascade systems,” he said. “This includes an ammonia glycol chiller project in South Australia.”
“Bitzer compressors are setting a new benchmark; they are the only certified compressors for CO2 applications and the importance of Co2 refrigeration systems for subcritical and transcritical applications is also rising.”
While the growth has been at different speeds around the globe, northern Europe and Australia are leading the way.”
He said Bitzer turned its attention to this technology early on, launching products on the market to meet different requirements and constantly developing them. Bitzer’s new Ecoline semi-hermetic piston compressors range from 5 to 267 m³/h (60 Hz), and are incredibly powerful.
In addition to the hybrid solutions for supermarkets, the new Ecoline compressors can be used for any other application and refrigerant including R404A, R407A, R507A, R290 and R1270, offering maximum system efficiency and reliability.
The motor version 2 is now the universal motor size for medium and low-temperature applications, even with a tropical ambient temperature.
Motor versions 1 or 3 are used for heat pumps, medium-temperature refrigeration with R134a, and special applications.
Thanks to the new valve plate system, among other new features, Bitzer increased the cooling capacity by up to eight per cent.
The Ecostar compact condensing units can be assembled quickly and easily, requiring only one-third of the space for multiple refrigeration systems, he said.
The variable speed drives, which are maintenance-free, provide a continuous operating range, adjustable between 25 and 87 Hz.