The 2016 International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo), held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., welcomed 60,926 registered attendees. Thousands of contractors and engineers, OEMs, distributors and plant managers, from all facets of the global HVACR industry, converged at AHR Expo making it the world’s largest HVACR marketplace. In total 469,540 square feet, of exhibit space, was occupied by 2,063 exhibitors.  This year’s 18,254 exhibitor personnel addressed 42,672 visitors, based on a preliminary attendance count by the show’s management company, International Exposition Company.


I donned my roving-reporter hat and rather randomly visited as many booths as I could. Due to article space and visit-time constraints, I must apologize in advance to those not mentioned here and also for the brevity of my comments.


Chiller Technology


I had the distinct privilege of meeting the Chairman and CEO of the Smardt Chiller Group, Roger Richmond-Smith. He’s an Australian entrepreneur who can intermix true stories of pioneering engineering with magnetic bearings and oil-free centrifugal compressors (which evolved into the Turbocore refrigeration compressor technology) together with adventure tales of relocating 20 Australian families (+ one unhappy parrot) to Quebec with dreams of conquering North America. Today, the Smardt Chiller Group is a leading global chiller manufacturers laying claim to possesses the largest installed base of oil-free centrifugal chillers (more than 4000 units). Smardt operates significant manufacturing operations in upstate New York, Canada, China and Germany.


Smardt Chiller Group Chairman and CEO Roger Richmond-Smith next to their V-Class Pony Express R-134a 1500 ton chiller.


Motivair had an impressive booth featuring a huge MLC-SC air-cooled scroll chiller. General Manager Rich Whitmore walked me through its’ R-410A scroll compressors, condenser fans driven by electronically commutated variable speed motors, optional free-cooling and shell and tube evaporators featuring two independent refrigeration circuits. Featuring models ranging from 100-285 tons, an optional third refrigeration circuit is possible. Featuring a multi-character LCD display, PLC control is provided by the PCO5 control system.


 Rich Whitmore next to a Motivair® MLC-SC air-cooled, scroll, free-cooling chiller.


Multistack Executive Vice President, Ralph Breisch, took a few minutes to review “what’s new in 2016” from this Sparta, Wisconsin based chiller manufacturer. This included new ASC air-cooled chillers ranging from 20-195 ton models with two refrigeration circuits per chiller, VME II pump skids, MagLev VTT™ refrigeration compressors and the MultiPRO™ Central Plant Controller. This company has a significant investment into the “systems” philosophy of helping a building/plant manage thermal requirements – while reducing waste. Their VME (Virtual Moveable Endcap) II pump skids provide full-load, partial-load efficiency (and can integrate free-cooling during the winter) for simultaneous and variable heating and cooling.  Available from 30 to 1320 tons, these pre-engineered solutions represent Multistack’s focus on recapturing the heat rejected by chillers and reducing boiler natural gas consumption.


Ralph Breisch reviewed the new VME II™ chillers at the Multistack booth.


The Arctic Chiller Group manufactures a wide range of modular water-cooled chillers (up to 1600 tons) and air-cooled chillers (up to 450 tons) out of manufacturing facilities in Canada, South Carolina and Italy. Their Newberry, South Carolina plant manufactures and stocks critical-duty medical and process chillers. Their booth was incredibly busy yet their VP of Sales and Marketing, Mark Rogan, generously took a few minutes to explain their success serving both commercial HVAC and industrial process applications, “Our engineering expertise with scroll, screw and oil-free magnetic bearing refrigeration compressors allows us to offer an incredibly broad range of options including clean-while-running-strainers, integrated automatic free-cooling and heat recovery for simultaneous heating and cooling.”


Mark Rogan, Vice President Sales & Marketing, from the Arctic Chiller Group.


MTA had a nice booth exhibiting “plug and play” packaged chillers and free-cooling solutions.  John Medeiros, MTA U.S.A. Managing Director said, “We continue to support our chiller OEM’s with significant commitments to inventory in Buffalo while we in-factory process cooling applications continue to grow.” The booth featured an ARIES partial-mode, free-cooling chiller system able to automate and integrate the benefits of the free-cooling mode when ambient temperatures are in a range up to 18 °F lower than the required fluid outlet temperature.  Under these conditions, all the refrigeration compressors, in the condensing section of the chiller, are switched OFF.


Lewis Rains, Don Joyce, Paolo Bianchettin, John Medeiros, Roberto Bettin, and Craig Thoresen standing next to the ARIES free-cooling chiller at the MTA booth (left to right).


The average data center uses approximately 4 million gallons of cooling water per megawatt per year. Emerson Network Power announced the deployment of the Liebert® DSE pumped refrigerant economization system has saved over 1.4 billion gallons of water (over the past 36 months) in North American data center installations. The Liebert DSE system is the first pumped refrigerant economization system for use in data centers, and uses no water and introduces no outside air into the data center. A recent Emerson survey of mechanical engineers showed that 55 percent expect pumped refrigerant economization to be the number one technology replacing chilled water systems over the next five years.


John Peter Valiulis, from Emerson Network Power, discussed the water-saving benefits of their Liebert® DSE pumped refrigerant economization system.


Fricon USA is based outside of Atlanta and specializes in ice-makers, air-cooled chillers, modular chillers, industrial condensing units and industrial condensing units for food processing plants, slaughterhouses, ice plants, blast freezers, cold rooms and food storage/distribution facilities. They manufacture both an Industrial and a Commercial line-up of products featuring Bitzer scroll refrigeration compressors. Interestingly, they’ve long operated an “export-only” business but President Fernando Escuela told me they’ve just received UL Certification and are starting to focus on the U.S. market.


Pedro Grenier and Fernando Escuela at the Fricon USA booth (left to right).


EcoChillers is a Mexico-based chiller manufacturer with sales offices in Miami and Laredo, Texas. Process Engineer Pedro Machain told me of an interesting installation in Queretaro where a metal stamper asked for a 300 ton chiller. They did a system assessment and sold a 150 ton chiller with a dry cooler! They manufacture a broad range of Ecogreen® 7.5 – 256 ton chillers with different screw, water—cooled and dry/free cooling chiller models. Newly introduced was an ECT chiller featuring scroll refrigeration compressor technology.



Max Madrid next to the new ECT scroll chiller at the EcoChillers booth.


Cooling Towers


I enjoyed meeting the team at New Jersey based Delta Cooling Towers. They manufacture non-corroding, engineered-plastic (HDPE) cooling towers backed by a 20-year shell warranty, which will not rust, corrode, or require the downtime for service common with traditional metallic towers. President John Flaherty said, “We designed our first engineered plastic cooling tower in 1971 and are proud to offer an industry-leading 20-year warranty on the tower casing.” The company also manufactures packaged cooling systems and air stripping equipment.


Joe Humza, David Blodgett and John Flaherty at the Delta Cooling Tower booth (left to right).

 
REYMSA literature stakes a claim as the leader in high-grade “all fiberglass” cooling towers. Edgar Alanis explained they are constructed of high-grade FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester) and are corrosion resistant. They have a 30+ year life expectancy and carry a 15-year warranty for the casing and structure. Bearing the “CTI Certified” stamp, the thermal performance of REYMSA cooling towers is certified by the Cooling Technology Institute. The RT and RTM models feature direct-drives while the RTG and RTGM models are gear-driven systems. All motors are severe and marine-duty premium efficient motors (featuring the Inpro/Seal VGX Bearing isolator) with 5-year warranties.


Ing. Rubiela Arias and Edgar Alanis at the REYMSA booth (left to right).


Refrigeration Compressors and Measurement


David Hules, from Emerson Climate Technologies, presented the second generation of its Copeland Scroll™ variable speed ZPV2 refrigeration compressor and EV2 motor control drive for light commercial applications. The ZPV2 features intermediate discharge valves to boost efficiency, optimized scroll elements for variable speed performance, positive displacement oil pump for enhanced reliability in low speed operation and brushless permanent magnet motor technology for maximum efficiency.


David Hules, from Emerson Climate Technologies, presented the second generation Copeland Scroll™ variable speed ZPV2 refrigeration compressor.
 


Vaisala manufactures a full range of humidity instruments for the HVAC industry. Steve Santoro walked me through their range of INTERCAP® wall-mount, duct-mount and outdoor, humidity and temperature transmitters. They also manufacture a range of carbon dioxide instruments consisting of duct and wall mount transmitters equipped with their proprietary CARBOCAP® sensor.


Source: coolingbestpractices