ANN ARBOR, Mich., and ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Tecumseh Products Co. and Torad Engineering announced that they have entered into a joint development and licensing agreement to use Torad’s patented spool compressor technology in commercial refrigeration applications. The companies said initial development work has already begun.

According to the companies, the combination of Torad’s spool design and Tecumseh’s refrigeration R&D capability has the goal of bringing smaller, more efficient, and more reliable compressor technology to the commercial refrigeration marketplace.

“At Tecumseh, we know that our motor technology is the key driver of future change,” said Jim Connor, Tecumseh president and CEO. “This partnership with Torad and utilization of the spool machine technology enables us to take Tecumseh compressors to the next technological level. We think this is a game-changer, much the way scroll technology was when it was introduced 30 years ago.”

The spool compressor technology has a simple rotary design with four main components: rotor, main housing, vane, and bearing housing. Torad said this allows components to be manufactured using lower cost capital equipment. Reliability features include tolerance of liquid floodback, one moving assembly, and no axial loads assisting in bearing longevity.

“Torad’s spool technology will transform the refrigerant compressor market, enabling forward-looking companies like Tecumseh to dramatically reduce manufacturing costs, improve margins, and grow market share,” said Joe Orosz, president of Torad Compressor. “We are very excited to be teaming with Tecumseh, a great American company with a strong heritage of innovation, manufacturing excellence, and an outstanding support and distribution channel.”

“This is a major step in the commercialization of the spool machine technology,” said Torad CEO and spool machine inventor, Greg Kemp. “We are pleased to be taking this important step with Tecumseh, a brand known worldwide for quality products and service. As the core spool machine technology continues to develop, we will see cost savings and energy efficiency improvement across a broad range of applications, such as gas compression, waste heat recovery, and internal combustion engines.”

For more information on Torad’s spool compressor technology, visit www.toradengineering.com. For more information on Tecumseh, visit www.tecumseh.com.

Publication date: 7/9/2012