According to a statement from the company, “The new center adds value to customer experience showcasing refrigeration solutions for supermarket, foodservice, cold storage, and industrial cooling applications with a high-tech laboratory and training facility.”

The facility in Stone Mountain, Ga., was unveiled in mid-October during a grand opening event attended by Heatcraft customers, industry experts, trade media, and local officials. Located at Heatcraft North America, the facility highlights the company’s more than 125 years of refrigeration involvement and focuses on products and training.

“The opening of the Heatcraft Innovation Center marks an exciting time for our company as it will further strengthen our capabilities of providing best-in-class refrigeration equipment and complete systems to our customers,” said Larry Golen, vice president and general manager for Heatcraft North America. “In addition to being a place where our latest global innovations can be showcased, the facility will serve as a strategic resource for our customers in product development, testing, and training.”

The set up includes a 30,000-square-foot laboratory to which has been added a 15,000-square-foot development center. The innovation center includes three main areas: equipment and systems showroom, training facility, and expanded laboratory.

The showroom displays more than 60 refrigeration setups across a wide variety of markets including food retail, foodservice, cold storage, and industrial cooling.

The 3,500-square-foot training facility housed within the Innovation Center contains operational refrigeration systems designed to create a hands-on learning environment for beginners to those with advanced technical skills.

The expanded global lab with locations in both Stone Mountain and Columbus, Ga., will allow for “more robust equipment and complete systems testing using realistic environmental conditions ensuring products are up to the highest of quality standards and in compliance with regulatory requirements,” the manufacturer said.

Upon entering the Heatcraft Innovation Center, visitors “will experience a realistic food retail environment as the showroom boasts replicas of a supermarket and restaurant kitchen exhibiting the company’s latest energy-efficient products and systems,” the company said. Refrigerated display cases are fully merchandised and divided into produce, bakery, frozen foods, dairy, meat, and convenience departments.

In a mechanical room setting, the company is showing its Slim Contour Unit Cooler, a refrigeration remote control monitoring system, the microchannel air-cooled condenser platform, and a CO2 refrigeration system. Customers visiting the facility will also see products from across Heatcraft Worldwide Refrigeration including a portfolio of microchannel condensing units, SunSource Solar panel installations powering the global lab facility, and Lennox Energence energy-efficient commercial HVAC rooftop unit.

Publication date: 11/26/2012