Treating catastrophically ill children from all over the world, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital maintains the highest standards of care and service. While a clean, healthy environment is imperative to any health care facility, it was paramount to St. Jude as engineers there selected the air-handling units for a new, state-of-the-art tower, dedicated to both research and clinical care.

Located in Memphis, Tenn., the not-for-profit center was founded by comedian Danny Thomas. The specialized research done at St. Jude made selecting its air handlers difficult. The hospital required handlers that could meet its heavy filtration needs and were constructed with stainless steel mechanisms to maintain a sterile environment. As part of the planned addition, scheduled for completion in mid-2007, Trane will provide seven Custom Climate Changers to circulate conditioned air, one M-series air handler, and approximately 20 variable frequency drives to control pumps and fan motors while maximizing efficiency and energy savings.

The air handlers circulate conditioned air and are built to each facility’s unique specifications. Custom Climate Changers are put through ARI 260 sound testing to ensure that hospitals receive the most quiet units.

St. Jude was familiar with Trane for nearly a decade as a user of the company’s centrifugal chillers and some unitary equipment. Nonetheless, the facility had to be shown that Trane could deliver air handlers with the same high degree of performance.

“These sick kids need a sterile environment,” said Chris Claude, general sales manager for Trane. “That is why we suggested custom air handlers. St. Jude demanded the highest in quality, so we persuaded the decision-makers there to visit our factory in Ft. Smith, Ark., so they could ‘kick the tires.’ That way, they could see Trane’s capabilities first-hand and that our people understood their requirements exactly.”

"We bid on the project along with three other companies, all of which came in at a very competitive cost," he continued. "Therefore, Trane was selected due to the past satisfaction of services provided to St. Jude."

“We have a great relationship with Trane, because of their providing reliable chillers,” said Bill Dudley, deputy director, utilities and facilities projects at St. Jude. “We are excited to have Trane custom air handlers on this project to continue our strong relationship.”

For more information, go to www.trane.com.

Publication date: 01/08/2007