CHICAGO - Alfa Laval held a press conference at the 2009 AHR Expo to discuss its recent acquisition of Standard Refrigeration and to introduce a few new products.

According to Alfa Laval management, the merger of Standard Refrigeration “creates the most complete product offering of liquid-to-liquid and liquid-to-refrigerant heat exchangers available to the North American air conditioning and commercial and industrial refrigeration markets.”

“Alfa Laval is a leading global supplier of plate heat exchangers and brazed heat exchangers,” noted Phil Gatto. “Standard Refrigeration is one of the leading shell-and-tube heat exchanger suppliers in the U.S.”

According to the company, Standard Refrigeration is being integrated into Alfa Laval “in order to capture synergies such as a wider product portfolio combined with an enhanced market presence.”

Standard Refrigeration, founded in 1922, is among the leading manufacturers of engineered shell-and-tube heat exchangers for a variety of industrial and commercial application. Standard Refrigeration’s products include condensers, evaporators, and other heat transfer equipment. The main product focus is the HVAC and commercial refrigeration markets. Products are sold under the Ketema and ACME names to a variety of other markets including food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, chemical processing, power generation, oil and gas, pulp and paper, and general manufacturing.

Alfa Laval also introduced a few new products at the press conference. It presented a new two-circuit brazed plate evaporator and Standard Refrigeration shell-and-tube condenser combination designed for use in chiller packages. The brazed plate evaporator is combined with the shell-and-tube condenser (HSG 30-2), all designed to provide a heat exchanger assembly for use in air conditioning or process cooling applications.

“This single-source supply is the result of the integration of Standard Refrigeration with Alfa Laval,” said Gatto. “This solution is unique for the North American heat exchanger market.”

He said the company can now supply a wide variety of brazed heat exchangers and shell-and-tube heat exchangers with capacities ranging from 1 to 500 tons for brazed units and 2 to 500 tons for shell-and-tube units.

Susan Hammock noted that Alfa Laval is now launching a series of small plate heat exchangers specifically designed for HVAC duties with a close temperature approach. The series of four heat exchangers is being released during this year and 2010. The AQ2L, the first in the series, was introduced at the expo. All units in the series will be performance certified according to ARI Standard 400.

“The series increases the possibility to use close temperature approaches in single-pass plate heat exchangers which was not previously feasible in such a small footprint,” said Hammock. “This reduces the cost of equipment, installation, service, and capacity expansion. 3D-CAD models are available for consultant use.”