IN FOCUS: GÜNTNER LABS
Güntner maintains state-of-the-art laboratories both in Germany, at our Fürstenfeldbruck HQ, and in Brazil, at our Caxias do Sul factory, as well as a simulation room at our production facility in Surabaya, Indonesia. They enable us to carry out a wide range of tests to validate the performance of our products and play a vital role in our ongoing development of innovative new solutions in the refrigeration and cooling sector.
TESTING
TESTING OUR PRODUCTS IS ESSENTIAL IN ORDER TO OFFER OUR CUSTOMERS A PROVEN GUARANTEE OF PERFORMANCE
At Güntner’s laboratories, products are subjected to stringent testing so that our customers can be assured of their capacity and performance. “We don’t want to rely on theoretical textbook knowledge,” says Peter Roth, Head of the Test Laboratory in Germany. “Textbooks can have a margin for error of as much as 30%, and we need to be much more precise than that, both for our customers’ needs and to keep our quality standards.”
“It’s essential to guarantee the thermal capacities that we’re offering to our customers,” he adds. “If you use pressure drop and heat transfer correlations based on other people’s research, which is not necessarily applicable to our units, you can end up selling a unit that is either too big or too small for the heat exchange process that a customer requires.”
As well as examining individual coils and complete units to establish precise metrics for capacity and performance, we also carry out other tests to ensure that our units are operating efficiently and with minimum impact on the environment. This includes monitoring sound emissions, corrosion protection and defrost processes. In general, Güntner’s engineers are always on the lookout for ways that units can be improved.
“Sometimes we’ll find that there’s just a minor alteration that can improve performance,” says Rodolfo Lima, Product Engineering Coordinator at Güntner in Brazil. “We’ll look at the movement of fluids and air through a heat exchanger with the aim of finding even small ways to improve efficiency.”
R&D
The laboratories are also a place where Güntner can develop and test innovative new solutions. In recent years, our efforts have focused in particular on the use of natural refrigerants. A considerable amount of work has been carried out on reducing the amount of refrigerant needed in a natural refrigerant system and developing new tube geometries.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we used our German laboratory to research how short-wave ultraviolet radiation could be used in an air cooler to destroy bacteria and viruses inside a cold room. We found that 99.9% of all airborne germs could be killed within a few hours. The result was the ground-breaking
Güntner Cubic VARIO Air Cooler with UV-C Lamps.
In Brazil, the initial motivation for constructing a laboratory was to test the revolutionary new Güntner ECOSS stainless steel Evaporative Condenser. “The whole reason the EC-LAB was built was because we were thinking in terms of a global application,” says Lima. “The laboratory meant we could ensure that the new product would work anywhere and meet the market’s needs.”
GÜNTNER’S LABORATORY IN GERMANY
LEADING THE WAY ON NATURAL REFRIGERANTS
Güntner has long led the cooling and refrigeration industry when it comes to promoting the use of planet-friendly natural refrigerants. Therefore, it is no surprise that we are leading the way when it comes to testing with natural refrigerants. Since 2016, our Fürstenfeldbruck laboratory has been equipped with both a carbon dioxide plant and an ammonia plant. This means the performance and capacity of fins and whole units can be accurately measured across a wide range of parameters using either refrigerant.
“Both CO₂ and ammonia have very specific thermo physical properties that weren’t widely investigated in the past,” says Roth. “In order to precisely calculate the thermodynamics of our heat exchangers, it’s really important that we understand the exact behaviour of the refrigerants.”
Published scientific literature offers data on airside properties, but only with a significant uncertainty due to production differences. To obtain more precise results, the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of individual coils are measured and then recorded in a huge database going back many years. “This is unique,” says Roth. “No other company and no university has such detailed knowledge about the properties of finned systems.”
Next, whole units are tested: temperature, pressure and other variables are measured in different operating environments for individual units, using either CO₂ or ammonia. From the testing data, reliable correlations can then be deduced to precisely predict how units will operate in different conditions.
“If, for example, the customer says they need a unit that will be sitting in 44°C heat on a roof in the Middle East, depending on the correlations that we built from our testing results, we can tell them the exact unit that they need, how big, how many ventilators and so on,” says Roth.
SOUND
Reliable sound emission data can be crucial for customers intending to install units outdoors, for example in a residential area or close to a hospital. Güntner’s German laboratory has a wide range of specialist equipment to measure sound emissions and ensure that they comply with regulatory standards. It also has access to nearby reverberation and anechoic rooms.
CORROSION
It is essential that Güntner’s units are resistant to potential corrosion. The Fürstenfeldbruck laboratory contains a specialised chemical laboratory that can perform basic analytics including pH and conductivity measurements, chemical resistance investigation and the preparation of corrosion samples for further analysis. Two special cabinets have been installed for salt spray testing of coils, fins, tubes and casing parts, and state-of-the-art digital microscopy is used to analyse metallographic specimens.
DEFROST
Defrosting is critical in the refrigeration process, preventing ice accumulation and maintaining efficiency. Fürstenfeldbruck has a dedicated defrost chamber, where units are tested to ensure that the defrost process is uniform and that minimum energy is being used while removing all ice from the coil. This applies to both existing units and units that are under development.
GÜNTNER’S EC-LAB IN BRAZIL
BUILT FOR INNOVATION
As mentioned above, Güntner’s lab in Caxias do Sul, Brazil, was initially built in order to test a revolutionary new product: the stainless steel ECOSS Evaporative Condenser. ECOSS represented a step change for an industry in which environmentally harmful galvanised metals were the norm. In order to fully test this new, 100% recyclable product, a bold move was required: the construction of a new laboratory in the shape of the huge, 215 sq m EC-LAB.
Because the ECOSS would be sold all around the globe, it was essential to make sure it could function optimally in all kinds of potential conditions. The EC-LAB, which was opened in 2012, is unique in the southern hemisphere, because it is able to simulate weather conditions anywhere in the world, using state-of-the-art technology and instrumentation.
The lab has also played an important role in the development of the ECOSS. “When we first thought of the concept, we were worried that it would be very expensive,” says Lima. “But the EC-LAB allowed us to gain more knowledge and to make it competitive in terms of costs.”
As well as continuing to test new generations of ECOSS, the lab has helped in the development of innovative new cooling solutions associated with it: ECOSS Resource, an IoT app allowing users to make decisions based on operational data; and a water-saving auto purge system.
Today, the EC-LAB runs testing across the whole Güntner portfolio of Evaporative, Adiabatic and Air-Cooled heat exchangers, specialising in ammonia, water and glycol systems. It also plays a key role in the development of new products: recently it worked with the Mexico, US and Brazil teams on development of the new Güntner High Density Adiabatic Condenser and Dry Cooler, which offers superior efficiency while eliminating water waste and pollution.
GÜNTNER’S SIMULATION ROOM IN INDONESIA
In operation for the last ten years, the simulation room at our production facility in Surabaya allows us to test and develop products for specific regions and customers in the APAC market. For example, we have developed a defrost shutter fan as the result of an enquiry from Japan, and a water defrost application for the APO region. The room can be chilled to as low as -25°C and is also used to simulate conditions when a problem arises on a job site.
“When products meet new requirements, it’s important for us to be able to simulate the exact conditions in which they will be operating before we release them,” says Andri Sanjaya, Product Engineer at Güntner.