HEAT PUMPS


The handover to the creative and entrepreneurial Peter Schaufl er marked the beginning of a period of rapid commercial and technical transformation for BITZER.


Martin Bitzer founded the Bitzer company in the Swabian town of Sindelfi ngen, Germany, in 1934.


was introduced in the early Nineties, as part of a focus on providing solutions for transport cooling. Then, as the phase-out of high GWP refrigerants began to accelerate, Bitzer developed the fi rst mass-production compressor designed for use with sub-critical carbon dioxide.


The technology was crowned a decade later with


the introduction of the company’s fi rst compressor designed for use in high pressure transcritical carbon dioxide systems. This has since become established as the highly dependable, go-to low-GWP solution, used by retailers and the food industry the world over. Development of Bitzer’s scroll compressor range in the early Noughties completed the company’s mastery of the three principle compression technologies, taking their place alongside its established ranges of reciprocating and screw compressors. Today, Bitzer operates in more than 90 countries


globally, with 75 locations that include production sites, sales offi ces, and service centres. The company’s high quality refrigeration compressors and system components are in use in virtually every country of the world, in applications spanning commercial and industrial refrigeration, marine and transport cooling, and air conditioning and heat pumps for buildings. With the launch of Green Point as the company’s specialist remanufacturing and services arm, Bitzer completed the production and use cycle, adding service and logistics to its core manufacturing activities.


Martin Bitzer started manufacturing thermostatic expansion valves, soon followed by compressors. The fi rst Bitzer compressors were reciprocating units with co-current fl ow design, shown here with Martin Bitzer.


In addition to organic growth, Bitzer has made a number of strategic acquisitions in recent years that have further extended its reach and capabilities into important related areas. It acquired Denmark-based controls specialist Lodam in 2007, changing its name and incorporating it into the group as Bitzer Electronics, to focus on developments in the rapidly developing area of controls and digital systems. Other recent acquisitions include VaCom


Technologies and ElectraTherm in the USA, and Alfa- Laval’s shell and tube heat exchanger division in Italy, in the process absorbing a well-known competitor and expanding its own range signifi cantly. In addition to his technical expertise and fl air for business, Peter Schaufl er was widely known as a collector and supporter of contemporary art. The Schaufl er Foundation, created by Peter Schaufl er before his death in 2015, continues his life’s work in combining entrepreneurship with science, research and art under the chairwomanship of Peter’s widow, Christiane Schaufl er-Münch, who continues to play an active role in managing Bitzer SE as the Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board.


Bitzer’s remarkable success as a company is due in


large part to a combination of two powerful aspects of human ingenuity: the excellence and reliability of its engineering, coupled with a spirit of creativity and entrepreneurship on the part of those who have led the company through the years. From the beginning, the company understood the critical nature of refrigeration and air conditioning in all its manifest applications, and built the products and organisation needed to support it. This has resulted in superbly designed and built


products that are trusted the world over, backed by fi rst-rate technical support and logistics, delivering annual sales of more than E1bn.


What does the future hold for Bitzer? In an era when environmental protection and the


need to decarbonise top the list of global concerns, the strengths that contributed to the company’s success in the past will be even more important in the future. The world needs reliable, effi cient cooling and heating that can be operated with minimal impact on the environment. This is at the heart of everything we do.


Bitzer’s modern screw compressor production line in Rottenburg. Download the ACR News app today


www.acr-news.com • December 2024 21


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40