AIR CONDITIONING & AIR QUALITY
BSEE’s editor, Neil Mead recently took a trip to Italy to meet with Mitsubishi Electric and learn more about the company’s UK HVAC business aspiraons and take a tour of its new chiller factory and customer witness test facility in Belluno
announced the merging of the two companies last year to form the new Mitsubishi Electric Hydronic & IT Systems (MEHITS) division. The joining of the two companies establishes a stronger position for the Climaveneta products in the UK chiller market and brings all UK operating companies under the Mitsubishi Electric brand. As a result, the business is now well placed to offer a range of chillers, air handling units (AHUs), air conditioners and heat pumps manufactured in specialist factories to the demanding standards of the company and further supported by high tech testing facilities. It operates on a direct-to-market model that avoids the need for external distributors, while providing full control of all aspects of the sales process. Not only does this result in improving the level of feedback received from its clients, the company also finds this method to be a valuable contributor to improving products. According to MEHITS sales and marketing general sales manager Mauro Montello, the ongoing developments are additionally designed to provide the business with significant new opportunities: “Although we are a leading provider of air conditioning products, with a large product range that includes everything from air handling units (AHUs) to chillers of all sizes, this only gives us 50 per cent coverage of the HVAC market.
F uMauro Montello
“So using all our experience and skills we’re now aiming to cover all the HVAC market by 2020,” he says. This can be seen as further evidence of the successful merging of the Climaveneta and Mitsubishi Electric business cultures, operations, technical knowledge and expertise.
Refrigerant regulations uPhil Ord
Another major consideration for the MEHITS business has been the F-Gas regulations and their continuing focus on reducing the use of refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP). In order to assist its customers with complying with the current and future requirements of the regulations, they are now offered a choice of options when ordering their air conditioning equipment. “We know we need to help our customers prepare for the future, so they can now choose from three main options of refrigerants,” Montello continues. “There are the low GWP refrigerants of XP10 and HFO, which allow them to be ahead of the F Gas requirements as they continue to reduce.
“Then there is the R32 refrigerant, which can be used in a wide range of air conditioning products, and the third option is the HVRF, which is a hybrid refrigerant,” he says.
uRichard Venga
While conducting a tour of the recently opened Belluno factory, Montello further explains that all units are manufactured on a bespoke basis to match the needs of each client.
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HVAC manufacturer aims for the top with new chiller factory and high tech test facility
ollowing its acquisition of DeLclima, the parent company of chiller manufacturer
Climaveneta in 2016, Mitsubishi Electric
Customers are accordingly assured of receiving the equipment that matches their individual needs due to the company’s ability to assemble a wide range of high capacity units.
New factories and testing facilities
Prior to being shipped for delivery, customers can also choose to have their products tested to gauge their performance, which can additionally be seen to have benefited the company by allowing it to collect unique, in-depth data which then allows MEHITS to support its reporting on performance levels.
Each of the seven manufacturing facilities in northern Italy are additionally able to provide both theoretical and practical training in the operation and maintenance for the products created on site. Offered to customers and staff alike, the training facilities are designed so that all new starters are trained to the Mitsubishi quality standards.
The combining of the Mitsubishi Electric and Climaveneta businesses has also resulted in the launch of new products. One of the best illustrations of this is the new Climaveneta Wizard AHU that combines the use of Mr Slim Power Inverter heat pump technology, which has continued to benefit from investment from Mitsubishi Electric since its launch in the mid 1980s. The fact that five per cent of the company’s revenues are reinvested in its comprehensive research and development programme provides reassurance that additional new products will continue to be announced at regular intervals in the future. With patents pending on the company’s latest new developments, more announcements are expected in the next year.
Close customer connection
While visiting the impressive new customer witness testing and research centre at the Belluno factory in Italy, Mitsubishi Electric’s head of marketing and sales strategy Phil Ord, said: “Our core products mean we have only ever really played in half of the market. When you look at that, it becomes quite clear why we bought DeLclima. We then get access to chillers, fan coils, IT cooling and air handling units. So it enables us to play in the other half of the market.
“I used to be in consultant sales in London and if I talked to a consultant about a project and it went down the chiller route, the project was dead for me because we had nothing to offer.” Ord continued to spell out the combined organisation’s UK ambitions: “Our vision is to be number one in the market by 2020. That means the HVAC leader in all sectors by that time, including the non-DX side. Climaveneta and the RC Group perfectly complements our existing offering to the market.”
Richard Venga, senior product manager for chillers, ventilation and IT cooling, said: “Mitsubishi Electric has been operating a direct-to-market model for 12 years in the UK. We sell
direct to customers and this gives us a very close connection and allows us to be reactive in the market. Everyone who is selling these products in the UK now is working for the manufacturer. We have sales specialists who have been part of the Climaveneta brand for 15 years, an integrated product support structure and all of this is supported by the Green Gateway programme to improve energy efficiency.
“With access to the Italian factories, we have aligned and streamlined production lines and we are in the process of setting up an academy which will help all internal staff to understand the products, and allow customers to have training.’’ “The UK has experienced a significant increase in demand for inverter technology,” said Venga. “There has been a very swift move from fixed speed over to inverters. We have now launched a full inverter screw product and it is a very important part of our offering. We also have a growing range of inverters in our scroll technology, so we are increasing our portfolio of variable speed chillers, which is very important for the UK.”
Having made the necessary effort and the required level of commitment to merge the cultures and expertise of the Mitsubishi Electric and Climaveneta organisations, the MEHITS operation now seems well placed to continue to support its clients with high performance, energy-efficient technology to meet their air conditioning needs in the short term.
https://mechillers.co.uk
uThe impressive new factory and tesng centre in Belluno, Italy
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Our vision is to be number one in the market by 2020. That means the HVAC leader in all sectors by that me, including the nonDX side
’ BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER SEPTEMBER 2019 33
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