Kaltra has taken another major step in modernizing its manufacturing operations with the deployment of fully automatic core builders for microchannel heat exchanger production. These next-generation systems operate in a programmable automatic mode, enabling high-precision coil assembly, improved build consistency, and significantly increased output.
In response to rapidly growing demand for microchannel coils, Kaltra has expanded its production capacity to 3,000,000 units annually. With over 800,000 heat exchangers manufactured in 2024 alone, this significant capacity increase marks a major milestone in the company’s production capabilities.
Kaltra’s most innovatively engineered and efficient air-cooled chiller range, Lightstream Screw II, remains to date one of the top-selling products, as reflected by recent massive supplies.
Florida is a high-corrosivity region due to several factors, mainly due to marine atmosphere with high airborne salinity, and falls into the range provided for an ISO C3 category classification and even C4 for coastal areas. For C3 category environments, aluminum coils like microchannel heat exchangers without protective coating are unsuitable but are often used because of their low cost compared to coils with electrophoretic epoxy-coated ones. Traditional uncoated copper-aluminum coils demonstrate even worse corrosion resistance in C3/C4 regions.
In May 2023, Kaltra delivered its first Ultracompact-V II chillers, recently upgraded for higher operating efficiency with new control software, twin-slab condenser coils, and high-efficiency packages (optional). These improvements aimed at increasing both cooling capacity and seasonal energy efficiency by 10% and 15%, respectively, compared to the previous generation of Ultracompact-V chillers.
Kaltra is finalizing manufacturing for air-cooled chillers with high-efficiency packages ordered by its customer in the Netherlands, intended to service a business center in Sloterdijk, Amsterdam municipality.
Last week Kaltra handed over a low-GWP chiller from its most innovative, ErP 2021 compliant Lightstream Screw II lineup to the client in the UK.
Dangerously high summer temperatures, highlands above 1800 meters, sandstorms and year-round operations – are conditions under which the new cooling system that includes two Kaltra chillers should reliable function, supplying chilled water to the pharmaceutical plant and product storage area in Tehran.
In power plants, the largest water consumers are cooling systems, as a large amount of heat must be removed to condense the steam used to drive turbine generators. Historically, cooling was provided by water sources – rivers and lakes, but nowadays, more and more power plants use dry cooling systems that use little to no water. These systems have higher capital costs but use more than 95% less water than wet cooling systems.
Awarded a contract for cooling equipment supply in 2020, Kaltra recently delivered dry coolers of the total capacity of 3500kW to its customer in Lahti, Finland, a world-known food processing company that constructs an innovative, oat hull-based xylitol production factory. The plant includes a bio-heating facility to produce bioenergy for the xylitol production, mill, and rye crisp production lines.
In the last week of April, the first new-generation Lightstream Screw II chiller pre-ordered in end-January has been delivered to the customer in Riga, Latvia.
This month, Kaltra announced the completion of a service project for the replacement of condenser coils for the chilled water production plant of a Tier-III data center in Munich, Germany. More than 120 original heat exchangers reaching the end of service life have been replaced with Kaltra coils providing a long lifespan and additional corrosion protection.
Brazed all-aluminum microchannel coils perform superior heat transfer efficiency and capacity at the compact size compared with the conventional tube-fin heat exchangers. Another important factor of growing of microchannel heat exchanger popularity is the high corrosion resistance of aluminum, which is, however, achievable through the careful selection of aluminum alloys, surface treatments, and other protective measures.
Urban redevelopment plays a major role in the growth strategy of today’s cities. The advantages of urban renewal are obvious: substantial savings can be achieved by using modernized, energy-efficient infrastructure, including air conditioning and cooling facilities – which draw a significant fraction of energy in modern urban areas. Read more
As global warming potential becomes more of an issue, a growing number of industries and businesses moving toward new refrigerants. One of the best examples is the recent upgrade completed by Kaltra for ArcelorMittal’s hot strip rolling mill cooling in Belgium. Recently, the cooling system was driven by water-cooled chillers charged with large amounts of refrigerant R134a, which is characterized by high GWP value of 1430.
It is well-known that the cooling equipment dominates in energy consumption in commercial buildings. Alongside, electricity prices are increasing around the world, increasing pressure on facility managers to reduce the operating costs incurred by operating chillers. The facility managers at a newly constructed commercial building in Canary Wharf, London, were tasked to build and deploy a central air conditioning system with improved energy efficiency and lifecycle value, and Kaltra was invited to contribute to this task.
The air conditioning chiller supporting the movie theatre building in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, was the original equipment that has reached the end of its service life. To address the recurring maintenance issues associated with air conditioning system, the building owner has decided to replace existing equipment, including the original chillers installed at the roof gantry, with a modern energy-efficient system.
With the expansion of its premises, a large commercial centre located in Marseille needed to increase the capacity of its chilled water plant to meet the growing demand for chilled water production. Opened in 2014, Les Terrasses du Port occupies the area of more than 60,000 square meters and is a home to around 200 stores, restaurants, and food courts.
Several concerns including inefficient energy use and growing maintenance costs initiated the need for a chiller replacement at Business Park Vienna, Austria. Having been installed for a long period, and being one of the largest energy consumers in a multi-story building, the existing air-cooled chiller did not operate efficiently under part load conditions such as non-business hours air-conditioning.
Following the initial installation of process cooling system at the GP2Z industrial area in 2016, Kaltra continues to extend the facility and adds new equipment to increase its overall capacity to 5MW cooling.
Initially equipped with air-cooled Lightstream series chillers, GP2Z chilled water production plant will be supplemented with high-reliable units based on screw compressors. Kaltra will integrate new equipment with existing automation system implemented during the first stage of the project.
Significant attention is currently being paid to improving building energy efficiency and reducing of environmental impact, as required by the recent European directives. In commercial and industrial buildings, a significant part of the energy demand is related to air conditioning systems.
The infrastructure of the newly inaugurated hospital in Mulhouse includes central air conditioning system which provides the cooling and heating to the building, as required. The heat rejection of the system is performed by high-efficient dry coolers with a total capacity of 2000kW, installed outside. Given the limited installation space and tight noise rejection requirements, Kaltra offered a compact solution based on Mistral dry coolers with the bottom to top airflow. Year-round operation of the air conditioning system is supported by a glycol-based coolant.
Over time, increasing power density and growing number of installed servers had increased the heat load on Telecity data center cooling system which operates on a 24/7 basis 365 days on the year. Existing fixed-speed chillers installed during the building’s construction could not meet the cooling demand and provide the necessary redundancy Telecity required. As a result, the cooling system needed to be upgraded to keep pace with the data center’s growth.
Supermarkets are one of the most energy-intensive types of commercial buildings. Supermarket refrigeration systems consume the significant amount of energy to maintain freezing temperatures for a variety of items intended for human consumption on a 24 hours a day, seven days a week basis, which implies that the refrigeration equipment is never shut off. In a typical supermarket, sales area of 1000m² consumes around 300.000kWh annually for refrigeration, including the power consumed by compressors, condensers, coolers, and evaporator defrosting.
Processing of milk products requires the correctly designed process in order to attain end products of the highest quality. Processing of milk involves pasteurization, a technique that destroys pathogens in milk and makes it safe to drink. Pasteurization necessitates the use of chilled water to cool down the milk after the heating-up process to prevent the deterioration. During the cooling process, the pasteurized milk has to be cooled to 0°C. Thus, the production of chilled water for dairy processing operations is a vital part of producing safe and high-quality consumer products. Tight thermal control is also a crucial requirement for dairy processing facilities.
The main drivers which fuelled the modernization of a cooling plant at 4.000 sq. meter outlet were rising energy bills and a sharp increase in maintenance costs. The original chiller plant which included units contained ozone-depleting refrigerant was in need of replacing with more efficient and quiet equipment. Based on the survey and energy analysis performed by Kaltra engineers, the new equipment necessary to replace the existing equipment for an energy saving modernization was specified, including two 300kW variable speed drive chillers, together with quieter dry coolers.
At the Sanofi/France production site, the original chilled water plant functioned as initially intended, but a steady decline in energy performance and sharp increases in maintenance costs of the plant equipment were experienced by the customer. Prior to starting the upgrade project of the plant, the owners made the decision to invest by using technology giving the highest return over the lifecycle of the equipment.
In the last week of 2017, Kaltra Innovativtechnik completed installation and commissioning work on the chiller replacements for a four-star luxury hotel located in Malaga, Spain.
The customer experienced inadequate comfort air conditioning from the existing air-cooled chillers and escalating operating costs. The hotel operator called on Kaltra for a replacement to reduce energy consumption, improve the reliable, smooth and quiet operation of the system.
The new logistics hub located near Erlangen, Germany, serves more than 40 international customers and guarantees just-in-time delivery for the clients across Europe. The new center with approx. 35,000m² is dedicated to storing bulky materials under controlled environmental conditions provided by Kaltra Lightstream Screw free cooling chillers.
With its installation experience and technical expertise, Kaltra was chosen by the customer to assist in the development of the new chilled water production plant for the LPG recovery facility at the GP2Z industrial zone, Algeria.
