ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 27 COMPRESSORS Cap ° Bu Vert Technologies is seeking £3 million of further investment to accelerate its delivery of new compressor designs for refrigeration OEMs. CEO Phil Harris says that the investment is a critical part of bringing refrigeration designs with embedded CRC technology to the market: “This stage of funding will accelerate the delivery of the OEM specific designs we are already working on and allow us to develop a low-cost, high volume manufacturing capability that can produce the numbers of units that the OEMs require.’’ B The technology is already on trial with a number of major refrigeration OEMs and the expectation is that at least one will reach volume sales or licensing stage by the end of 2021. The refrigeration sector has been quick to realise the potential of CRC technology to deliver the air pressures required for use with new refrigerants and in turn help them deliver on the tightening environmental legislation. The exact details remain under NDA at the moment but we are confident the technology can deliver a step-change for the sector. Crucially, the CRC technology is scalable which means that the air compressor will not be forced to operate outside its sweet spot. Optimised screw profile We can work with OEMs to tailor a solution to their size and power requirements whilst maintaining compressor eciency. Sizes can range from an 80W compressor as little as 40mm long, up to half a metre-long industrial units with a 13kW capability. We have tested the compressors with an operating pressure ratio of up to 25:1, compared to the norm of 8-10:1. We can optimise the rotor geometry to provide the most ecient solution for the media we are pumping and the application it is destined for. We can also vary the compression ratio of the rotors to target specific high-pressure ratios should the application warrant it. This is particularly relevant for refrigeration markets where high pressures are required, without compromising on noise and vibration levels. This ability to scale the CRC technology is driven by Vert’s patented custom software that allows the company to alter the geometry of the air compressor and produce practically any physical size, flow rate or power requirement. The software generates optimised screw profile shapes at dierent scales and helps model the tooling required to then bring them to life via dierent manufacturing processes. However, it is not only the environment and energy eciency aspects of the CRC technology that are attracting leading refrigeration OEMs to the technology. One of the major USPs of the CRC technology is that it is inherently quieter and has less vibration than the big, noisy and clunky piston compressors that are traditionally used by the low GWP refrigeration sector. With a 1.5 kW air compressor we can deliver 15 bar(g) pressure and an air flow of 200lpm but with only 60 dB(A) noise before any sound dampening materials are added. The future may be impossible to predict but it is clear that the major refrigeration OEMs, specifically their R&D and design teams, are gearing up for the inevitable change that is already coming down the tracks. For more information, visit: www.vert.co.uk compressprs.indd 27 03/12/2020 11:54