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ELIWELL AT CHILLVENTA eSPECIAL: FOCUS ON CONNECTIVITY, CYBERSECURITY, SUSTAINABILITY AND SERVITIZATION
Eliwell and Schneider Electric among the protagonists of the three digital days dedicated to the world of HVACR: the latest trends for the supermarket of the future, industrial refrigeration and HVAC presented online.
The digital version of Chillventa eSpecial, the first global online event for refrigeration technology and air conditioning, which replaced the biennial event this year, now postponed to 2022 due to the pandemic, ended a few days ago. The event brought together nearly 7,000 active users from 113 countries, giving them the opportunity to interact with industry experts even though they could not meet in person. Eliwell and Schneider Electric took part with over twenty seminars and talks, sharing key solutions for the world of refrigeration, HVAC and Retail.
For Eliwell, the event was doubly important, given that this year it is celebrating 40 years in business. “We wanted to celebrate this important milestone in person with our customers, but the pandemic has blocked all our initiatives” said Sandro Battagli, VP & General Manager of Eliwell. “Participating in this key event for our sector was the right opportunity to also talk about our history, which is the success story of an Italian company that has made its way from Belluno to become a global player in refrigeration and HVAC, bringing made-in-Italy technological development to the world. At Chillventa eSpecial we presented the milestones of this long journey, from the first 32x74 format temperature controller launched in 1980, which soon became the absolute market standard, to our latest developments for the world of supermarkets, retail, industry and HVAC.”
Over the three days, experts from Eliwell and Schneider Electric focused on some key issues for the company and the sector as a whole: connectivity, cybersecurity, sustainability and servitisation.
Connectivity, as well as the demand for sustainability, are now pervading every sector. In the retail and refrigeration sector in particular, there is a great need for solutions adopting natural refrigerants that offer not only energy efficiency, but also a reduction in total operating costs.
Supermarkets created with RTX 600 DOMINO ZERO and EWCM 9000 PRO-HF controllers for transcritical CO2 confirm how refrigeration systems can be integrated with HVAC to reduce the cost of equipment, the space occupied by systems, energy consumption and maintenance costs by over 25%.
Aggregating data relating to various forms of consumption also allows energy consumption to be reduced, improving the quality of store processes in a very short time. Being able to rely on complete solutions like EcoStruxure for Retail allows all the solutions needed to make a store smarter and more interconnected to converge, ensuring more efficient management and improving safety and comfort.
Still on the subject of connectivity and sustainability, Eliwell provided an overview of the latest solutions including the Next platform, a range of new dedicated generation controllers for installers and builders of refrigerated cabinets, designed and built with an innovative and patented modular defrost technology.
A digital-oriented platform that allows recurring operations to be managed directly from your smartphone, thanks to Bluetooth connectivity and the Eliwell AIR app, a new and practical tool for refrigeration technicians and small store owners to simplify the management of refrigeration equipment. Manufacturers have the TelevisAir cloud system with interesting functions for managing their refrigeration fleet using geolocation.
Great attention was also paid by Eliwell to the subject of IT security. In the Industry 4.0 era, no one, not even in the HVAC sector, can ignore the need to build connected machines with security-by-design. HVACKer attacks are multiplying that exploit Internet-connected HVAC systems installed in companies, so connectivity cannot be separated from security.
At Chillventa, Eliwell also spoke about servitization: a concept that is increasingly a feature of strategies to retain competitiveness, even in the commercial refrigeration and HVAC sectors. Servitisation is in fact a new paradigm requiring manufacturers to evolve from product suppliers to partners for the creation of complete services and solutions with a strong added value for the end user. There are many areas of focus where more or less radical change is needed, which is raising questions throughout the market and where Eliwell, together with Schneider Electric, is putting itself forward as a partner to explore new businesses and thus further support sales.
The growth of the EcoXpert partners network, the partner certification programme which currently has over 3500 experts in Schneider Electric technologies, is focused precisely on the quality of services. All system integrators already qualified as EcoExperts, or aspiring ones, can now extend their field of competence to Refrigeration control technologies.
Thanks to this process aimed at transferring new skills, EcoXperts will be able to offer integrated solutions and all-round technological expertise to the market, serving a new generation of supermarkets and warehouses.
Participating in this event was important in a year like this, when there was no opportunity for discussion between all the operators in the sector. In the current period we need to find alternative ways to reach our audience and digital technology is helping us. We too, like Eliwell, will hold our virtual event on 2nd December, when we will have an opportunity to update customers on our product developments and celebrate our 40 years together - albeit from a distance.