The Innovation Centre, Clivet’s new centre for technological innovation, which was built thanks to a global investment of 4 million euros (for construction, use of technology and testing), was entirely designed and built by Clivet employees and now allows new products to be studied in order to offer customers an increasingly complete and innovative range.
Numerous people have worked on this project: more than 90 employees are part of the R&D team and every day they study the best solutions to meet the increasingly stringent demands of the market. This new area has been built to increase the quality and speed of development of all products.
With the 6 new test rooms and the new tests, Clivet can carry out more functional, performance, acoustic, vibration and stress tests, with air temperatures from -20°C to +60°C, for units up to 2.5 MW with new low environmental impact refrigerants. Customers will be able to see the operation of their machines even under extreme conditions and attend the tests directly in the company or remotely via internet. The test room can be divided into two parts (1/3 and 2/3 of its capacity) but can also be used as a whole for greater capacity. This new area complements the 8 test rooms for residential units that are located in the Clivet Home plant.
To support the laboratory, a new 6 megawatt power station has also been built, connected to a 1 megawatt photovoltaic system.
The underground control room includes the control panel for all the pumping units, the tank that acts as a thermal flywheel for approximately 500 m3 of water and the tanks that contain water at a temperature of between +4° and +50°, which are regulated by inverters to accurately modulate the control and stability of the machines.
The pumping units are connected to the evaporative towers and to 6 refrigeration units that allow to have a production of glycol water up to -30° and to store it in order to manage both the air and the water part with temperature balancing. Each pump is electronically controlled automatically.
Stefano Bellò CEO Clivet SpA comments “The construction of the new Innovation Center plays a strategic role in our growth plan in Europe, as it allows us to speed up the development process of products (heat pumps from 1 to 1000 kW) and solutions that fully meet the different needs of customers, market trends, new regulations and new European drivers.
Giving our customers the opportunity to attend the tests of the units purchased, physically and remotely, allows us to increase their satisfaction, which has always been at the heart of our business. “
