Danfoss has opened a sample shop and product evaluation material lab at its campus in Monterrey, Mexico, to support OEM customers in developing customized microchannel heat exchangers. The facilities allow Danfoss engineers to build and test prototypes engineered to customer specifications.
The Monterrey production facility, expanded last year, manufactures Danfoss heat exchangers for the North American market. Danfoss said the new sample shop and lab are intended to reduce lead time and improve collaboration with customers in North America.
The 1,600-square-foot (approx. 149-square-meter) shop uses flexible equipment that can process performance samples from 300–1,700 mm (approx. 11.8–66.9 in) in height, 300–4,000 mm (approx. 11.8–157.5 in) in length and 12–32 mm (approx. 0.47–1.26 in) thick. The facility supports standard and long-life alloys, and prototypes can be bent into various shapes for different applications.
Danfoss said the facility can deliver prototypes reflecting customer requirements within 3–5 weeks. The material lab provides qualification capabilities including material selection, corrosion testing, metallographic analysis, and pressure, fatigue and durability testing. When a prototype is deemed production-ready, it can be manufactured in larger quantities at the factory.
“The sample shop and material science lab are another example of how we are innovating to serve our customers as they transition to sustainable HVAC technologies,” said Juan Palma, engineering manager of the sample shop and material lab. “With our engineering expertise and state-of-the-art production facility, we are able to collaborate with customers to develop solutions that meet their needs.”