Secop Among the TOP 100 Innovators

Congratulations at the German SME Summit: Ranga Yogeshwar congratulates Secop Group Holding GmbH from Flensburg on being awarded the TOP 100 seal. The award ceremony at the Summit took place on Friday, June 23, in Augsburg for all medium-sized companies that received the TOP 100 seal at the beginning of the year. The science journalist is attending the innovation competition, which is being held for the 30th time, as a mentor. In the scientific selection process Secop Group Holding made a strong impression in the size category C (more than 200 employees), particularly in the category “Innovation-promoting top management”.

The TOP 100 company portrait published on the occasion of the award says (excerpt):

When the Corona vaccine was to be used in Africa and South America, the World Health Organization (WHO) faced a problem: How to keep the vaccine cool in these very remote areas? Without electricity, on top of that? So, it asked the German refrigeration compressor manufacturer Secop Group Holding for help. Within a very short time, the “ultra-low temperature box” had been developed, which cools its contents down to minus 80 degrees by using solar panels. But not only the WHO relies on products from the company in Flensburg. “Probably almost every German has had some contact with our compressors for refrigeration circuits,” says managing director Dr. Jan Ehlers, “for example in cabinets and display counters of restaurants and supermarkets, ice dispensers and vending machines with chilled beverages, or in the medical segment in clinics and research institutes. The management has made it a priority to continue to promote innovation in the future. “That’s why we recruited an innovation manager (Rendel Rieckmann) to our management team in 2022,” explains Ehlers. By 2027, the company aims to generate 45 percent of its sales with products that are not industrialized yet.

Germany:

As announced at the beginning of February, Secop is among the TOP 100 Innovators 2023.

The award, which is given to the 100 most innovative companies of the year in Germany, is the result of the hard work of the R&D and engineering departments. At the headquarters, in Flensburg, Secop can count on a special team of expert engineers and researchers who test products every day in the laboratory located next to the offices. Secop innovations that are a part of the recent success:

• The ULT Medical Cascade Condensing Unit: an active cooling solution for ultra-low temperature mobile applications that guarantees reliable storage and transportation of vaccines down to the last mile even in severe ambient conditions
• The new generation of solar direct drive controls for BD Nano and the modular solution with additional features for electronically controlled compressors NLV and SLVE. The electronics are developed and tested directly by the MCC team (Motor Competence Center) located in Flensburg
• The new BD Nano, the innovative compressor for battery-driven applications with impressive dimensions, performance, and efficiency. Thanks to the application engineering team located in Flensburg, the compressors are tested on different applications for customers of the European and North American markets

Austria:

In celebration of the TOP 100 Award, the second stage of the R&D Secop Center tour went to Gleisdorf, Austria.

The ATS R&D Competence Center is an exclusive R&D center where around 40 engineers work on the mechanical designs of the new products. Virtual prototyping is intensively used to test new ideas even before a physical part is available. After thousands of simulations, the promising concepts and ideas are then prototyped and tested to confirm and validate their effectiveness. During this creation process, innovative solutions are also evaluated in terms of their feasibility for mass production and cost competitiveness.

As a result of the innovative and dynamic approach, numerous patents are obtained and applied to new products. These are finally thoroughly tested to fully meet the customer’s requirements. New product platforms such as KLF and BD Nano are specific examples of this successful model.

Slovakia:

After making a stop at the Austrian R&D Competence Center in Gleisdorf, the TOP 100 Award moved on to Zlaté Moravce, Slovakia where Secop’s European central production and assembly site is located.

Every day, Secop employees at the Slovak site ensure excellent design to quality and supplier development in strong cooperation between R&D and operations. This enables the team to precisely design good innovative solutions and thus make them ready for mass production. A special focus lies in the development of hydrocarbon refrigerants and efficient products. The staff makes great use of their core skills in hermetic compressors, electric motors, and electronic controls for refrigeration-optimized products.

Just recently new innovations such as the new KLF, the robust series based on tried and trusted platform design and developed for commercial refrigeration. The KL-Series comes with a patented hermetic terminal plug designed to increase robustness for usage with flammable refrigerants.

China:

The team  in Tianjin, China consisting of engineers and technicians, manufactures state-of-the-art compressors, offering customers customized and sustainable solutions for commercial, battery-powered, ideal transportation, and finally medical applications.

Among the most important products is the latest, the BD Nano compressor. The BD Nano is the most innovative product in mobile refrigeration. Proof of this is receiving the China Refrigeration 2022 Innovation Award thanks to its impressive size, performance, and efficiency.

Another example of excellence produced at this location is the SLVE18CN compressor, which suitable for both commercial and medical applications. It is the most powerful variable-speed hermetic propane compressor available on the market and received the China Refrigeration 2021 Innovation Award.