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Smardt ships world-first VTX oil-free chiller
04 March 2021

Smardt ships world-first VTX oil-free chiller

Smardt expands its global oil-free chiller range to 3600 TR with its first shipment today from its JV partner TICA’s Nanjing factory. 

The first Smardt VX water cooled machine is set to be installed next week in Chengdu, China and demonstrates a COP of 6.83 and an IPLV of 11.86, over 30% better than China’s Tier 1 Energy Efficiency Standard. The Chengdu installation will save some 260,000 kWh and 259 tons of CO2 annually compared with traditional lubricated centrifugal machines.

Smardt’s V-Class oil-free chiller range is now available from 350 - 3600 TR with very small footprints. Smardt offers R134a and R1234ze refrigerants as standard, with others available as options.  The range offers integrated redundancy and extremely flexible turn-down to 5% of full-load. Other options include modular and series counter-flow configurations. 

Smardt systems-integrated design allows continuous chiller operation during compressor maintenance – vital in mission-critical applications like data centers, pharma manufacturing and district cooling.

At the world launch ceremony on February 28, Li Jiang, CRAA chairman noted that “The final test data shows that the unit performs far better than the national standard. We believe that combined with TICA’s systems integration, customers can realize even further energy savings, contributing to new benchmarks for overall chiller plant performance.” 

Jiang Li, TICA chairman, said “the development and utilization of clean energy, energy conservation and emission reductions are major pillars in China’s economic plan. This new V-Class chiller for Huafu Jinsha housing complex delivers plant room energy savings of 60%, and a whole building energy reduction of 40% compared with conventional lubricated cooling.”

Jose Alvares, Danfoss VPSales & Marketing added: “Smardt rigorously tested the world’s first VTX1600 compressors at its labs in Canada and now the Smardt V-Class chiller range goes global, starting here in the world’s biggest chiller market. Danfoss is behind Smardt all the way.” 

“Today is a real milestone in the global development of the oil-free centrifugal technology that we started back in Australia in 1993” said Roger Richmond-Smith, founder of Turbocor, founder of Smardt and now chairman of TICA-Smardt Chiller Group. “Another world first from Smardt, the worldwide pioneer in oil-free centrifugal chillers, means big gains for the planet and new bottom-line profits for building owners.”
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