Testing laboratory, service maintenance team,
and apprenticeship program launch at Virginia facility.
RACINE,
Wis., June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A 5MW,
state-of-the-art testing laboratory was recently commissioned at
the Modine Rockbridge facility in Virginia, further expanding the services that
Airedale by Modine™ can offer data center customers and meet
increasing demand from the data center industry for validated,
sustainable cooling solutions.
Airedale, the critical cooling specialists, is a trusted brand
of Modine, a diversified global leader in innovative thermal
management solutions, and provides complete cooling solutions to
industries where removing heat is mission critical. Modine's
Rockbridge facility opened in 2022
to manufacture chillers to meet the growing demand from U.S. data
center customers.
The new lab can test a complete range of air conditioning
equipment, accommodating air-cooled chillers up to 2.1MW and
water-cooled chillers up to 5MW. Crucially for data center
applications, the ambient temperature inside the chamber can be
reduced to prove chiller free cooling performance. Free cooling is
the process of using external ambient temperature to reject heat,
rather than using the refrigeration process. If used within an
optimized system, free cooling can help a data center significantly
reduce its energy consumption and carbon footprint. The lab also
can facilitate quality witness tests for customers to validate
chiller performance in person. More information here.
In addition, the first U.S.-based service team has been
launched, to provide ongoing support to data center customers in
the field. The team offers coverage for spare parts, planned
maintenance and emergency response, providing reassurance to
customers when every second counts.
Demonstrating further commitment to developing the local
workforce, the Rockbridge facility
is working with colleges in Northern
Virginia to recruit and train service engineers, either as
new graduates who will receive fast-tracked training or through
apprenticeships. Apprentices will have a mix of college classes and
on-site training, after which they will graduate with an
associate's degree in engineering.
Rob Bedard, General Manager of
Modine's North America Data Center business said, "Our ongoing
investment in our people in the U.S. and the launch of the service
team and apprenticeship program – along with the opening of our 5MW
chiller test center – allow us to better serve our U.S. customers
and cement our continuing commitment to the U.S. data center
industry."
These investments coincide with deliveries of the first Airedale
chillers and fan walls to key customer Corscale. Twenty-eight
OptiChill™ Free Cool chillers and 64 fan walls have so far been
transported from Modine's Rockbridge and Grenada, Mississippi, facilities to Corscale's
130-acre Gainesville Crossing Data Campus in Northern Virginia, with further deliveries
planned to complete the order announced last year. Once complete,
the chillers will provide cooling to 8 x 9MW data halls in what is
eventually planned to be a 300MW development. Corscale selected the
chillers due to their market-leading free cooling performance.
At the launch of the partnership, Nic
Bustamante, Chief Technology Officer at Corscale said, "We
selected Airedale by Modine because we wanted something that
mirrors our dedication to deliver sustainability at scale. We
wanted to work with an established brand that our customers can
trust. Airedale by Modine products are renowned for their
innovative approach and commitment to efficiency, which in turn
reduces waste, and we were impressed by the work they have done
across the world with other data centers."
Rob Bedard continued, "We are
delighted to celebrate more milestones at our Rockbridge facility by seeing the first
chillers leave the plant and start their life in service at
Corscale's new data center. The whole team turned out to see the
trucks leave, and that is testament to how proud we are of what we
have achieved together here."
About Airedale
At Airedale, we believe that air
conditioning has a critical role to play in an increasingly
connected world. We also passionately believe that air conditioning
equipment must play a responsible role in an era where
sustainability is key to the preservation of our planet. Airedale
is a global specialist in providing complete cooling solutions to
industries where HVAC is mission critical, like data centres,
healthcare, telecoms, education and pharmaceuticals. Our leading
edge products, including chillers, close control and air handling
units, are backed up with intelligent software solutions and
complete applications and service support. With a strong R&D
ethos rooted in sustainability and quality, Airedale's 600+
employees are committed to providing experiences, products, service
and solutions that support our clients in meeting their
performance, efficiency and sustainability goals. Headquartered in
Leeds, U.K. and with facilities in
Consett (U.K.), Guadalajara
(Spain), Dubai (UAE), Rockbridge (U.S.) and Grenada (U.S.), Airedale is part of Modine
(NYSE: MOD), a diversified global leader in thermal management
technology and solutions. For more information visit
www.airedale.com/us.
About Modine
At Modine, we are Engineering a Cleaner,
Healthier World™. Building on more than 100 years of excellence in
thermal management, we provide trusted systems and solutions that
improve air quality and conserve natural resources. More than
11,000 employees are at work in every corner of the globe,
delivering the solutions our customers need, where they need them.
Our Climate Solutions and Performance Technologies segments support
our purpose by improving air quality, reducing energy and water
consumption, lowering harmful emissions and enabling cleaner
running vehicles and environmentally-friendly refrigerants. Modine
is a global company headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin (U.S.), with operations in
North America, South America, Europe and Asia. For more information about Modine, visit
www.modine.com.
Media Contacts:
UK: Nicola Ware | E:
nicola.d.ware@airedale.com | Tel: +44 113 2391000
US: pr@modine.com
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SOURCE Modine Manufacturing Company