Friedrich, the San Antonio manufacturer of room air conditioners, announces the opening of its multi-million dollar state-of-the-art Design and Development Center (DDC) located at 957 Isom Road in San Antonio. The HVAC laboratory’s grand opening was held on April 8 with over 70 people in attendance. Guests had the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at Friedrich’s product testing facility, which includes product
performance testing, energy efficiency analysis, sound measurement, reliability and product safety testing, and application testing at specified environmental conditions.
The DDC is one of the most technically advanced HVAC labs in North America and features:
- Calorimeter Test Chambers for analyzing energy consumption and heating /cooling output
- Psychrometric Chamber to test unit performance and efficiency using air flow and moist air properties
- Hemi-Anechoic Acoustics Chamber where sound tests are conducted in a free-field environment
- Life Test Chamber to test units in a highly accelerated manner to verify the products’ expected life span
- Rain Test Room to create an outdoor environment for electrical safety and durability
- Electrical and electronic testing lab
- Calibration and Metrology lab
- Model and Machine Shop
- Application Test Room to test units in real world applications and environments
- Training and Demonstration Room for internal and customer training.
“The Design and Development Center allows us to provide added benefits to our customers. Not only is it used to develop new product designs which are more durable and reliable but will also give Friedrich the ability to get products to market faster,” said Wink Chapman, vice president sales and marketing.
Attendees included San Antonio District Manager Russell Sosa from State Senator Donna Campbell’s office; San Antonio District Director Naomi Miller of State Speaker Joe Straus’ office; Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) trade association leaders President Joe McGuire; Vice President of Technical Operations and Standards, Wayne Morris from Washington, D.C.; San Antonio Chamber of Commerce ambassadors; Friedrich partners, suppliers, employees, and customers.
The DDC provides certification testing in accordance to: