An area dedicated to studying the future of refrigeration.
Arneg today inaugurates the “Technology Hub”, a new space where innovative ideas can take shape freely. The event wants to celebrate this milestone, recounting the salient steps of the project and the potential of the new centre dedicated to Research and Development, where every day a team of engineers and specialised technicians deal with research, design, testing and standardisation.
Arneg has always wanted to offer the best to its customers, also in terms of technological innovation. The first research and development laboratory was set up in 1992, and progress in research has not stopped since then. The Arneg laboratory also conducts tests on specific product lines for a number of subsidiaries and, above all, a third of the equipment is dedicated to testing customised projects. It was now necessary to further enlarge the testing capacity: a wish that became reality with the construction of the Technology Hub.
Arneg's past and future come together in this new complex, which consists of two buildings: a historic villa from the early 1900s, a Beaux-Arts heritage site dedicated to office activities and the metrology laboratory, and a state-of-the-art facility with 35 per cent more testing capacity housing 7 test rooms and 11 data acquisition stations.
Prof. Barbara Bogoni, Scientific Coordinator of the design group of the Mantua Pole of the Milan Polytechnic University, who coordinated the project, says: "Our intention was to create an experimental space in which to combine the human dimension, in the search for the best environmental conditions for the wellbeing of the people who are called upon here to bring new ideas to life with the technological dimension. A structure that could best accommodate the machinery and equipment that are built and tested here to innovate the world of refrigeration. To complete the project, the work "Nuovi Mondi" (New worlds)- a large bronze portal - created by the artist Amedeo Fiorese, seals the entrance to the Arneg Technology Hub, a forge of ideas, research and innovation".
The process of renovating the villa and building the new laboratories took four years, in one of the most critical periods for the construction of infrastructure due to the shortage of raw materials. In spite of this, Arneg succeeded in creating a building with challenging objectives also from an energy point of view:
- Reduced consumption: the management of heating and air conditioning in the office areas is entrusted to a centralised system that channels heat flows according to the needs of the individual rooms.
- Sustainability and recovery: the heat produced by the condensation of the machines is recovered to heat the offices and test rooms.
- Energy autonomy: the use of gas for technical and thermal management of the buildings has been eliminated. A system of photovoltaic panels produces 65% of the electricity the Hub needs.
"The construction of the Technology Hub comes as the crowning achievement of my career at Arneg," says Eng. Pierluigi Schiesaro, Research and Development Director at Arneg, who is about to pass the baton to Eng. Igor Lauri "In thirty years of activity, Arneg's R&D laboratory has experienced incredible development, playing a pioneering role in technological innovations such as the introduction of air curtains and the use of natural refrigerants. This is the best place for new ideas to be born! I am happy to have contributed to the growth of the commercial refrigeration sector and to be able to personally witness this achievement.”
