Page 11 - Climate Control News magazine April 2023

World News
The new cyro hall at Bluefors.
New low temperature technology powerhouse
FINNISH MANUFACTURER OF cryogenic measurement systems, Bluefors, has acquired Cryomech, a pioneering cryocooler technology and manufacturing company based in the United States.
The combined company will bring together close to 600 employees and cryogenics experts in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and USA.
The acquisition will position the company to be even better equipped to serve current and future customers working at the cutting edge in quan- tum technology, fundamental physics research, and other select industrial applications.
CEO and founder of Bluefors, Rob Blaauwgeers, said the company has a long his- tory of working with Cryomech, and this agree- ment is really the next stage in the evolution of collaboration between the two teams.
Bluefors coaxial wiring
“The acquisition gives our new, combined company an even better opportunity to secure technological leadership, which will help us continue to serve our customers and continue our strong growth in the rapidly developing ultra-low temperature cryogenics market,” he said.
Cryomech president, Rich Dausman, said both companies are pioneers.
“Our team in New York has already experi- enced firsthand the impact Bluefors has had on our market and the growth it has generated. We will continue that trend, serving our customers as before and with our complementary product portfolios,” Dausman said.
“Together, Cryomech and Bluefors will serve a larger portion of the cryogenic market as one." The acquisition of Cryomech is in line with Bluefors' growth strategy to continue to drive the development in ultra-low temperature cool- ing technology in R&D and industrial
applications.
In addition to the acquisition and quadru-
pling the team to 400 employees in recent years, Bluefors plans to expand its campus in Helsinki, as well as the Syracuse campus.
Following the completion of the acquisition, the name of the combined company will be Bluefors Cryomech.
Existing Cryomech products and services portfolio will remain unchanged. In addition, the acquisition will not lead to changes in Cryomech's leadership team.
EU industry opposed
to revised F-gas plan
EUROPE’S HVACR INDUSTRY is up in arms over the European Parliament’s revised F-gas plan, despite new concessions by the Environment Committee to appease trade groups.
Last month, the Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) voted to support an acceler- ated F-Gas plan by 64 votes to eight, with seven abstentions.
However, an alliance of more than a dozen industry associations and global partners active in the European market representing manufac- turing, servicing and installing heating, cooling, refrigeration and foam insulation solutions industries rejected the revised F-gas plan.
This forced the Environment Committee to relax some of the bans and make conces- sions by slowing down the F-gas timetable.
The ban on fluorinated greenhouse gases in plug-in room, monobloc and other self- contained air conditioning and heat pump equipment has been rolled back to 1 January 2026, from 1 January 2025 in the EC’s original revision proposals. The limit of it only apply- ing to fluorinated greenhouse gases with a GWP of 150 or more has also been removed.
The proposed ban on single split air-condi- tioning and split heat pump equipment con- taining less than 3kg of HFC refrigerants has been postponed to 1 January 2027, instead of the original 2025 date.
All HFCs will be banned in split air condi- tioning and split heat pump systems up to 12kW from 1 January 2028 instead of 2027. There will also be a ban on HFCs in split air conditioning and split heat pump systems over 200kW from 1 January 2028.
Finally, the proposed ban on HFCs in sta- tionary refrigerators and freezers for com- mercial use (self-contained equipment) from 1 January 2024 has been retained but the 150 GWP limit has been removed.
The Environment Committee report will now go before the full European Parliament. ✺
The proposed 2024 ban on HFCs in stationary refrigerators and freezers for commercial use has been retained.
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS
APRIL 2023
11