Climate control TA Hydronics

CLIMATE CONTROL

TA Hydronics is the leading global provider of hydronic distribution systems and room temperature control. Industry Europe looks at its activities and some of the high-profile projects in which it has been involved.

With experience of more than 100,000 projects worldwide, TA Hydronics is unrivalled in its understanding of the multiple aspects of hydronic distribution. Hydronics is the use of water as the heat-transfer medium in heating and cooling systems. It helps customers everywhere to optimise their HVAC systems so that they deliver the greatest comfort with maximum efficiency.

TA Hydronics is part of the UK-based international engineering group IMI plc, which has around 13,000 employees and a turnover of £1.79 billion. IMI is listed as a member of the FTSE 100 on the London Stock Exchange. The company’s products include pressurisation vessels for water control, balancing & control valves, differential pressure controllers, floor heating controls, thermostatic controls, expert system components and much more besides.

Three become one

TA Hydronics was formed in 2011 when IMI brought together three of its Indoor Climate companies – TA, the leader in hydronic balancing, Heimeier, the number one thermostatic control manufacturer, and Pneumatex, the pressurisation and water quality specialists. The unifying of these three businesses under a single brand has enabled TA Hydronics to offer its customers throughout the world across-theboard hydronic expertise and the guarantee of optimum efficiency in their HVAC systems.

At the time of this reorganisation, a spokesperson for the company explained how the new single corporate brand would make it even easier for the company to deliver total hydronic solutions.

“We had a solid portfolio of three major multi-national brands but we found that our activities were unnecessarily disjointed. This in-depth rebranding exercise has been a massive undertaking to ensure that our customers continue to get the same first-class service from us worldwide in an easier, more transparent way. It’s certainly been a challenge but one which will definitely benefit our customers, our employees and our shareholders.

“We wanted to create a cohesive single corporate brand so we could more clearly showcase our expertise and technical know-how. Essentially we were hiding our light under a bushel before, concealing our excellent knowledge and experience by operating three different brands without a single point of contact. Once we realised just how complementary the three brands are and how our customers would really benefit from being able to access them from one place, the strategic rebranding was set in motion.”

High profile projects

TA Hydronics has been involved in delivering climate control solutions for some of the world’s biggest building projects. It supplied, for example, valves for the cooling system in the huge Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai, the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 2008. This 808m high tower includes luxury residential units, hotels, restaurants, a library, a fitness suite and four swimming pools and all these facilities have to be maintained at a consistent internal temperature in a location of extreme heat. Bespoke balancing valves commissioned from TA Hydronics control the complex cooling system, comprising some 946,000 litres of water, throughout the building. The company was able to deliver an innovative and time-efficient installation that provided significantly more value than alternative approaches and enabled the contractor to commission the system on-time and without penalty.

But it’s not only on land that TA Hydronics’ expertise is required. In the past the company has also supplied a hydronic solution for climate control on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship ‘Allure of the Seas’. Carrying a maximum of 6360 passengers and built by STX Europe in Finland, this ship is one of the two largest passenger vessels in the world (the other is her sister ship ‘Oasis of the Seas’). For climate control on this massive vessel STX Europe needed a strong and knowledgeable partner who could deliver a hydronic solution that would ensure the highest comfort levels in all parts of the ship as well as maximum operational efficiency and reliability. With the support of the experts at TA Hydronics’ Engineering

Support Centre, hydronic calculations for the ship’s cooling system were carried out in a detailed way that paid off during commissioning. According to the contractor, commissioning time was cut by 66 per cent compared to previous projects with less detailed calculations.

Currently, TA Hydronics is involved in the building of the state-of-the-art Novopecherskie Lipky residential quarter in Kiev, Ukraine. Its developer UDP needed to find an expert heating, ventilation and air conditioning provider and TA fit the bill exactly. The challenge for the company here has been to deliver high quality hydronic solutions that perform well in both hot summers and harsh winters, but can also maintain a healthy and comfortable indoor climate. Construction of this multi-phase development is expected to be completed in 2017. TA Hydronics will be seeing the project right through to the final stages with its specially designed indoor climate system. The project involved the delivery of a combination of balancing valves, differential pressure controllers, zone control valves and pumped hot water supply controls. n