Radiating success RAAL

RADIATING SUCCESS

RAAL is a European market leader in the design and manufacture of cooling systems for agricultural, construction and automotive industry applications. Since it was founded in 1990, the company has seen consistent growth thanks to its commitment to innovation and high quality engineering, as Philip Yorke reports.

Today RAAL is a leading manufacturer of complete cooling systems. Its high-tech heat exchangers are made of aluminium alloys and stainless steel in an automated brazed construction process for radiators, oil coolers, air coolers, condensers and evaporators. The company’s manufacture of heat exchangers began in Romania in 1978 in the shop of a state-owned company. Immediately following the political events of 1989 RAAL separated from the old state-owned business and became an independent entity. The company was privatised in 1995 when its employees bought out the shares in the company.

This proved to be the beginning of a new era and RAAL was soon acknowledged as a truly innovative company that quickly became a major player in the global market for cooling systems. Today RAAL is a key exporter of cooling systems for a broad range of industries, of which more than 99 per cent of its products are destined for export markets. Among its biggest markets today are Germany, the UK, Austria, Italy and France. For its commercial activities, the company has subsidiaries in Italy, Germany, Holland, Russia and the USA.

Innovation driving sales

Research and product development has always been a priority at RAAL and today it employs more than 150 highly qualified engineers and scientists at its state-of-the-art laboratories and testing centres at Bistrita and Prundu Birgaului in Romania. The company’s marketing director, Mr Clement Ivanescu, told Industry Europe: “RAAL is a fully integrated company with its main activities being executed in-house. The design, research and testing, as well as production and logistics, are all provided by RAAL personnel, which allows us to be a very flexible company. We offer customised solutions, which we develop in close partnership with our customers and are able to manufacture orders from a single unit to a series of thousands of coolers. Every month we produce more than 300 different sizes of coolers, of which over 10 per cent are new products.

“The strength of RAAL lies in its extensive R&D department where product development and testing is carried out in an exclusively designated area of more than 1800 square metres. Consistent investment in new technology and equipment has enabled us to deliver, together with our heat exchangers, a variety of complex metal structures that offer outstanding performance in terms of corrosion resistance and reliability. Our market leading technology is helping us to drive our sales throughout the EU.

Expanding production capabilities

Part of the company’s success can be attributed to its continuous programme of reinvestment in new plant and technology. The opening of a new, purpose-built factory in 2007 offered state-of-the-art equip-

ment for the manufacture of complete cooling systems. The major investment in new brazing, pressing and fin manufacturing lines was augmented by the introduction of machinery for the design tools and manufacturing shop. In addition, new production lines were installed for large series production of cooling systems for cars, tractors and air-dryer manufacturers.

A further major investment in 2015 in another state-of-theart hall facility includes a new line for KTL coatings and dyeing machines as well as Bystronic laser cutting with fully integrated ANTIL automatic systems. These are capable of processing both steel and aluminium, and manufacturing can be achieved in a single continuous production cycle while utilising the latest welding robotics and Amada punching machines with automatic loading and unloading systems built-in.

In 1995 RAAL was operating from premises with an area of 4800 square metres; today its plant covers over 48,000 square metres and from 180 employees at the outset, RAAL now employs over 1700 people.

“The latest investment of 2015 gives RAAL the possibility to be able to deliver heat exchangers along with metal structures hav-

ing increased performances regarding the resitance to corosion and a high degree of complexity. The production in the new facility is focused on stainless steel frames which are minted on the heat exchangers but RAAL can also execute other metal structures for its customers. Besides, the KTL painting of the heat exchangers made of aluminum give a very high resistance to corosion.”

The company has also invested in new production capabilities for the the production of special heat exchangers designed for the world’s hybrid cars of the future. The entry into service of the new dedicated plant is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2016.

New horizons

RAAL’s main financial objective for the next five years is to increase operating profit by 100 per cent. To achieve this goal the company is relying on its greater efficiency and new technology, as well as optimising the growing strength of the market and favourable trading conditions.

The company is committed to providing stability as part of its operational principles in order to meet the present and future needs of its customers. RAAL has been run by the same team of senior managers for over 20 years and they offer unrivalled experience in their field, which in turn ensures continuous prosperity and customer satisfaction. n For further details of RAAL’s range of innovative, high quality heat exchangers and cooling systems visit: www.raal.ro