THE VRL LABORATORY

LAB1 is a 300m3 climatic chamber inside of which three cold rooms are installed, used as calorimeters to test the efficiency of refrigeration monoblocks. It is possible to carry out performance, energy consumption and efficiency measurements according to EN 17432 for air or water-cooled systems. LAB1 has been designed to check the cooling capacity with ambient temperatures ranging from 0°C to +55°C and with cold room temperatures down to -40°C.

LAB2 is a large calorimeter with a double cold room equipped with a cavity to eliminate heat loss towards the external environment. It was designed to test the performance and efficiency of forced convection air-cooled evaporators for refrigeration according to EN 328 and allows you to measure cooling capacities from 200 W up to 65 kW, with extremely high accuracy and repeatability of the data across the entire measurement range. It is also possible to test the fluid dynamic efficiency of thermostatic valves and fluid control systems. If necessary, LAB2 can be transformed into a climatic chamber for tests on refrigeration systems by simulating external temperatures down to -30°C.

LAB3 is a 300m3 climatic chamber equipped with 8 calorimeters to measure the performance and efficiency of compressors (EN 13771-1; EN 12900) and condensing units for refrigeration (EN 13771-2; EN 13215) and therefore, verify the necessary data for the declaration of conformity to the ECODESIGN regulation. The refrigeration and air handling units of LAB3 allow climatic environments to be created between -15°C and 55°C. Condensing units can be tested with a cooling capacity range between 300 W and 100 kW. In LAB3 it is also possible to perform tests on air conditioners, liquid chillers, heat pumps for ambient heating and cooling and chillers for process cycles. These tests are carried out according to the standards EN 14511 and EN 14825 for partial load evaluation and to calculate the seasonal performance. LAB3 has been designed and built to safely perform tests on CO2 or Hydrocarbon systems (R290, R600, etc.). Therefore, it has evacuation and environmental remediation systems controlled by very high resolution sensors which allow any risk to be instantly eliminated in the event of very minor leaks of CO2 or hydrocarbons.

LAB4 is a semi-anechoic chamber, specifically designed and built to perform noise and vibration tests on any product, with particular attention to the acoustic and vibrometric analysis of refrigeration systems. The system allows condensing units to be connected to external acoustically decoupled calorimeters to reproduce any cooling load in any operating condition. The semi-anechoic chamber is also air-conditioned. This way it is possible to reproduce any cooling load and external environment condition, thereby allowing even extreme operating conditions to be simulated. Acoustic and vibrometric data can be acquired and measured simultaneously with machine performance and operating data (temperatures, pressures, etc.) to associate every acoustic phenomenon with a specific operating condition. LAB4 allows tests to be performed according to EN ISO 3744 and EN ISO 3745.

LAB5 is a climatic chamber built specifically for necessary energy efficiency tests for verifying compliance with the ECODESIGN regulation and the declaration of energy class relating to domestic and professional refrigeration systems and for display and sales. The chamber is equipped with a horizontal laminar flow ventilation system that guarantees an air speed between 0.1 and 0.2 m/s at every point and temperature and stability control that guarantees chamber stability of +/- 0.2°C and +/- 0.3% relative humidity. In particular, tests can be performed in compliance with the following standards:

• EN ISO 23953-2: Refrigerated cabinets to display and sell foodstuffs
• EN 16825 / EN ISO 22041: Refrigerated storage cabinets and counters for professional use
• EN17032 / EN ISO 22042: Blast chillers and freezers cabinets for professional use
• EN 62552 1-2-3: Household refrigerating appliances
• EN 16901 / EN ISO 22043: Ice-cream freezers
• EN 16902 / EN ISO 22044: Commercial beverage coolers
• EN 50597 / EN IEC 63252: Energy consumption for vending machines

LAB7 is a room, or rather an actual bunker, for testing pressurised circuits, with values of up to 500 bar. The pressure test is performed until the component breaks. Alternatively, a number of pressure loading and unloading cycles can be set, up to a maximum of 500,000 cycles.

In LAB8 we test everything that has to do with CO2, a natural refrigerant, which requires special tools and care. We conduct performance tests to measure yields and the consumption of condensing units, split systems, multi-compressor packs, gas coolers and evaporators, using a calorimeter, mass flow meters and enthalpy jump.