Vol 89, No 1 (2000)

The history of TRANE, one of the largest suppliers of equipment for ventilation and air conditioning systems, began as a family business more than 100 years ago. Norwegian immigrant James Train, who settled in 1864 in the American city of La Crosse (Wisconsin, USA), found work as a plumber, opened his own business in this area in 1885, and a few years later he already gained a reputation as one of the best specialists. In 1913, James Train and his son Reuben, who had graduated from the University of Madison by that time, founded TRANE to master a new type of heating system invented by James, operating at low steam pressure. In addition to this innovative system, the company manufactured valves and other equipment for conventional steam heating systems.

The entire range of equipment manufactured by TRANE can be divided into the following groups: Machines for liquid cooling Central air conditioners Small systems (unitary products). Individual climate control equipment

In this issue of the journal, we continue to publish materials of the XX International Congress on Refrigeration (see "Refrigeration Technology" No. 12, 1999). Readers are offered abbreviated articles on reports made at plenary sessions. Fully plenary reports will be published in the proceedings of the XX International Congress in the cold, which should be published this year.

TECHNOBLOCK (Italy), one of the leaders in the production of fully automated monoblock and biblock refrigeration equipment, is a relatively young, but constantly and dynamically developing structure.
The company has an extensive dealer network for the sale of its equipment in the markets of Russia and other CIS countries.
The creative interaction of the manufacturer and dealers creates conditions for the constant search for new technical and organizational solutions and, as a result, the transition of production-sale processes to a new quality.

The Moscow market of household refrigeration equipment (BHT) quite fully reflects global development trends. In 1999, the BHT assortment included almost all standard sizes of refrigerators and freezers: from thermoelectric mini-refrigerators with a capacity of less than 9 liters to multi-door combines with a capacity of more than 850 liters. Minimum prices less than $40 ("Morozko-ZM", 30 l), and the maximum is more than 7500 c.u. (GENERAL ELECTRIC TPG 28PFC, 780/290 l, with an ice maker that dispenses cubed or crushed ice and chilled water through the door, bar, stainless steel cabinet body). In the presented assortment, more than 95% of all items fall on compression models, about 1% - on absorption models, and about 3% - on thermoelectric models.

The control of the ammonia content in the air of the premises of ammonia refrigeration units is a prerequisite for their safe operation. For this, semiconductor and electrochemical detection methods are usually used.
Semiconductor devices are quite cheap, but they can become inoperable after exposure to high concentrations of ammonia and do not have long-term stability. Therefore, such devices serve mainly to detect ammonia leaks.
In order to measure the concentration of ammonia, electrochemical gas analyzers (or gas detectors) are used, which have high reliability and, which is very important, a long (at least 6 months) calibration interval.