HC Heat-Exchangers (HC) is part of the HC Group of Companies, based in Elandsfontein, Germiston South Africa. The subsidiary specialises in the manufacturing of finned tube heat exchangers, refrigeration system and HVAC equipment at their 21 700m2 factory. It is now comfortably the largest OEM turnkey solution manufacturer of such equipment in Southern Africa.
Driven by a strong in-house research and development team coupled with a legion of experienced engineers, HC Heat Exchangers has positioned itself for a further 50 years of manufacturing excellence consistently targeting itself with growth figures in excess of 25% year-on-year.
This kind of internal motivation and employee engagement is clearly a formula for business success.
“We manufacture our equipment primarily for the local market but we also export to numerous territories worldwide,” explains David Nurden, HC Heat Exchangers’ Chief Operations Officer.
HC Heat Exchangers make use of an Amada EML 2515 AJ fiber laser / punching combination machine that processes 86 tons of thin gauge sheetmetal a month on average. That’s about 2 400 sheets or 8 800m² of sheetmetal. The machine is equipped with two 10-tower loading and unloading pallet changers and an automatic turret tool changer
“The Heating Centre group was founded in 1973 and subsequently traded under the German based Güntner SA banner from 1995 until their withdrawal from South Africa in 2001, after which HC Heat Exchangers was established from this solid foundation.”
“The HC Group offers engineering solutions in design, manufacturing, installation and after-sales service specialising in the production of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment with an end-to-end solution through our contracting partners. The HC Group has successfully introduced various business units since its inception in order to continuously add value to our customers across the broad range of industries that we serve.”
The future of sustainable heating and cooling: The ANSWR – a combined chiller and heat pump which operates on CO2
HC Heat Exchangers’ latest product design breakthrough came when one of their American partners tasked the company with creating a solution for a challenge facing US cities.
Environmental laws require these cities to replace heating systems in their buildings without using fossil fuel-based equipment – like gas-fired boilers. The usage of direct resistive heating sources, although possible, would require new electrical reticulation and massive additional power generation that would make any such attempts completely unfeasible.
HC Heat Exchangers has achieved a breakthrough in the HVACR&E industry by developing and manufacturing a revolutionary solution that can simultaneously heat and cool commercial and industrial buildings using natural refrigerant. This solution is called the ANSWR heat pump chiller, and it uses CO2 as the refrigerant. CO2 has a Global Warming Potential of 1, which means it contributes positively towards climate change. Compare that to synthetic refrigerants, which can have a GWP of up to 3920, meaning a significant detrimental impact on climate change. The heat pump chiller is eco-friendly, cost-effective and energy-efficient. It can save up to 50% of energy consumption compared to conventional heating and cooling systems. It can also provide heating and cooling at different temperatures and capacities, depending on the demand
For HC Heat Exchangers, the answer was simple: Research, design and manufacture a combined chiller and heat pump which operates on CO2 – a natural refrigerant.
“One of the other foremost challenges was dealing with the limited supply of electricity into these buildings,” continued Nurden. “In built-up cities like New York for example, you can’t easily just run new power cables all over the city for the increased electricity needs.”
“The ANSWR is still able to utilise the same power input but the breakthrough is that it is able to provide both the heating and chilling needs to whichever application – buildings, apartment complexes, office complexes, hospitals and so on would require – with one piece of equipment and a single power input. Another advantage is that customers are then able to remove their old boiler and free up much needed space for whatever they might want to use that space for because of the ANSWR’s smaller footprint.”
HC Heat Exchangers’ Amada EML 2515 AJ fiber laser / punching combination machine is a workhorse
“Once we were ready to present our prototype solution – all developed in-house here in our Innovations division and factory – to our American partners, they flew over here to come and have a look at the proof of concept and they couldn’t quite believe that we had been able solve the problem. They immediately got on their phones to report back to their superiors and we’ve gone from there.”
“Such is our belief in this product that we have recently established an entity in Europe for representation as there is significant scope for the product there. We are also finalising agreements with other regions to bring the product to market in those areas,” explained Nurden.
And tariffs? Collectively the partners have come to an agreement to keep the product palatable for all parties concerned and manufacturing will still continue at HC Heat Exchangers’ South African factory – an element of the deal that the company is not prepared to budge on given its proudly South African manufacturing history.
HC Heat Exchangers have installed an Amada ID-TOGU automatic tool grinding machine. Tooling maintenance is an important and indispensable element to keeping product quality in sheet metal products
“The product is now starting to gain a bit of traction. At the beginning we were manufacturing one or two here and there every few months but we now have a dedicated factory across the road from our main factory that focusses solely on assembling the units, with various components manufactured in the main factory,” says Nurden.
“The United States has very stringent electrical assembly requirements for example and part of being able to manufacture and supply the ANSWR units into the US market entailed us becoming UL 508A certified. Essentially this certification is a safety standard developed by Underwriters Laboratories for industrial control equipment, including panels, relays, and motor controllers.”
“Certification ensures that products meet the local requirements for electrical safety, performance, and reliability, verifying compliance with North American standards and allowing manufacturers to label equipment as UL-listed for safe industrial use. All of the components that go into the unit that we manufacture have to be either UL listed or UL recognised.”
Also on the shop floor is an Amada HG 1003 ATC Press Brake with Automatic Tool Changer (ATC)
“We therefore decided that a dedicated space and a dedicated specialist team be established to give the product the full attention it needs not just from a manufacturing and assembly point of view, but also from a quality control perspective.”
“When we speak of models and variations of the units, we speak in tons of refrigeration so initially we have gone to market with four models – a 20-, 60-, 90- and 120-ton variation being the options available.”
“To overcome a situation in which you may not be able to physically get a 60-ton unit into a building via a service lift we have designed the system as such to be modular so a customer could then incorporate three 20-ton units or more for example to make up their particular needs.”
“To give you some kind of comparison, a normal home would require around 6kW of power for efficient cooling and our 20-ton unit – the TR20 – will produce about 70kW of cooling capacity, as well as 100kW of heating. This means we can easily service 1-2 floors of a commercial building.”
HC Heat Exchangers’ Powder Coating Project – a complete turnkey solution by Coating Techniques SA. In September 2022, Coating Techniques SA began discussions with HC Heat for the design and delivery of a new powder coating facility. From the initial concept and design to fabrication management and installation coordination, Coating Techniques SA successfully led the project from start to finish
“Its key selling point though is its versatility in that it’s not only capable of providing a solution that cools water/glycol, but it also provides a solution for heating as well. The water cooling and heating property means that it can provide domestic hot and cold water as well as industrial hot and cold water. It’s a four-in-one solution applicable across so many industries and functions. To make this even better these heating and cooling capacities are in no way dependant on each other meaning that we can supply any percentage of heating and/or cooling at any stage, meaning this single unit replaces two currently needed units – ensuring space saving and efficiency are prioritised.”
“Let’s take a hospital for example – you can produce chilled water for things like the mortuaries down to -24°C, while also producing chilled water that can be used for air-conditioning, then you have your hot water at around 55°C to 60°C that can be used for supplying geysers and then you will have your very hot water up to 85°C that can be used for sterilisation and other such applications. All produced using the ANSWR, even when the load requirements are unbalanced.”
The ANSWR is equally at home in a supermarket environment where you need a comfortable experience for shoppers and staff but at the same time an environment that ensures that a food chain is well taken care of.
Bending work is an integral part of HC Heat Exchangers’ work and the company have a number of presses including an Amada RG-35S Hydraulic CNC press brake
The benefits of CO2 – a natural refrigerant
“CO2 has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 1, which means it contributes positively towards climate change. Compare that to synthetic refrigerants, which can have a GWP of up to 3920, meaning a significant detrimental impact on climate change. ANSWR eliminates the use of PFAS – Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (Forever Chemicals). These can be found in many of the latest low-GWP synthetic refrigerant technologies.”
“The heat pump chiller is eco-friendly, cost-effective and energy-efficient. It can save up to 50% of energy consumption compared to conventional heating and cooling systems. It can also provide heating and cooling at different temperatures and capacities, depending on the demand and season – all controlled via a sophisticated control panel.”
When you consider a scenario whereby electricity is provided via renewable resources such as wind farms or solar energy, you can see how the ANSWR fits comfortably into promoting a circular economy and the future of heating and cooling within industrial, commercial and domestic environments.
Built to last, HC Heat Exchangers also make use of an Amada Vipros 255 CNC turret punch press
HC Heat Exchangers’ product range
Broadly speaking, HC Heat Exchangers’ product offerings fall into five divisions: Coils, refrigeration systems, HVAC, electrical, and value add.
To offer solutions for the commercial and industrial space, the company produces condensers, evaporators (both flooded and direct expansion), chilled water coils, hot water coils, steam coils and dry coolers. The offering includes a variety of different construction materials to suit all operating environments including all stainless coils designed and manufactured to SANS 347 and ASME B31-5 specification.
Typically, material worked with ranges from 0.5mm to 3mm but HC Heat Exchangers is able to process material up to 6mm thick. Pictured is their Bystronic 3015 6kW fiber laser with a ByTrans Extended two cassette loading system
On the refrigeration range, HC Heat Exchangers design and manufacture a range of compressorised refrigeration systems, specialising in freon and CO2 systems. The division services the commercial and light industrial refrigeration industry with a range of indoor and outdoor multiplex racks and condensing unit assemblies that include catalogue and custom-built designs.
HC Heat Exchangers’ HVAC division services the commercial and industrial air-conditioning market with air handling units and rooftop packaged units and HC Electrical offers a complete range of electrical distribution boards for air-conditioning and refrigeration where work is carried out according to appropriate national standards, specifically SANS10142, or the appropriate international codes with an in-house software development team.
The HC Value Add allows for a one-stop shopping experience where they conveniently package projects smalls and components to ensure clients have everything they need. HC Heat Exchangers also carries the ISO 9001:2015 standard along with the International Institute of Welding SANS ISO 3834 certification.
Applications
Applications for HC Heat Exchangers’ product range include beverage production, cold storage warehousing, dairy processing, data centres, distribution centres, district cooling, food processing, marine refrigeration, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, refrigerated transport and HVAC for theatre rooms.
HC Heat Exchangers specialises in the manufacturing of finned tube heat exchangers, refrigeration system and HVAC equipment at their 21 700m2 factory
Of HC Heat Exchangers’ range of products it manufactures, around 50% are supplied into the commercial market and the other 50% into industrial uses. Around 30% of these products are what are deemed catalogue and standard issue products, with the remaining 70% being custom-designed to fit a particular need from which standard templates are used to formulate the final product designs.
Shop floor
Aside from the sourcing of some of the raw materials used in the manufacturing process, HC Heat Exchangers manufacture virtually all of their products in-house using an array of specialised CNC equipment coupled with various manual assembly processes and quality control processes. This includes the fiber laser cutting and bending of material as well as the decoiling of material.
Typically, material worked with ranges from 0.5mm to 3mm but HC is able to process material up to 6mm thick. With the recent addition of an Amada EML 2515 AJ fiber laser / punching combination machine, they are able to process 86 tons of thin gauge sheetmetal a month on average. That’s about 2 400 sheets or 8 800m2 of sheetmetal. The machine is equipped with two 10-tower loading and unloading pallet changers and an automatic turret tool changer.
Other CNC machines on the shop floor include an Amada Vipros 255 CNC turret punch press, a Bystronic 3015 6kW fiber laser with a ByTrans Extended two cassette loading system and an Amada RG-35S Hydraulic CNC press brake as well as an Amada HG 1003 ATC Press Brake with Automatic Tool Changer (ATC).
On the tube cutting side, HC Heat Exchangers make use of Burr Oak, Trident and in-house developed custom machinery.
A Burr Oak Fin Press. Used to stamp out the fins from rolls of foil (aluminium, PU (polyurathane), copper or stainless steel)
HC Heat Exchangers’ Powder Coating Project – a complete turnkey solution by Coating Techniques SA
In September 2022, Coating Techniques SA began discussions with HC Heat Exchangers for the design and delivery of a new powder coating facility. From the initial concept and design to fabrication management and installation coordination, Coating Techniques SA successfully led the project from start to finish.
Under the leadership of Managing Director, Ray Wilford, the team ensured every stage of the project met strict technical and quality standards while maintaining efficiency and collaboration between all partners involved.
From design to delivery
Fabrication of the system was carried out by Electrons advanced facilities in Izmir, Turkey. The manufacturing process took approximately four months, followed by six weeks of sea freight from Turkey to South Africa.
Fins produced from the roll of foil after processing in the Fin Press
This project brought together the expertise of five specialised companies, each contributing critical components to the system’s success: Coating Techniques SA – Project leaders and design coordinators, managing the entire process under the guidance of Ray Wilford; 4 Oaks Engineering – Designed and installed the effluent treatment and waste plant, ensuring the treated water could be safely returned to the municipal system; Zenoquip – Supplied the reverse osmosis (RO) plant, providing consistent, high-purity water for production, PTL – Provided the chemistry and powder materials required for coating operations; and Electrons Fabrication and Development Facility (Turkey) – Responsible for the fabrication and assembly of the complete coating system.
Plant Layout and Operation
The completed plant occupies an area of 13 meters wide by 50 meters long, with a continuous overhead conveyor running through the facility at 1.5 meters per minute.
Products manufactured internally by HC Heat Exchangers are loaded onto the conveyor at the loading area, initiating their journey through the seven-stage pre-treatment process, designed for optimal surface preparation and coating adhesion.
Pre-Treatment Stages include, 1. Heated Alkali Degreasing, 2. Water Rinse, 3. Heated Acidic Degrease, 4. Water Rinse, 5. Reverse Osmosis Water Rinse, 6. Conversion Coating, and 7. Reverse Osmosis Rinse No. 2.
After pre-treatment, the parts pass through a dry-off oven at 100°C to prepare for powder application.
HC Heat Exchangers is now comfortably the largest OEM turnkey solution manufacturer of finned tube heat exchangers, refrigeration system and HVAC equipment in Southern Africa
HC Heat Exchangers services the commercial and light industrial refrigeration industry with its range of indoor and outdoor multiplex racks and condensing unit assemblies
Advanced coating technology
Once dried, the Coating Techniques SA Part Detection System identifies each part’s height and length, transmitting this data to the Electron Main Controller. The controller automatically adjusts spray parameters, activating the correct powder guns within the Electron Quick Colour Change Cyclone Booth – optimising coating consistency and efficiency.
The booth’s automatic powder recovery system reclaims up to 98% of over sprayed powder, which is then cleaned through dual sieve screens and returned to the Electron PM120 feed center. Two manual touch-up stations are available for precision correction when required.
After coating, the conveyor moves the products through an LPG gas curing oven, where the powder is cured at 200°C for 10 minutes. Once cooled, the finished components are offloaded and prepared for assembly.
Project Outcome
This facility represents a modern, efficient, and environmentally responsible coating solution for HC Heat Exchangers – built on strong collaboration, precision engineering, and the commitment of all partners involved.
A Stainless Steel Tubed Industrial Evaporator
“Coating Techniques SA is proud to have successfully managed this project and extends sincere thanks to HC Heat Exchangers for entrusting us with such an important part of their production process,” said Ray Wilford.
“HC Heat Exchangers is able to offer turnkey solutions for customers for greenfield projects where we are able to integrate the structural engineering, civil engineering and architectural aspects where needed and manage the whole process from end-to-end. We have an in-house division here at head office that manages all of this for us and this enables clear communication across all our business units throughout the process,” concludes Nurden.
HC Heat Exchangers’ Carl Du Toit, Group Head of Production and David Nurden, Chief Operations Officer
HC Heat Exchangers now employs approximately 400 staff across its various divisions.
For further details contact HC on TEL +27 11 674 1237 or visit https://hcaircon.hcgroup.co.za
