Pleasent temperatures in the multivac training and application center thanks to aquaterm high-performance modules – The name MULTIVAC stands for modern packaging solutions for food, medical and pharmaceutical products as well as industrial goods. At the company‘s headquarters in Wolfertschwenden in the Unterallgäu district, the most extensive new building project in the company‘s history to date has come to an end. A new building complex was designed as a training and application center for slicing and automation solutions.
MULTIVAC customers can experience the complete process chain live in the new application center. The spectrum ranges from the demonstration of individual slicers, i.e. the pure slicing of a wide variety of products, through the presentation of different loading solutions after slicing, to the actual packaging process. In addition, 180 office workplaces and flexible conference and event rooms have been created on more than 17,000 square meters of floor space. The investment volume was around 38 million euros. One challenge of this project was in the area of heating and cooling.
“Since an easily reversible, i.e. foldable metal ceiling was desired by the client and architect, we were looking for a technically high-quality solution. aquatherm was able to meet all requirements in the best possible way.”
explains Jürgen Schmidt, managing director of Ingenieurbüro Schötz GmbH in Dietmannsried. The surface heating and cooling system, which is manufactured in a register design from the corrosion-resistant material polypropylene, was fitted precisely into metal cassette ceilings with acoustic fleece, each measuring 125 x 62.5 cm, over an area of around 1,100 m². Depending on requirements, the surface temperature of the registers is driven a few degrees above or below the existing room temperature. This ensures a rapid exchange of radiation that generates heat or cooling without disturbing drafts and dust swirls.
UP TO 110 WATTS COOLING CAPACITY PER M²
“However, because the building faces south with a continuous glass façade, an unusual solution was needed to cover the high cooling load in the rooms with a lot of customer traffic.”,
says Jürgen Schmidt. The aquatherm black high-performance modules were used here.
“With these, the high cooling load could be covered without any problems, as we achieve up to 110 watts of cooling capacity per m² with this system.”,
says Jürgen Schmidt. The high-performance modules are a further development of the aquatherm black coils for heating and cooling, which are combined with heat-conducting plates and aluminum support plates. The system uses the pressure drop and flow advantages of the coils as well as the very good thermal conductivity of aluminum. This results in positive synergy effects for the design and dimensioning of the individual control zones.
In the high performance modules, the corrosion resistant polypropylene pipe of the aquatherm black register is enclosed on all sides with aluminum. On the one hand, this is done by rolled aluminum heat conducting plates, which surround the pipe on three sides. They conduct the energy from the upper area of the pipe to where it is needed on the room-facing side of the ceiling panel. On the other hand, a continuous aluminum support plate distributes the energy across the width, thus making an efficient contribution to the air conditioning of the room.
FAST ASSEMBLY TIMES
The arrangement of the aquatherm black pipes as a register, i.e. a harp-shaped pipe connection, reduces the pressure drop compared to the common meander system. The path of the water is shortened, which reduces the friction at the pipe wall. At the same time, the amount of water is evenly distributed among the individual coil lines. This combination allows more elements to be connected in series than with a comparable meander system. This means a significant reduction in connection technology and thus a cost reduction per square meter of installed ceiling. While the investor can look forward to cost savings, the installer benefits from faster installation times, as Hubert Schneider from Fechtig Heating Sanitary GmbH in Waltenhofen-Lanzen can confirm:
“aquatherm black is very easy to work with. We quickly and easily installed the system in the rooms without a high cooling load using magnets in the metal cassette ceiling. Although it was our first time working with aquatherm products, the installation went smoothly, also thanks to the briefing by aquatherm service technicians.“
Hubert Schneider was particularly impressed by the easy handling of the aquatherm black high-performance modules in the rooms with high cooling loads:
“Because the modules‘ backing plates are covered with high-performance adhesive tape, all we had to do was insert them into the cassette directly on the job site by manually pressing them into place.”
Jürgen Schmidt also praises the cooperation with aquatherm:
“I was very satisfied with aquatherm‘s planning support in advance and also during the implementation on site.”
