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Close control design and selection software

CLOSE is the REF.BOX module dedicated to the design, virtual prototyping, optimization and commercial characterization of close control units for precision cooling applications.

This software module allows to design and simulate a close control unit with a scientific approach, being able to completely characterize the refrigerant circuit thermodynamic and heat-transfer phenomena, the unit control, the on-board hydronic lines with the pumping group, the unit operating range, to rapidly and accurately calculate the performance in part-load operation and to commercially characterize the refrigeration unit by defining its descriptions, images, documentation, any associated accessories and price lists distinguished by market.

It’s a must-have software module for all companies focused on precision cooling close control units efficient design, optimization and commercialization.

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User friendly
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Commercial management

Design

The close control module can create a faithful digital copy of the real refrigeration unit, allowing its comprehensive definition:

  • refrigerant: refrigerant selection among those currently available on the market, including HFOs and propane (R290);
  • architecture: refrigeration unit architecture selection among those currently available on the market (standard, dual coil, only evaporator, chilled water, etc.), including multiple uneven refrigerant circuits characterization;
  • components: refrigeration unit main components complete characterization, including pre-filters, filters, dampers, pre- and post-treatment heat exchangers and the air-coils and fans coupling;
  • refrigerant circuit: refrigerant lines characterization;
  • hydronic circuit: on board refrigeration unit hydronic lines characterization and associated hydronic pumping groups complete definition;
  • aeraulic circuit: air ducts components characterization (filters, pre- and post-treatment heat exchangers, fans, dampers);
  • control: on board unit actual circuits and compressors sequencing and control definition and fans regulation;
  • calibration: user-defined or self-calculated experimental correction coefficients to calibrate the unit nominal performance;
  • user friendly: intuitive graphical interface, rapid special unit generation and Excel files support for massive components and refrigeration units export and import.

Calculation

REF.BOX is equipped with an extremely robust and advanced numerical engine that allows the refrigeration units design, virtual prototyping and optimization in terms of costs and energy performance. The calculation engine includes the refrigeration unit operating constraints returning alarm signals if necessary. The close control module can calculate the refrigeration unit in different operating modes, in detail:

  • maximum capacity: calculation returns the refrigeration unit maximum capacity for given boundary operating conditions;
  • part-load: user can define the total or sensible set-point in terms of load or temperature. With post-heating or cooling auxiliaries, it is possible to fix a secondary set-point value for latent or sensible control. The calculation returns the refrigeration unit actual part-load performance including compressors and fans insertion degree;
  • input capacity step: it is possible to calculate the refrigeration unit operating performance for a given user-defined capacity step;
  • catalogue: catalogue data is a tool for generating performance table based on variable boundary conditions and cooling load.

Commercial characterization

REF.BOX allows a complete commercial characterization of refrigeration units. This characterization is used in the REF.WEB configurator for unit commercial selection. In particular, it’s possible to assign to each unit:

  • descriptions: descriptions and technical specification items definition (multilingual);
  • images and dimensional: images and dimensional association (multilingual);
  • documentation: manuals and brochures association (multilingual);
  • operating limits: envelope and operating limits definition;
  • accessories: accessories definition, including rules, and their combination with the refrigeration unit;
  • price lists: units and accessories differentiated association by price list;
  • user level: user level assignment to manage unit visibility within the web configurator.

User friendly

REF.BOX extremely intuitive graphic interface and its intrinsic characteristics allow the user to quickly and easily manage all the details necessary to define the heat pump, and to fast create and manipulate entire product series. In addition, the provided Excel files allow the massive import of hundreds of components, accessories, descriptions, price lists and fully-defined refrigeration units.

The main REF.BOX features are:

  • refrigeration components creation, copying and editing both from the graphical interface and from Excel;
  • heat pumps creation, copying and editing both from the graphical interface and from Excel;
  • the instantaneous creation of new units or a series with different architectures starting from an existing one, for example the creation of an only heating heat pump starting from a reversible one;
  • special heat pumps rapid creation and web publishing starting from standard units;
  • components replacement and parameters modification for tens of refrigeration units at the same time, for example the setting of pressure switches of an entire series or the compressor replacement for all units of the same size in a given series;
  • entire series duplication for OEM management, including the possibility of binding them technically and/or commercially to keep data always aligned to the original units;
  • accessories creation, copying and editing both from the graphical interface and from Excel;
  • accessories coupling to the heat pump by managing their number, coding, price, weight, refrigerant charge, dimensions and unit operating range;
  • multilingual descriptions and documentation definition and editing both from the graphical interface and from Excel;
  • automatic synchronization with the REF.WEB commercial configurator database giving the opportunity, for example, to publish special units and to update price lists in a really fast way.

Commercial management

Thanks to REF.BOX, in addition to the heat pumps technical characterization, the user can also manage autonomously and completely the commercial stuff, associating all the accessories, price lists, texts, documents and images necessary to the selection and drafting of the offer documents within the REF.WEB commercial configurator.

Specifically, REF.BOX allows to define entire series or single heat pumps:

  • multilingual descriptions;
  • multilingual images and dimensional that may be differentiated according to the selected accessories;
  • multilingual documentation to be attached to the offer;
  • operating limits subordinate to the selected accessories;
  • accessories with rules of incompatibility, coupling, prerequisite, alternative associates, alternatives of which one is always mandatory;
  • accessories association with management of number, coding, images, descriptions, price, weight, refrigerant charge;
  • coupling with one or more markets or distributors;
  • distinct price lists by market type or by distributor;
  • commercial visibility through user level assignment.