Side-by-side cooling technology

Features:
A new cooling technology system was recently unveiled in the country, REMMY NWEKE examines the genesis.

MADAM Maureen Ose, is a resident in one of the nation’s cities. She had just finished cooking food for the family, after a heated argument with the husband on how best to preserve their food; cooked or fresh, especially the boiled ones, for some hours and days without it getting bad.

This was basically because the cost of cooking everyday is continuously going up. So it was agreed that a good refrigerator was needed in the house. Suddenly, she remembers seeing an advertisement on what was described as a three door side-by-side cooling system recently.

A refrigerator often referred to as fridge or freezer, ordinarily is an electrical appliance that uses cooling method to prolong the freshness of food, according to Wikipedia encyclopedia online. It went on to state that there are majorly two kinds of refrigerators; namely domestic and industrial.

A domestic refrigerator is reportedly present in about 99.5 per cent of the households in America, it works by way of using phase change heat pumps to operate a refrigeration cycle, while the industrial refrigerator or freezer is used in an industrial setting such as a restaurant or supermarket with the same characteristics.

Nowadays, refrigerators consist of either a cooling compartment only, also known as larder refrigerator or a freezing compartment only, otherwise known as purely a freezer or both.

This came as a result of dual compartment introduced commercially by the General Electronic in 1939, which also metamorphosed into some refrigerators being divided up to four zones for the storage of different types of food; namely at the temperature of -180 Centigrade Celsius (C) or 00 degree Fahrenheit (F) for freezers, 00C or 320F for meats, 40C or 400F for refrigerators and 100C or 500F for vegetables and for the storage of different types of food among others.

Fahrenheit is a scale of temperature in which, for instance, water freezes at 320 centigrades and boils at 2120 centigrades, whereas Celsius is abbreviated as C and is a temperature scale in which water freezes at 00 and boils at 1000 centigrades respectively.

History shows that as at 19th century, ice-houses were being used for thousands of years to provide a source of ice in summer, which is literarily known as ‘dry’ season in this part of the world. This was on the later days of the century when the first common domestic refrigeration was in the form of ice boxes, thus as the ice melted it was being replaced with ice bought from commercial manufacturers.

Although in 1856, usage of the principle vapour compression, led by Australian James Harrison, produced the world’s first practical refrigerator, which was commissioned by a brewery to build a machine that cools beer. A year later, the first refrigerated railway car made a debut through the Chicago Meatpacking Industry, to prevent spoilage during shipping. Also, the first railway car to carry fruit was built by Parker Earle of Illinois and was used to ship strawberries.

According to Gizmohighway Technology Guide, Mr. Fred W. Wolf Jnr in Chicago, named Domestic Electric Refrigerator (DOMELRE), reportedly manufactured the first domestic refrigerator in 1913.

However, the first known refrigerator to be used widely use was the General Electric ‘Monitor Top’ introduced in 1927, with the compressor assembly, which produces what experts called substantial heat, placed above the cabinet and surrounded with a decorative ring.

For www.keepitcool.com, the natural ice were harvested, distributed and used both commercially and at homes in mid 1800s. Pioneers, however, in refrigeration experts included Scottish Dr. Williams Cullen, Londoner Mr. Michael Faraday and Dr. John Goorie of Apalachicola in Florida.

Today’s compression refrigeration system evolves on a concept adapted from Faraday’s experiments, which involves compressing gas into a liquid that absorbs heat, thus returning to gas and is known as a simple description of what transpires in a home refrigerator, freezer, air conditioner or dehumidifier.

Noteworthy, is that the evolution of cooling technology has at the beginning of the 21st century shown a drift from the West to the Asian Tigers, to an extent that nothing electronics is discussed without the Koreans.

Then, came the era of side-by-side refrigerators, which has grown to the three-door series by a leading Korean pioneer manufacturer in home appliance convergence, LG Electronics Digital Appliance Company (DAC); providing a total package of digital products for homes.

Described as the new face of refrigeration technology by industry analysts, the LG’s three-door side-by-side has been said to be consumer friendly product by the President, LG Electronics for West Africa Operations, Mr. Tae Hun Ryu, at the unveiling ceremony of the chain in Lagos.

He said the launch brings to the fore the firm’s unique refrigerator technology into the nation’s market to ensure customer’s satisfaction. Stressing that the distinctive three-door gives it a special look and feel as well as more room for the consumers to use.

On the compressor, Mr. Ryu said it was specifically built for the Nigerian environment: where power supply is not regular and when it’s available, it comes with higher voltage than is required.

“The three-door side-by-side refrigerator has two doors at the top that opens side ways for easy use in terms of stocking it with various food items according to the desire of the consumer, while the third door is below the top doors allowing the consumer a unique space to increase the content of the fridge,” Mr. Ryu explained.

Emphasizing it is a statement of the leadership position of the company’s brand in the country, he also revealed that LG has succeeded in the country because of its understanding of the need of the consumer and providing it. He informed that the research findings indicated that consumers are very conscious of having good product such as this to enable them have time for other things as the size of a refrigerator allows them to store more food, thus reducing time spent on visiting the market

The fridge features extra wide storage space in form of adjustable bins and drawers and five digital sensors for accurate temperature controls to ensure food preservation and freshness, with a tilting freezer door for easy access to inner drawers.

Vice President for Refrigerators and Washing Machine at LG Electronics, Mr. T.Y. Park, was confident that consumers would take advantage of the exclusivity of the 3-door refrigerator. He maintained that apart from its functions and doors, 3-door has a unique marketing edge as it comes in different colours, including titanium, white finish and stainless.

Before unveiling the product at the LG Digital Center Ikeja-Lagos, Mr. Park pointed out that the firm has once again adapted technology to suit the needs of the local market by bringing innovative designs to African kitchens. “A world leader in electronics manufacturing, LG is at the forefront of technology with our range of home appliances, developed to satisfy diverse customer demands,” he said.

Additionally, Mr. Park said that apart from LG being the cooling technology business leader, that with the introduction of this series, the firm is challenging the ‘side-by-side’ niche previously dominated by the United States (US) and European brands.

He said “It offers extra wide shelves and wider storage space with the bottom compartment extremely easy to slide out and for storage of bigger items”. Thus, the firm’s cutting edge bio silver and bio shield technology as well as multi-air flow system to ensure food freshness.

“We have taken a bold step in bringing the future of living standards in the Middle East and Africa today,” he asserted. Stressing that by end of 2005, over 100 million homes are expected to be using networked digital appliances and LG believes a large proportion of those will be in the Middle East and Africa.

Emphasizing that the new fridge combines digital technology and artificial intelligence with LG’s renowned build quality that is styled with the modern home at heart.

The Korean firm, he said, would continue to invest in research and development (R and D) with emphasis on customer research, in order to enable LG to design and produce such advanced digital appliance technology.

He said, smart devices in homes, including home-networked appliances, will open up new markets for manufacturers, service companies, telcos and other organizations to offer expanded services to customers.

“At LG, we have set several new standards for refrigeration, and we hope the new models will allow customers in the region to invest in what it is arguably the most essential home appliance with greater confidence and peace of mind. As with all our products, these refrigerators offer great functionality value for money, and exciting features, and will further expand our already successfully refrigerator range” he informed.

For the Managing Director of Somotex Nigeria Limited, LG’s major distributor on refrigeration products, Mr. Anil R. Mohinani, the support service platform for the new products is handy as the partnership has concluded plans to open its local manufacturing plant in the country.

In addition, Nigerian technicians have been trained for a take off and more are still going to benefit from this to ensure knowledge transfer, which would enable the partnership to optimize the support service platform locally.

Champion Infotel also gathered that the world’s first of its 3-door side-by-side was patented in the United States and 41 other countries. This system offers double cooling speed with cool air coming out from the door in addition to the rear and by maintaining the best humidity level, produce stays fresh for approximately six days, which is double that of competition.

This advanced technology with multi-sensors, LG noted, controls the temperature variation within +/-1C of the set temperature, and responds to keeping foods fresh longer, even as the sound is regarded as the quietest, hence operating at a whisper-quiet 41 decibels; equivalent to the noise level of a living room.
As the 21st century envelopes, new technology-based products that would make life, like that of Madam Ose, more trouble-free are expected from all facets of manufacturers.