UK – Toshiba’s ground-breaking SMMS-e VRF system has landed another prize at the RAC Cooling Awards as the system continues to wow judges at award shows. The latest award crowns a remarkable year for the company, which has swept aside all its competitors, walking away with the industry’s top four awards for air conditioning innovation.  Toshiba’s SMMS-e system completed the clean sweep of trophies after being crowned Air Conditioning Innovation of the Year – VRF Systems in RAC’s Cooling Industry Awards 2016, held at The Hilton on London’s Park Lane.  The SMMS-e system had previously been the recipient of prizes at three other top awards shows this year at the National ACR Awards, ACR News Awards and the H&V News Awards.

The RAC Cooling awards jury outlined the reasons for the system’s success, saying “Toshiba has excelled in rethinking what makes an efficient VRF system. Rather than simply tweaking components, they overhauled the whole design, resulting in an impressive package of innovations which allow it to achieve ESEERs of over 7 across its whole range.”  In actual fact the SMMS-e is the only VRF system in the market with all outdoor units exceeding 7 ESEER (European Seasonally Adjusted Energy Efficiency Rating).

Reveling in the company’s ongoing success story, David Dunn, Toshiba director and general manager, proudly declared that  “It has been a hugely successful year for Toshiba and SMMS-e, and particularly pleasing as VRF is one of the most competitive sectors of the industry. Manufacturers would give their eye-teeth to win the industry’s four top awards. It reflects the outstanding performance and efficiency of Toshiba’s technology.”

Dunn also expressed his hope that this would not be the last award of the year, adding “Dare I whisper it, but the year is not over yet. Toshiba is shortlisted in the forthcoming H&V Review Awards, the finals of which take place later this month.”

The largest contributing factors in the SMMS-e system’s successes are innovations in three core technologies – the compressor, heat exchanger and advanced intelligent control. These innovations are adjudged to have combined to deliver outstanding efficiency and comfort for building occupants.  The system features a new rotary compressor, developed and manufactured by Toshiba, which uses a two-stage compression process for improved efficiency and performance. In addition to this, the wear surfaces on the compression vanes are treated with a high-tech Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) coating, giving vastly improved hardness, wear resistance and reliability.  These improvements help to generate a significant increase in compressor rotation speed, resulting in a higher displacement volume – up to 50% greater than for previous generations of VRF systems. The end result of these performance gains is that a higher duty can be obtained from a smaller compressor, all while consuming less power.

David Dunn concluded his statement by confiding that Toshiba would not be resting on their laurels, declaring that  “We aim to build on the success of SMMS-e with our next launch later this year. The SHRM-e VRF introduces innovations in technology that will contribute to even higher efficiencies and ease of installation and servicing. We believe it will be a winner.”