Thermo King Corporation officially dedicated its newly expanded and renovated research and development facility at its Minneapolis MN headquarters in a special ceremony July 30.
The Frederick McKinley Jones Research And Development Center, doubled in size over the past two years, has more than $7 million worth of tools, processes, and capabilities for reliability and quality testing.
The center is named after Frederick McKinley Jones, a self-taught African-American and an instrumental figure in the founding of the company.
"A prolific inventor throughout his life who received more than 50 patents, his commitment to making ideas reality helped create the transport refrigeration industry," said Ted Fick, president of the company’s Transport Solutions Americas operation. "Jones was the inventor of the first reliable system for refrigerating trucks, and that became the springboard for launching Thermo King in 1938."
More than $5 million was spent on the latest testing equipment and capabilities. These investments include a $2.2 million electrodynamic, multi-axial shaker table for increased vibration testing; $1.2 million for calorimeter and environmentally controlled chambers for compressor life testing; $1 million for unit endurance environmental test cells for testing complete systems, subsystems, or components in simulated actual field condition; and $300,000 for environmental chambers for accelerated life tests in temperature ranges from –94° F to 356° F, with relative humidity ranges from 10% to 98%.
"Our R&D facility is not yet complete, and it never will be complete," said Steve Shawley, president of the company’s Climate Control Technologies and senior vice-president of Ingersoll Rand, Thermo King’s parent company. "Ongoing investments in research and engineering are essential for continued growth and reliable, cutting-edge products."
