Carel host: Energy efficiency and design excellence for commercial refrigeration

From 22 to 26 October 2021 CAREL will be participating at Host, the biennial catering and hospitality exhibition held in Milan.

To celebrate this long-awaited international event, back in person, CAREL will present a new generation of control solutions for professional and commercial refrigeration, combined with an advanced range of connectivity services. “We are thrilled to be taking part in this event, Europe’s number one meeting for the food service market,” commented Giovanni Tonin, CAREL Group Marketing Manager for Food Service. “The attentive and demanding visitors at Host make it the ideal stage for presenting our new solutions, the result of continuous investments to support our customers in facing the future challenges in this sector, such as sustainability, attention to design and a new user experience through the adoption of advanced IoT systems”.

CAREL will be bringing its wealth of experience and innovation to this international hub, supporting all aspects of the food sector with solutions to meet the different needs of this market and the constantly evolving regulatory framework. iJ, the new range of parametric controllers for commercial refrigeration featuring a customisable aesthetic design and innovative technical details, will be the star at the CAREL stand. Also highlighted will be Heosone, the solution for the control and management of plug-in refrigerated units that guarantees optimal energy efficiency through the use of DC inverter technology and natural refrigerants. The CAREL offering will be accompanied by multiple connectivity proposals based on IoT systems, developed to support every single product and application.

iJF: a platform with an eye to design

The new iJ parametric controller platform has been developed to meet the needs of the professional and commercial refrigeration market. The iJF product line has been created specifically for the food business, supported by CAREL’s more than thirty-year know-how, designed to equip the refrigeration units in professional kitchens and in various types of stores in the food service market.

The unique and distinctive design of the iJ line recently received the Gold Prize at the European Product Design Award 2021, in the Catering Products category. As part of this international design contest that rewards the strategic thinking and creativity of design teams, iJF was recognised for its innovative structure and its ability to integrate harmoniously into the refrigerated cabinet, thanks to the numerous colour variations and graphics available for the faceplate.

Efficient solutions devoted to food

CAREL’s continuous research has always been aimed at developing solutions that reduce energy consumption and that surpass the standards required by current environmental regulations, recently also extended to the commercial refrigeration market, specifically the strict Eco Labelling classification. iJF has been designed to allow humidity management and to manage modulating loads or variable-speed compressors (VCC) so as to improve refrigeration unit efficiency. Heosone, the complete solution for propane plug-in units, ensures the highest energy efficiency by using DC rotary inverter technology, electronic expansion valves and modulating fans. By adopting these systems, the solution can ensure highly stable temperature control, thus minimising food waste and, at the same time, reducing environmental impact and energy consumption, allowing manufacturers to label their refrigeration units in a higher classification.

The design of the controllers also takes into consideration the intended use of the products, i.e. in professional kitchens: the new iJF line offer guaranteed reliability in the typical working conditions of the food service industry, where heat, humidity and sometimes dirt require the use of highly robust solutions, both electrically and mechanically, ensuring the controller is protected in these difficult environments.

IoT for refrigeration

Conceived with the focus on the user experience, the iJF platform also offers multiple connectivity options (NFC, Bluetooth® and WiFi), as well as shifting human-machine interaction from the electronic controller’s keypad to a mobile device: the supporting IoT systems in fact provide local and remote services that exploit both the built-in connectivity options and external gateways. Thanks to the available apps and natively-embedded tools, as well as the fully-customisable graphics to adapt to the customer’s brand, the iJ platform offers a new way of interacting with the controllers, simply and easily from any smartphone.

For more info, visit: www.carel.com