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SANDEN SET TO EXPAND CO2 COMPRESSOR MARKET The Japanese compressor maker behind Coca-Cola’s global conversion to CO2 vending machines and coolers, Sanden is gearing up production in China to support other end users of the natural refrigerant — By James Ranson
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everage companies and foodservice operators
committed to using natural refrigerants in their display coolers and vending machines inevitably come to a fork in the road; one path leads to using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, the other to using a hydrocarbon like propane or isobutane. A choice needs to be made. Most companies, including major players like Red Bull, PepsiCo and McDonald’s, have opted for hydrocarbons, while Coca-Cola has bucked that trend to become the primary follower of the CO2 path, using Gunma, Japan-based Sanden as the maker of its compressors. (See “Coke’s Quest to Reinvent Refrigeration,” Accelerate America, March 2015.) Sanden, through its Sanden Shanghai Thermal Environmental System subsidiary, is gearing up its production of CO2 compressors to not only serve Coke but also expand the market to other companies opting for CO2 to refrigerate their vending machines and coolers. In so doing, Sanden will stretch its production capacity to more than one million reciprocating CO2 compressors annually, positioning itself as the leading maker of this type of compressor for vending/display applications in the world, the company says. At present, Sanden has a handful of other domestic and global clients aside from Coke. “Our business is mostly with Coca-Cola for now, but yes, we are strategically marketing our products to attract more customers,” said Mamoru Yajima, general manager of Sanden Shanghai, adding that sales strategies are developed and implemented by “our team in Japan.” Sanden has already fielded inquiries from a number of end users and has the ability to increase the capacity of its facility to meet new demand, Yajima said.
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Accelerate America October 2015
Mamoru Yajima, Sanden Shanghai Thermal Environmental Systems
After starting production in 2010, Sanden Shanghai started selling compressors the next year at a rate of two thousand units annually. Now the company projects that figure to reach 1.2 million by 2017. Currently, the company’s 43,056 ft2 facility in Jiading, Shanghai churns out 2,500 CO2 compressors a day (roughly 60,000 a month) and has the capacity to increase production to accommodate any additional demand. Sanden distributes its compressors globally to a number of regions including India, U.S., China and Europe. Sanden Shanghai’s products cover three main refrigeration applications -- open showcases, vending machines and visi-coolers -- with its CO2 compressors covering a performance range of 0.2 kW to 1.8 kW. “We have five basic models of different sizes and capacities,” Yajima says. “These models are further adjusted so that they can be used in different countries with different voltages.”
Lin Zhiping, Sanden Shanghai Thermal Environmental Systems