RD&T ten year anniversary
Today (1 August 2019) RD&T is 10 years old. We formed RD&T back in 2009 and we thought it would be interesting to look back over what we have done in those 10 years. So what have we achieved and what were the standout moments we remember most?
- We have tested and/or developed 353 refrigerated cabinets. We started with testing to EN23953:2005 but quickly moved on to the 2012 and now the 2015 version of the standard for commercial cabinets. We were also involved in developing the latest version of EN23953 and a raft of new test standards that have been developed over the last few years for various types of display cabinets (e.g. beverage coolers, vending machines, ice cream freezers, gelato cabinets etc.).
- We were involved in the largest ever domestic refrigerator survey where temperature and energy were measured in 1000 homes. We also looked at whether refrigerators could usefully be recycled and the reasons why some refrigerators consume too much energy.
- We helped to develop and test a number of new refrigeration technologies and products, some of which have become highly successful in the market. A good example is the work to develop Aerofoils for open fronted cabinets (see: https://www.rdandt.co.uk/casestudies/fridgeland).
- We witnessed the performance of 20 cabinets in a variety of countries for manufacturers, end users and Government agencies. As well as witness testing cabinet performance we also started validating the performance of test rooms.
- We manufactured and sold over tens of thousands of test packs used for refrigerated testing which have been sold Worldwide. These packs have been used for testing refrigerated cabinets according to EN, Ashrae and ISO standards.
- We have carried out a variety of other work including energy and temperature audits in food factories, mathematical modelling of heat and mass transfer, reducing food waste through the use of refrigeration, rapid beverage cooling, literature reviews, assessment of new technologies, heat and mass transfer measurements
- We often received some quite unusual requests. One in particular that stands out was a request to freeze a whale! This was one of the more abstract requests we received and was from a TV company producing a natural history programme. What feeds on dead whale carcasses in the oceans is not very well documented, so the TV crew were hoping to find out whether sharks or other animals were the major scavengers. Our task was to freeze the (already dead) whale, store it and then thaw it out ready for towing out to sea for the TV crew to film what fed on the carcass.
- Throughout all this we have worked for a wide range of manufacturers, end users and organisations such as Carbon Trust, IIR, UNEP, WRAP, EECA NZ, Energy Saving Trust, CLASP, ADEME, BRE/DECC, BSRIA and the Valuation Office Agency.
- As well as all of this we quickly decided back in 2010 that we needed to be ISO 9001 certified and completed this in 2010. We are now certified to ISO 9001-2015 having updated to the latest quality management system in 2017.
For information on our latest work and to get our free refrigeration news either sign up for our monthly mail outs on our web site at https://www.rdandt.co.uk/; or see us on LinkedIn.