User:LauraSc91/Carel Industries

CAREL Industries is an Italian multinational that designs, manufactures and markets electronic control solutions for the HVAC/R sector and humidification and evaporative cooling systems.

The company was founded in 1973 in Padua province (Italy), and has 25 subsidiaries, 9 production sites and more than 1,700 employees worldwide. In 2018 it was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in the FTSE Italia STAR and FTSE Italia Small Cap indices.

History
CAREL was founded in 1973 in Padua province (Italy) as a business to business company. The name C.AR.EL. is an acronym in Italian that described its main business: Costruzioni ARmadi ELettrici (electric panel construction). CAREL began business as a supplier of electrical panels to a manufacturer of computer room air conditioners (Hiross).

In 1981 CAREL designed and developed one of the first European-made microprocessor controllers for the air conditioning sector. The following year this was marketed under the name Miprosent.

The new microprocessor technology adopted made it possible to eliminate numerous lower-performance electromechanical components. At the same time, microprocessor controllers brought changes to the way that refrigeration units were built, with a reduction in assembly costs and times and a significant increase in performance and functions, while guaranteeing constant performance over time. The first CAREL electronic controller was parametric, meaning it was factory-programmed and thus suitable for mass production in large volumes, with benefits in terms of cost vs. performance.

Subsequently CAREL developed its first programmable controller, called Macroplus, able to be customised both in terms of design and operation (algorithm). This programmable controller was the first in a series that became the company’s flagship product over the following decade, a period in which CAREL based its programmable controllers on a new software programming language: EasyTools.

At the end of the 1990s, what would become known as the “cooling district”, currently one of the largest in the world, began to develop around CAREL.

Over the space of a few years, CAREL managed to extend its scope beyond the northern Italy market, first domestically and then across Europe, starting in the air conditioning sector and then followed by humidification and shortly thereafter refrigeration.

CAREL also continued manufacturing humidification systems, products with a significant electromechanical component, while concentrating its investments above all in electronics.

The company’s international expansion first began in the 1990s, opening subsidiaries in France, the United Kingdom, South America and Germany. In the 2000s it opened further subsidiaries in:


 * China
 * Australia
 * the United States
 * Asia
 * Spain
 * India
 * South Africa
 * Russia
 * South Korea

The same decade also saw the opening of production sites in the United States, China and Brazil, followed in 2015 by Croatia, as well as sales subsidiaries in northern Europe, Mexico, the Middle East, Thailand, Poland, Ukraine and Japan. At the end of 2018, CAREL also saw growth through acquisitions with the incorporation of Recuperator and Hygromatik into the Group.

In 2021, CAREL also acquired CFM Soğutma ve Otomasyon A.Ş, its distributor and partner in Turkey. In the same year, through its Recuperator subsidiary, it acquired Enginia S.r.l., a company operating in the design, production and marketing of dampers and other plastic and metal components for air handling units.

CAREL today is a global company that provides components and solutions (hardware and software) for the control of air conditioning (HVAC) and refrigeration systems (collectively HVAC/R).

Research and development
Every year the company invests around 6% of consolidated revenues in Research & Development. CAREL operates its own research centres for HVAC/R applications in Italy, China and the United States. These centres are devoted to studying the latest technological innovations on the market and to designing and developing solutions for refrigeration and air conditioning systems. Its Italian branch is also home to a research centre focusing on air humidification and evaporative cooling systems.

Environmental sustainability
CAREL designs solutions aimed at generating energy savings and reducing the environmental impact of the units and systems these are installed on.

Natural refrigerants
CAREL supports the spread of, invests in and provides solutions that use natural refrigerants; these are considered environmentally sustainable due to their low GWP.

Business associations
CAREL is a member of several national and international business associations, participating in advocacy activities to support and promote its different business sectors. These include, among others, ASHRAE, EPEE, Eurovent, AHRI, EHPA and AiCARR.

Awards and recognitions
CAREL has received several awards and recognitions, both as a company and for its individual products. At a Group level, these include the Mediobanca award, the Small & Mid Cap Award received in 2019 for the STAR stock exchange segment, while as regards individual products, China Refrigeration Innovation Awards have been given in recent years to the E2vZ electronic expansion valve, the Hecu solution for condensing units, and the EmJ modulating ejector.