Vale Klaas Visser – HVAC&R News
Refrigeration pioneer Klaas Visser, L.AIRAH, has handed away at the age of 83. A passionate advocate for all-natural refrigerant systems, specifically CO2 and ammonia, Visser worked extensively in the food stuff industry, and was internationally renowned for his contribution to producing massive-scale automatic plate freezers.
Reworking the meat sector
Born and educated in the Netherlands, Visser earned a diploma in marine engineering and then emigrated to Australia in 1964 and studied mechanical engineering at RMIT. He went on to perform for Wildridge and Sinclair, and began on a route of designing ammonia refrigeration devices for the food stuff and cold storage industries.
Later on he secured a position with McNiece Brothers in Bendigo, in which he managed the refrigeration division until the mid-1970s. During this time, Visser built a lot of ammonia refrigeration methods, predominantly for the meat sector. He also designed the idea of a plate freezer for export cartons of meat.
The do the job on this idea continued about the ensuing years, even soon after Visser left McNiece Brothers and began his individual consulting small business in Bendigo. The layout was dependent on freezing bulk meat in metal moulds without the need of cartons, and employed the principle of conduction relatively than convection to get rid of the warmth from the meat by direct make contact with with the plate. This intended a lot more rapidly freezing moments ended up achievable, alongside one another with substantially reduced energy use for the refrigeration technique.
The plate freezer also furnished other positive aspects, such as uniform shape, which gave substantially better item loading density as properly a lot more secure stacking. Visser utilized for and been given a sizeable federal grant to construct a entire-scale prototype freezer, which was properly finished in 1985 after achieving entirely automated operation at Tancred Brothers’ Beaudesert meatworks.
The prototype task was evidence of thought for the full Australian meat field, which embraced it and embarked on making several far more plate freezers. Today, far more than 85 for each cent of the frozen purple meat exported from Australia is frozen in plate freezers.
A eyesight for CO2 methods
Visser is also well recognised as a champion for CO2 refrigeration.
From 1976–1994 he labored with his mate and mentor, Norwegian CO2 refrigeration pioneer Gustav Lorentzen. Just after seeing the positive aspects of this technological innovation, Visser campaigned vigorously for the revival of CO2 refrigeration methods. He was just one of the initial in Australia to design and style a transcritical techniques for the meals sector, at Exquisine Food items, a dairy foods producing facility in Northcote, Melbourne.
Ian Tuena, AM.AIRAH, was heavily concerned in the undertaking.
“Like Klaas, we believed that CO2 was a excellent refrigerant of the earlier and had a big long term as the refrigerant of the long run,” suggests Tuena.
“We partnered with Graham Lucas from Lucas Refrigeration and have been prosperous in winning the venture of which Klaas, influenced by Gustav Lorentzen and his good pal Sergio Girotto, was most assured. But we had no concept of what we had signed up to!
“There were many heated conversations as we pressed on, and lastly we commissioned the task. Were there problems? Certainly, but a great deal of them were since we only could not get the gear we wanted to take care of the stress and that these days you can obtain off the shelf. A single issue is for positive, we learnt a hell of a great deal about CO2 transcritical devices in a really quick area of time.
“When I look back again at that project – which is continue to absolutely operational currently – and with the advantage of hindsight, I now see how visionary it was. The very low-temp rack serviced the -40°C blast and -20°C retail outlet, the medium-temp rack serviced the 2°C and 10°C areas, he experienced parallel and intermediate temperature compressors servicing the flash fuel load and AC load way right before it was frequent follow to do so. Klaas utilised the warmth restoration, accomplishing 18°C to 80°C in a one pass.
“It was a true credit to both of those Klaas, for taking the initiative and believing in transcritical CO2, and David Rose for supporting him. They showed transcritical CO2 systems have been an environmentally friendly and economically practical resolution for Australian refrigeration techniques, and paved the way for the growth we now see within just the grocery store and industrial industry through Australia and New Zealand.”
Sector tributes
Visser was an enthusiastic supporter of industry bodies and held positions with quite a few organisations such as AIRAH, the IIR and the IOR. He also represented AIRAH on a number of standards committees, which include the rewrite of AS 1677, and wrote quite a few complex papers that he shipped nationally and internationally at numerous message boards together with these hosted by AIRAH, the IIAR, the IIR, and the IOR.
Many well-acknowledged names from the HVAC&R marketplace have paid out tribute to Visser because his passing.
“Klaas was a welcoming and an inspiring human being to function for,” suggests ISECO Engineering Companies Director Ray Clarke, F.AIRAH. “He generally experienced a head total of suggestions and was ready to share them. He also experienced great electrical power and enthusiasm. No occupation was as well challenging. No job could not be finished better with a bit additional effort and hard work, and no stone must be remaining unturned when hunting for a far better end result.
“As the several years passed, our paths crossed many situations. I must say his perform ethic and enthusiasm never ever left him. Only two months in the past, when checking out him in the nursing dwelling, he even now wished to retain functioning on his CO2 transcritical fuel cooler style.”
“All matters regarded as, Klaas individually seasoned far more revelations about the practical mysteries of refrigeration than most right before his time was up,” claims Scantec Refrigeration Controlling Director Stefan Jensen, F.AIRAH. “Regrettably, he didn’t control to go all of it on, but he did a superior position than most making an attempt. For that Klaas really should be saluted and remembered.
“We are all here to make a variance and transform matters for the far better. Klaas did that in spades.”
A support will be held at 2pm on August 7 at the Bendigo Funeral Centre, 29 Miller Street in Bendigo, Victoria. It will also be are living-streamed in this article.