Are self-maintaining systems the future of refrigeration?

In a world with increasing levels of monitoring data and technological complexity - the challenge of efficiently maintaining and servicing a refrigeration system is also growing. With the increasing intelligence of refrigeration controllers, the equipment will take over tasks that were previously performed by a service technician. However, this does not mean that the technician becomes redundant.

On the contrary, by utilizing the domain expertise integrated into intelligent refrigeration controls combined with advanced cloud solutions, the future of maintenance for refrigeration equipment becomes predictive rather than reactive. This allows the technician to reach new levels of efficiency while still increasing uptime and optimizing performance of the system. Through digital services based on machine learning and data science, the technician will be able to understand and monitor the status of systems, potential refrigerant leaks, compressor failures, etc. even before they occur. Intelligent services may be able to pinpoint root causes and propose remediations remotely through global configuration management or predictive maintenance guided by automated recommendations.

These fully connected systems will provide system owners increased value in terms of reduced energy consumption, increased asset lifetime and lower maintenance costs. For the service technicians, it will introduce a far more intelligent “digital partner” that can support failure diagnosis and remediation. However, we are still very far from fully autonomous and self-sufficient systems. Even a Tesla may tell you what’s wrong, it might even drive itself there – but it still needs a pair of human hands and manual service at the end of the day.

Join us to hear how we at Danfoss envision the possibilities for supporting and servicing the refrigeration systems of tomorrow through our Alsense® service platform.