There are many hours behind a new heat pump. On the way there, we are faced with many, often complex, choices to achieve the quality and performance for which we are known. The recipe is long experience, "everything under one roof" and extreme accuracy.
Product development is, simply put, about having a theory of how to improve a product, building prototypes and test driving to check the results. Now we have 70 years of experience with it and have carefully thought out development phases with control functions that guide us, from the first sketches until the heat pump leaves our warehouse.
"Performance and quality are our driving force," says Sandra Hansson, responsible for project management of product development at NIBE. We quality-assure every choice, from the smallest screw to our suppliers. We review and test, do risk analyses, carry out lab tests and field tests. We thoroughly verify and validate our production process before pressing the production start button, and every single heat pump is tested in operation before it leaves the factory.
Everything under one roof
An advantage for us at NIBE is that we have all functions gathered here at the head office in Markaryd, with our own product development and our own factories.
- The proximity to all departments means that we can have a close collaboration between design and purchasing, production, quality and sustainability, market and service all the way and take great account of all different needs, says Sandra.
Lab tests and field tests
Although the laboratory environment is close to reality, we test every new heat pump in real environments.
-Many of us who work here at NIBE are test pilots, but it is experts who monitor the heat pumps and analyze the operation. The field tests take place during a winter and a summer season so that we can see that they meet all requirements for operational safety and performance, but also user-friendliness, installer-friendliness and service-friendliness.
Development continues even after the heat pump is released for sale.
- Because we have our own cloud service where we get feedback from our field tests on how the product runs and is used, we can continue development work with the software, to further improve operation and user-friendliness and add new functions.
"The control system is the brain of the heat pump. It is completely developed by us at NIBE.”
The heart and brain of the heat pump
The most central parts of the heat pump are the control system and the cooling circuit.
- The control system is the brain of the heat pump. It is completely developed by us at NIBE and gives us full control over the quality and function optimization.
A critical part of product development is the cooling circuit design, which determines whether the heat pump can perform at a high level in different outdoor temperatures. It consists of compressor, condenser, evaporator and valves.
- We are very keen to optimize the working area for the cooling circuit and are extremely thorough with the evaluation. It is the heart where everything works together to optimize the heat pump's performance, concludes Sandra Hansson.
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