SCI DMD gave an interview to JARN magazine.

JARN: The rotary compressor market continues to expand, with larger capacity models coming to the forefront. Will there be a bottleneck in demand for scroll compressors? How will you make breakthroughs in the future? 

Mr. Kajonsak: Rotary compressors and scroll compressors have different benefits. For example, with rotary compressors, price performance is expected, while with scroll compressors, high system performance and reliability are expected. SCI manufactures both scroll and rotary types of compressors. Regarding rotary compressors, we also have expanded their capacities to larger sizes. Regarding scroll compressors, Mitsubishi Electric has patented oval scroll technology that realizes bigger displacements in the same size body, with a lighter weight, higher efficiency, etc. Backed by this technology, we set scroll compressors as our core premium product and focus more on both their performance improvement and capacity expansion. We think scroll compressors have a variety of opportunities such as in the commercial segment with their larger capacities and also in the heat pump segment. For the commercial segment, we have just begun to deliver a 25-hp large capacity scroll model to the markets, starting with the Chinese variable refrigerant flow (VRF) and European chiller markets. We hope that sales are growing.

JARN: You said SCI expanded its rotary compressor capacities. We heard that you have developed 100-cc and 130-cc large-capacity rotary compressors with propane (R290) refrigerant. What is the current status of these compressors? 

Mr. Kajonsak: These 100 cc and 130 cc rotary compressors with R290 are still in the developmental stage and have not been launched yet. However, we have finished the development of the same capacity models of R290 scroll compressors and are displaying them here. We have already started to deliver sample products of these scroll compressors to many customers in the European air-to-water (ATW) heat pump market. With these R290 scroll compressors, we are also trying to expand the U.S. market, targeting heat pump products and refrigeration equipment. For refrigeration, we are displaying here our new R290 horizontal inverter scroll model. Our new model requires less installation space and has low noise and vibration. Its cooling capacity ranges from 0.1 to 2.9 kW (500 to 10,000 BTU/h) for low temperature applications, and from 0.5 to 7.6 kW (1,700 to 26,000 BTU/h) for medium-temperature applications.

JARN: In the U.S. market, what is the most significant resistance to the expansion of demand for twin-rotary compressors? 

Mr. Kajonsak: In the U.S. market, non-inverter scroll compressors have been very popular among system manufacturers and it has been really difficult to expand inverter rotary compressors. However, currently, we see good signs in the context of carbon neutrality policy as the U.S. market aspires to energy-saving and eco-friendly compressors adopting new technologies such as inverter and lower-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants. In fact, we can see some signals that many customers are trying to use inverter twin-rotary compressors.