Refrigera: the only trade fair in 2021?
Refrigera 2021 is going ahead: that is the latest announcement from the organisers of this popular refrigeration industry event. It could well be the only refrigeration trade fair in Italy to be confirmed for 2021 and will be held in Bologna from 13th to 15th April.
Considering that one of the main objectives of the meeting is for it to serve as a round table for discussion of the latest developments in innovative products and services, the level of interest from companies involved in that sector is understandably high.
Issues and changes in the refrigeration industry
Among the main issues facing this sector are:
- The implications of environmental considerations, which have led to increasingly strict regulations that must be respected, such as Regulation 517 on refrigerant gases;
- Growing economic requirements, linked to energy saving, lifecycle assessment and the commoditization of products;
- The increasing importance of the cold chain in different production processes.
Refrigera 2021 will not only be an opportunity to exhibit new products and technologies, but the organisers plan to make it a meeting place, able to balance the needs of those in the market for these products and producers hoping to sell.
It is important to find common ground, particularly because clients are no longer just interested in the performance of a product or the technology that makes it work. People want to find out more and they often request specific figures relating to temperature, humidity or energy efficiency.
Suppliers have now been elevated from salespeople to appliance consultants, able to advise the client as to which product will be most likely to satisfy their requirements. This is a big change affecting the entire refrigeration sector and despite some initial doubt, the industry is now adapting to this transformation extremely well.
How leading brands are meeting clients’ needs
Another interesting point for discussion at Refrigera 2021 involves the technologies that leading brands are embracing in order to meet their clients’ new requirements. One of the most important is the facility to enable constant remote monitoring of the equipment they supply.
Thanks to this kind of solution, maintenance teams and technicians can use tools to help them identify when and how to intervene; an essential feature which can greatly facilitate how they manage their work.
To illustrate this point, here are some of the differences encountered during routine maintenance procedures:
- In the past, the technician had to go and meet the client at least three times, first to make an initial assessment of the problem, then to resolve the issue and finally to check the device was working correctly;
- More recently, with the introduction of the technology mentioned above, it has become possible to limit the number of visits to just one, when the technician fixes the problem with the equipment. Identification of the issue and verification that the device is working properly can be carried out remotely, thereby optimising time and costs.
How Refrigera 2021 will be held
The organisers of Refrigera 2021 have emphasised that the event will undergo some changes, in particular, it will move away from the usual workshops and seminars and focus more on three main macro-themes: eco-labelling, sustainability and quality.
Despite some differences in how it will be organised, the event’s fulcrum will remain focused on interaction and exchange between people. This is because, the human element, as always, is the key to the event’s success.
The April event will be one of the most important dates in the 2021 calendar for the Italian refrigeration industry and the participants will want to get the most out of all the opportunities it offers.
Translated by Joanne Beckwith
