Our company will construct a new R&D Center, as a core base of air conditioner business, within the premise of the head office in Kawasaki scheduled to be completed in September, 2007 in order to further strengthen the engineering development capability for our air conditioner business which is one of our core businesses.
The world demand for air conditioners is increasing year by year both for small-size and large-size models and has reached about 62 million units in the calendar year (Jan. to Dec.) of 2005, 3.3% up from the previous year.
On the other hand, the substantial improvement for environmental issue such as energy-saving performance of air conditioner is increasingly demanded against a background of electric power condition and global warming problem, for which high degree of engineering development is required to manufacturers more than ever.
Under such circumstances, our company has been developing air conditioners for the world market both at the head office (home use small-size models) and Hamamatsu business office (commercial use large-size models and multi air conditioning system for buildings), but will considerably strengthen in the future the essential technology and product development power by constructing the new R&D Center within the premise of head office and integrating the scattered development bases investing total amount of about 5.5 billion yen.
The development of leading-edge products can be promoted at the new R&D Center, five-story building with total floor space of about 20,000m2, with the introduction of large-size test facility such as calorimeter and noise test room mainly for large-size air conditioners. Also, positioning the building itself as experiment center for multi air conditioning system for buildings, we intend to improve the facility to be able to verify the performance and incorporate the environment of field test. Furthermore, a 60m height difference test tower which is essential for the development of multi air conditioning system for buildings is to be constructed.
We aim to integrate the technologies for small-size and large-size air conditioners and improve the development efficiency by the construction of the new R&D Center and the enhancement of test facility for large-size models, and thus actively expand the air conditioner business in the future.
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