From Content Media Group Inc. 19 – 1525 Cornwall Road Oakville, ON L6J 0B2 CANADA Tel: 905.465.2919 Fax: 905.465.2913 www.mechanicalbusiness.com May/June 2013 Issue Published 6 times per year. Editor: Adam Freill, ext. 224 adam.freill@mechanicalbusiness.com Associate Editor/Web Editor: Andrew Snook, ext. 225 andrew.snook@mechanicalbusiness.com National Accounts Manager: Laura Goodwin, ext. 221 laura.goodwin@mechanicalbusiness.com Controller: Liz Mills liz.mills@mechanicalbusiness.com Art Direction: JJM Graphic Ltd. davem@jjmgraphic.com Circulation Manager: Shila Naik (905) 272-4175 shila.naik@mechanicalbusiness.com Publisher: Bruce Meacock, ext. 222 bruce.meacock@mechanicalbusiness.com PM:41536047 ISSN 1916-0674 MB (Print) ISSN 1906-0682 MB (Online)
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Welcome to our High Performance edition One of the guilty pleasures that I have as an editor is the opportunity to see new technologies, often before they come to the marketplace. Some of those technologies make their way into production and distribution, but even for those that don’t manage to grab a foothold in our part of the world, it’s always interesting to see engineering in action. This past March, I was fortunate enough, along with several of our contributors, to visit the ISH show in Germany, a veritable hotbed for engineering advancements, and a favourite for the mechanically curious, like myself.
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What’s that High Performance emblem mean on some of our articles this issue? PERFORMANCE PERFORMANCE That mark identifies articles about systems and technologies that are at the top of their field – either by taking innovative approaches to a project, or by pushing the boundaries of efficiency.
So when it came time to gather up topics to work into this, our High Performance edition of Mechanical Business, I welcomed the opportunity to revisit some of the innovative products and systems that our team has checked out over the past little while, whether at ISH, or the AHR Expo in the U.S., or even closer to home at events right across Canada. One of the topics that seemed to be quite prevalent coming out of this year’s AHR Expo in Dallas was the concept of variable speed, which has a great efficiency story to tell, whether in pump, motor, fan or compressor applications. This led to some interesting discussions about the technology, and how it is set to take ground source heat pump efficiency to a whole new level (see page 104). While checking out some of the neat products from hydronic manufacturers at ISH, our resident hydronics columnist Bob “Hot Rod” Rohr and I couldn’t help but marvel at some of the energy storage solutions on display. Be sure to check out his column on page 34 for more on that front. And one of the more interesting tasks that we set our plumbing friend Jeff Patchell on for this issue was to find some innovative toilet advances, and he definitely delivered. He shares some of what he found on the show floor in Germany on page 108.
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So I hope you enjoy the issue, and all of the great new technologies within it. And feel free to drop me a line if you have any great new technologies or systems that you’d like to discuss. I’m always up for learning new things. Until next time,
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Adam Freill, Editor
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