Celebrating 75 Years of Commercial Refrigeration Innovation Part 3: KeepRite Refrigeration Looking Ahead (1994 – 2020)

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Celebrating 75 Years of Commercial Refrigeration Innovation Part 3: KeepRite Refrigeration Looking Ahead (1994 – 2020)

KeepRite Refrigeration 75th Anniversary

The time has finally come to take a look at how KeepRite Refrigeration has thrived since opening its doors in 1945 and looking ahead to a bright future as we celebrate our 75th anniversary. From 1945 to 1993 we saw a lot of facility expansions and a lot of innovative products and technologies come to fruition.

As we continue our journey into 1994, we begin with the purchase of KeepRite Refrigeration by National Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Corp from Inter-City Products Corporation which led to 59 new employees within the refrigeration division.

During the late 90s we saw some excitement building online as we launched our first website, keepriterefrigeration.com.

KeepRite Refrigeration First Website

 

KeepRite Refrigeration First Website

To celebrate the new millennium, KeepRite Refrigeration decided to install a brand new, state-of-the-art “Finn Power” shear/punch press in the press shop. We then went on to expand our plant by another 58,000 square feet bringing our total floor space to 140,000 square feet!

KeepRite Refrigeration Facility Expansion Construction

Throughout 2005 we celebrated our 60th anniversary and added a new fin press, hairpin machine and vertical expander allowing us to increase our staff even further to 162 employees. Taking our online game one step further, we officially launched our NROES online calculation, design, quotation and ordering system in 2006. We later released our Design Tools suite of software tools which became available for all members online for free (and still is to this day!).

As we stepped in the next decade of the millennium, we really started to see traction with our innovative technologies after receiving the AHR Expo Innovation Award for Refrigeration with an Honourable Mention for our SmartSpeed and Quiet Condensing Units.

In 2014, we were awarded a US patent for our SmartSpeed Fan Motor Technology which was then followed up another AHR Expo Innovation Award in 2015. By this time the Refrigeration Category had become highly competitive and the prestigious award we received recognized KeepRite Refrigeration for innovation and excellence in bringing Limitrol+ Head Pressure Control System to market.

AHR Expo Innovation Award 2015

While receiving all of these awards was definitely a highlight of the company throughout our entire 75 years, we did also rack up some pretty impressive (or weird, we leave that up to you) stats by 2015 including:

  • 10,600,000 sq. ft. of aluminum foil was used in 2014 which is 1.6 times the floor space of the largest office in the world, the Pentagon
  • Used over 8,000,000 screws and fasteners… each year!
  • Used 38,000 fans in 2014 which is enough to provide 1 fan for each citizen in Pacifica, CA.
  • Used 5,000,000 lbs of sheet metal in 2014 which is more weight than the space shuttle’s launch mass.
  • Used 10.7 million feet of copper tube in one year which is nearly enough to wrap around the moon at its equator.

And this all brings us to the year 2020 and our 75th anniversary. We think we can speak for everyone when we say that this year has been unpredictable but through it all KeepRite Refrigeration has not only managed to survive but has thrived thanks to our amazing staff and loyal consumers. Here’s to 75 more years folks!