Trane

Trane Technologies Inc. is a manufacturer of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and building management systems and controls. The company was a subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand Inc. which was the successor company to the American Standard Companies. Trane Technologies is now an independent company listed on NASDAQ (TT). It makes products under the Trane Brand name.
A global company, Trane's international headquarters are in Swords, Ireland. Trane employs more than 29,000 people at 104 manufacturing locations in 28 countries, and has annual sales of more than $8 billion. In addition to its activity in HVAC systems, Trane is involved in energy conservation and renewable energy projects.
History.
In 1885, James Trane, a Norwegian immigrant from Tromsø, opened his own plumbing and pipe-fitting shop in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He designed a new type of low-pressure steam heating system, Trane vapor heating. Reuben Trane, James' son, earned a mechanical engineering degree (B. S. 1910) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and joined his father's plumbing firm.
In 1913, James and Reuben incorporated The Trane Company. It was Reuben's invention of the convector radiator in 1923 that firmly established the company's reputation as an innovator, a reputation Trane people have been building on ever since.
By 1916, the Tranes were no longer in the plumbing business, but instead focused their attention on manufacturing heating products. Reuben conceived the idea of the first convector radiator in 1925, which replaced the heavy, bulky, cast-iron radiators that prevailed at the time. Trane's first air conditioning unit was developed in 1931.
In 1982, Trane purchased General Electric's Central Air Conditioning Division. With that purchase came many of the most recognizable traits of Trane's residential air conditioning products. Many of those traits, like the distinctive red "Climatuff" compressors, the "Spine-Fin" all aluminum spiny outdoor coil and the all aluminum evaporator coil, are still found in Trane's residential equipment lines.
In 1984, Trane was acquired by American Standard Inc., and became a fixture in the American Standard Companies business. Following a leveraged buyout in 1988, American Standard returned as a publicly held corporation in 1995.
Breakup of American Standard.
On February 1, 2007, American Standard Companies announced it would break up its three divisions. The company sold off its namesake kitchen and bath division and spun off WABCO, American Standard's vehicle controls division, while retaining The Trane Company. American Standard then renamed itself Trane Inc. effective November 28, 2007.
Acquisition by Ingersoll Rand.
On December 17, 2007, Trane announced it had agreed to be acquired by Ireland-based Ingersoll Rand in a cash and stock transaction. The sale was completed on June 5, 2008.
Europe's largest cooling system.
The Channel Tunnel is a rail tunnel beneath the English Channel, linking the United Kingdom with France. At its lowest point, it is below the sea bed and below sea level. At , the tunnel has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world. During the design stage of the tunnel, engineers found that its aerodynamic properties and the heat generated by high-speed trains as they passed through it would raise the temperature inside the tunnel to . As well as making the trains "unbearably warm" for passengers this also presented a risk of equipment failure and track distortion. To cool the tunnel to , engineers installed of diameter cooling pipes carrying 84 million liters (18.5 million gallons) of water. The network—Europe's largest cooling system—was supplied by eight York Titan chillers running on R22, a Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerant gas.
Due to R22's ozone depletion potential (ODP) and high global warming potential (GWP), its use is being phased out in developed countries, and since 1 January 2015 it has been illegal in Europe to use HCFCs to service air-conditioning equipment—broken equipment that used HCFCs must instead be replaced with equipment that does not use it. In 2016, Trane was selected to provide replacement chillers for the tunnel's cooling network. The York chillers were decommissioned and four "next generation" Trane Series E CenTraVac large-capacity (2600 kW to 14,000 kW) chillers were installed—two located in Sangatte, France, and two at Shakespeare Cliff, UK. The energy-efficient chillers, using Honeywell's non-flammable, ultra-low GWP R1233zd(E) refrigerant, maintain temperatures at , and in their first year of operation generated savings of 4.8 GWh—approximately 33%, equating to €500,000 ($585,000)—for tunnel operator Getlink.
Notable Trane buildings.
The list of buildings below use Trane systems.