Dec 11 2005
Frost & Sullivan's recent analysis, North American Commercial and Industrial Humidity Control Equipment Markets, selected Munters Corporation as the recipient of the 2005 Product Innovation Award for its new product line – the Humidity Control Unit (HCU) series of dehumidifiers. Munters deserves credit for its efforts in developing the HCU series in a market that has not seen any major product launches for a while.
Each year, Frost & Sullivan gives this award to a company that has demonstrated excellence in new products and technologies within its industry. The award lauds the recipient company's innovation and launch of a broad line of emerging products and technologies.
Having identified the market requirements, Munters used the right resources for developing a product that exceeded market expectations. This was a bold step in a low demand market and highlighted the company's faith in its product capabilities. Munters has traditionally focused on larger dehumidifier systems used primarily in large applications. In the absence of smaller capacity units, the higher efficiency units not only carry a price premium, but are also not able to target the untapped potential of smaller dehumidifier markets. Identifying the changing end-user preferences, Munters introduced the HCU series of dehumidifiers, increasing its penetration into markets where the company previously did not have a product.
"The HCU series of dehumidifiers offers high energy savings – a 65.0 percent higher coefficient of performance (COP) compared to the typical air-conditioning systems – and have a combination of a refrigeration cycle and desiccant-based dehumidification," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Sampad Misra. The company uses the excess heat of the refrigeration cycle to regenerate the desiccant wheel, optimizing the benefits of both the cycles.
Refrigerant-based systems are more energy efficient, while the desiccant-based systems are the only solution for deep dehumidification. This hybrid system can operate in extreme weather conditions with a humidity that controlled with the lowering of outdoor air temperatures. Munters uses the titanium silica gel desiccant wheel that is optimized for regeneration with the waste heat from the refrigerant cycle. With the higher efficiencies the HCU dehumidifiers offer in this age of high-energy costs, the product has created a niche for itself. Both the technologies, refrigeration cycle and desiccant-based dehumidification, were used for a long time but synchronizing their benefits has helped Munters stay ahead of competition.
"There are a few smaller companies working with combinations of refrigerant and desiccant dehumidifier cycles," notes Misra. "However, the efficiency of the products cannot match those of the HCU series."
The company has a limited marketing budget because a product such as this is poised to market itself based on its quality and performance. A known brand name in the supermarket and ice rink sectors, Munters is growing in the organized retail, food, and restaurant chain segments as well. The lower end of the user chain is the target of the product. The smaller restaurants, hotels, cinema theatres, and warehouses are the new areas where the HCU series of dehumidifiers is making strong inroads. The determination of Munters of staying ahead of competition by developing products, such as the HCU series of dehumidifiers with clearly demarcated benefits over the competition establishes the company as a leader in developing new products, which become benchmarks in terms of efficiency, quality, user benefits, and ease of use. For this, Munters rightly deserves the 2005 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation.