Senior Ingersoll Rand leaders joined U.S. and local officials at the recent grand opening of the new Ingersoll Rand R&D Center in Prague, Czech Republic. Participating in the official opening ceremony were Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Herb Henkel, Senior Vice President and Climate Control Technologies Sector President Steve Shawley, U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic Richard W. Graber, U.S. embassy Commercial Counselor Greg O'Connor, Executive Director Business Development Ingersoll Rand Czech Republic Zdenek Kaiser. Also in attendance were Czech ministry of industry and trade and CzechInvest officials, and local representatives. One-half of the total investment into the new center was covered by Czech government incentives.

Located near the Prague international airport, the new R&D Center includes a two-floor office building and a testing building. Testing facilities available include a Multi-axial Shaker Table Laboratory (MAST), an ATP Climate Chamber and two Comparative Test Chambers, two Single Temperature Calorimeters, a Vibration Laboratory with Climate Chamber (two electromagnetic vibration stands), Endurance Test Rooms, two HVAC test rooms and EN441 test laboratories for Retail Solutions products. The MAST includes a sophisticated seven-channel hydraulic vibration system located on a 600-metric-ton ferroconcrete block supported by air springs that is unique to Climate Control Technologies.

The new center will focus on quality and reliability issues, customer focused solutions and new and disruptive technologies. It is expected to become a Center of Excellence for technology development and a showplace for Ingersoll Rand in Central Europe. Ingersoll Rand products are used throughout the facility, including hoists in the test laboratories and security equipment.

In addition to research workers and test specialists, the facility also hosts Ingersoll Rand employees representing HVAC marketing, Industrial Technologies sales and engineers, Bus and Rail HVAC sales and Retail Design. Ingersoll Rand University and the Climate Control Technologies Technical Training Center also are co-located at the research facility. About 50 people are now located in the office building, with the potential to grow to approximately 90 people.

Established originally as the Research Institute of Refrigeration and Food Engineering (1949), the institute passed successively to Thermo King (1992) and then Ingersoll Rand (1997). Its original location was in an overbuilt area close to midtown, which strongly limited its further growth.