Carrier Corporation
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Carrier Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation Template:Nyse, is the world's largest manufacturer of air conditioning, heating and refrigeration equipment for commercial, residential and transportation applications.
From the time Willis Haviland Carrier invented the basics of modern air conditioning in 1902, Carrier has been the world leader in the manufacture and sale of heating, ventilating, air conditioning, hvac systems and products.
Headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut USA, with over 45,000 employees in over 172 countries, Carrier combines its global HVAC and refrigeration expertise with the responsiveness of its local operations to lead nearly every geographic market.
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History
The history of air conditioning is a history of Carrier, and there's more behind the comfort we take for granted on a sweltering summer day than you might think.
When Willis Carrier designed his first air conditioning system in 1902, his customer was a frustrated Brooklyn, N.Y. printer who couldn't print a decent color image because changes in heat and humidity kept changing the paper's dimensions and misaligning the colored inks.
For nearly two decades, Carrier's invention that allowed us to scientifically control the temperature and humidity of our indoor environment was meant for the comfort of machines or industrial processes rather than people. It wasn't until 1906 that Carrier, then employed by the Buffalo Forge Company, patented his first device - "An Apparatus for Treating Air."
Southern U.S. textile mills were among the first users of Carrier's new system. A lack of moisture in the air of the Chronicle Cotton Mill in Belmont, N.C. created excess static electricity that made cotton fibers become fuzzy and hard to weave. Carrier's system raised and stabilized humidity levels to eliminate the "fuzzies." It conditioned the fibers. The first overseas sale of a Carrier system was made to a silk mill in Yokohama, Japan in 1907.
Razor blades, celluloid film, capsules for pharmaceuticals, processed tobacco, bakeries, meat packing houses, soap manufacturers, munitions . . . the list of industries that found they could improve their products by using "conditioned air" from Carrier expanded dramatically.
Encouraged by their success, Carrier and six friends scraped together $32,600 and formed the Carrier Engineering Company in 1915 - a company whose only product was a guarantee to achieve the temperature and humidity levels their customers required.
Carrier, the company, began manufacturing products in 1922 after the company's namesake developed one of the most significant achievements in the industry's history - the centrifugal refrigeration machine. The centrifugal chiller, or just plain centrifugal as many call it, was the first practical method of air conditioning large spaces. This single achievement paved the way for the upward expansion of cities as well as bringing human comfort to hospitals, schools office buildings, airports, hotels, and department stores.
Once again, though, the first machines were used to stabilize industrial processes like candy and pottery making.
Comfort cooling made its debut in 1924 at the J.L. Hudson Department Store in Detroit, Mich. Shoppers at the store's popular basement bargain sales fainted from the heat as huge crowds overpowered the ventilation system. The sales became even more popular as three Carrier centrifugal chillers were installed to cool the basement and soon the rest of the store.
Many Americans experienced air conditioning for the first time in theaters as owners struggled to revive summer business that always slumped as temperatures rose.
"The cooling plant is revolutionizing picture show attendance in Houston!" said Will Horowitz, Jr., the Texas theater owner who asked Carrier to air condition The Palace, the Texan and the Iris theaters in 1924. "Patrons exclaim with delight when they get inside the doorway."
As Willis Carrier said, though, the acid test came when the young company was asked to air condition the famed Rivoli Theater in New York. The Rivoli's "cool comfort" was heavily advertised and block-long lines formed early on Memorial Day 1925 - nearly every patron was carrying cardboard fans, just in case. The film that showed that night was soon forgotten, but not the appeal of air conditioning. Summer film business boomed and by 1930, the 300 theaters Carrier had air conditioned were showing Americans they no longer had to settle for stifling indoor environments.
Owners of smaller businesses wanted to compete with larger retailers so Carrier began developing smaller "unit air conditioners" in the late 1920s. It was a small step in 1928 to the development of a residential "Weathermaker" that heated, cooled, humidified, cleaned and circulated air in homes, but the Great Depression quickly put an end to residential air conditioning.
Carrier's "unique" igloo in the 1939 World's Fair attempted to give visitors a vision of how their futures and air conditionings futures would mingle, but it was not until after World War II that sales of these smaller units for businesses and homes began increasing again.
Like many manufacturers, Carrier converted its production during World War II. Carrier systems were used in the vital production of synthetic rubber and in high-octance gasoline. Carrier chillers were removed from department stores (including Macy's), for installation in war production plants (they all got their chillers back after the war). Carrier air conditioning and refrigeration equipment was required for warships and cargo vessels, for munitions plants and for factories specializing in the production of such essential war material as bombsights and other precision instruments. Carrier made thousands of refrigeration units for walk-in coolers used by the Navy to keep perishables. Special portable coolers were made to permit the servicing of airplanes in hot climates. Carrier also turned out airplane engine mounts, sight hoods for guns, tank adapters and other military items.
Perhaps the greatest of all of Carrier's contributions to the war effort was something Willis Carrier called his own greatest engineering achievement. This was a system designed for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and installed in its wind tunnel to simulate freezing, high-altitude conditions for the testing of prototpe planes. In 1950 Dr. Carrier said, "Once, I accomplished the impossible...and because of its success, high officials in the Air Force told me that World War II was shortened by many months."
In recognition for it overall contribution to the war effort, Carrier was awarded the Army-Navy "E" six times, an honor attained by only 13 other companies. Other significant accomplishments during the 1940s-50s saw air conditioning systems shrink in size, allowing the cooling of ocean liners, buses, railcars, automobiles and even a traveling display for Gargantua the gorilla that amazed audiences in the U.S. and Europe.
But it wasn't until after World War II that Americans started wondering why they shouldn't be as comfortable at home as many of them were away from the home. Many of the advances in room and central air conditioning came in the 1950s. In 1955, William J. Levitt, then America's leading homebuilder, predicted that air conditioning would soom become a basic feature of American homes. He was right! By 1965, 10 percent of American homes were air conditioned. By 1995, more than 75 percent of American homes were air conditioned, and in some portions of the South, 90 percent of homes have comfort cooling.
Products
Carrier offers an unequaled range of choice for air conditioning/heating products and refrigeration units. Carrier's products satisfy the broadest range of customer needs from portable air conditioners and environmentally safe chillers to Carrier Transicold-refrigerated containers and supermarket display cases refrigerated by our Carlyle compressors.
Home Comfort Solutions
Home Heating and Cooling Systems
Carrier provides all the great products it takes to make a custom made indoor weather system for the home, including air conditioners, heat pumps, furnaces, programmable thermostats, humidifiers, air cleaners, ventilators and zoning products. Carrier pioneered the application of chlorine-free, environmentally-sound refrigerants with the introduction of its industry leading, Puron-based residential products.
Window Room Air Conditioners
Carrier provides a full-line of quality room air conditioners for use in the home or in commercial buildings.
Commercial Industrial Systems
Commercial/Industrial Heating and Cooling Systems
From unitary products to applied systems, Carrier offers a comprehensive line of commercial HVAC systems and services for office buildings, manufacturing, retail, schools and universities.
Lodging Air Conditioning
Carrier Lodging Products and Services offer a complete heating/cooling solution for hotels, senior living centers, and apartment buildings around the country.
Portable HVAC
HVAC Portable Systems Inc. provide emergency HVAC portable solutions for customers that require temporary rental equipment for heavy and light industrial manufacturing.
Refrigeration & Transport Systems
Commercial Refrigeration
From refrigerated display cases to bottle coolers and cold rooms, Carrier offers an array of commercial refrigeration products.
Transportation Refrigeration
Carrier supplies a complete range of truck/trailer and container refrigeration equipment, and transport air conditioning systems for the bus, rail, and marine industries.
Parts and Supplies
Parts & Supplies
Carrier's Parts and Supplies offering completes the package for indoor comfort. Featured on "Parts and Supplies" are product highlights and a complete selection of product literature. Also, in the "Store Locator" section, you can find the nearest Totaline Store in your area. Your local Totaline store has all direct replacement parts for Carrier, Bryant and Payne as well as a complete line of aftermarket accessories and installation supplies.
Compressors
Carlyle manufactures quality, reliable open drive and semi-hermetic reciprocating compressors found around the world - from the world's first nuclear sub to your grocer's freezer.
Environmental Awareness
When Dr. Willis Carrier launched the air conditioning industry in 1902, little did he know the tremendous impact it would have on our daily lives. The power to control our indoor environment makes all the difference in the way we feel on the job, in the classroom, at home and on the go. Carrier's refrigeration products provide comfort to consumers by keeping food fresher and preserving life-saving pharmaceuticals and blood products.
Today, Carrier Corporation is dedicated to preserving the environment as well. We know that heating, cooling, ventilation and refrigeration are much more than issues of comfort and process. We recognize the urgent need to maintain a responsible balance between the comfort we create today and the world we live in tomorrow.
Maintaining the responsible balance is nothing new for Carrier Corporation. Caring about the world outside is an integral part of our master plan and is a primary focus in all aspects of our operations.
Carrier has identified six specific areas that directly affect how the company, as a world manufacturer, balance our customers' needs with the need for responsible consumption. Once we have reached a goal in one of these areas, Carrier set our environmental standards even higher for the design and engineering of new products. In effect, Carrier keep striving to provide the most environmentally responsible equipment possible. This operating philosophy is the customers' assurance that, while Carrier equipment creates unmatched comfort today, our company is hard at work protecting the outdoor environment for enjoyment tomorrow.
These symbols represent our six areas of concentration and serve as visual reminders of the importance of managing corporate finite resources.
Employment
Carrier combines its global HVAC and refrigeration expertise with the responsiveness of its local operations to lead nearly every geographic market. We have the most extensive distribution organization and the most advanced research and engineering facilities in the world. And we have a highly diverse workforce, numbering about 39,000 worldwide, whose many faces, languages and talents are linked by a universal goal to provide customers with superior value.
Carrier, and our parent company United Technologies, also invests the most heavily in the success of that workforce with an unequaled commitment to continued training and education -- a commitment exemplified by our ground-breaking Employee Scholar Program.
Job Opportunities
Check out our latest job listings, submit your resume or find out about our co-op/internships.
Employee Benefits
Find information on UTC Choice health and welfare plans, financial security plans, paid time off, health and wellness services, and many more employee and family services.
Recruiting
Carrier is actively recruiting degreed and advanced-degreed professionals in the disciplines of mechanical, electrical/electronics, software, sales and manufacturing engineers as well as experienced manufacturing professionals, information systems professionals, marketing and sales associates.
Innovations
Puron
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Puron is the refrigerant of the future, and Carrier is prepared to help homeowners like you enjoy improved comfort right now with a full line of products utilizing this performance-enhancing refrigerant.
ComfortHeat
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One of the complaints with standard furnaces is that you're either too warm or too cold. That's because a standard furnace warms your home with a series of full-speed-ahead blasts of warm air. When the furnace isn't running, the temperature drops about four degrees before the next heating cycle. ComfortHeat¿ Technology maintains temperatures consistently close to your desired setting and can accurately predict the need for additional heating.
ComfortChoice
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ComfortChoice is the first ever Internet-based demand side energy management solution that uses two-way wireless communications.
See Also
External Links
Carrier Air Conditioning Global Site (http://www.carrier.com)