The establishment of an electrical repair shop for a copper mining company in Japan marked the birth of Hitachi in 1910. Today it is evident that Hitachi Ltd has grown tremendously now being one of the largest industrial......The establishment of an electrical repair shop for a copper mining company in Japan marked the birth of Hitachi in 1910. Today it is evident that Hitachi Ltd has grown tremendously now being one of the largest industrial corporations worldwide. Over the past 90 years, Hitachi has remained committed to developing advanced technology solutions to allow society to evolve into the sophisticated community that we are all a part of today, whilst all the time looking to the future and investing in extensive research activities to ensure that Hitachi continues to lead the field. Hitachi prides itself on providing high quality, efficient and reliable air conditioning solutions across the globe. By investing heavily in Research and Development Hitachi have been able to remain at the forefront of the industry, and with the opening of HAPE, a purpose built factory in Barcelona, manufacturing and delivery procedures have become more streamlined. Hitachis Air Conditioning Range is one of the most extensive available in the market today. With unit capacities ranging from 2.0kW high wall split systems to the Hitachi screw compressor chillers of over 1000kW. With products and equipment suitable for a variety of applications, from the domestic conservatory to the modern multi-storey office environment, the versatility of the Hitachi range is second to none. As would be expected of an organisation such as Hitachi, quality and efficiency of our products is imperative and of the utmost importance. Significant investment has been undertaken in further production and testing capacities at the factories and Hitachi have also installed and commissioned a chiller performance test facility, together with all load generating ancillaries and PC based measurement, recording and reporting capabilities. Hitachi is extremely proud of its successful distribution network throughout Europe. Each approved distributor is meticulously inspected and training carried out to the optimum before being appointed as exclusive or joint Hitachi representative within the agreed area. The service offered is unrivalled with the combination of experienced engineers, comprehensive spare parts stock, backed in turn by continuous technical support from Hitachi. In 1992 Hitachi invested in a new purpose built factory, HAPE (Hitachi Air Conditioning Products Europe), in Barcelona, Spain, a location carefully selected with expansion possibilities in mind for the future. This expansion to European manufacturing facilities helps to reduce production costs and speed up delivery times. In addition to HAPE, Hitachi also manufacture in HAPM (Hitachi Air Conditioning Products Malaysia) based just outside Kuala Lumpur, with the benefits of the support and backing of Hitachi Tochigi and Shimizu Works in Japan. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Hitachi - which in Japanese, means sunrise - is constantly researching and developing new horizons of technology, ideas and innovations. Of its worldwide sales, over 6% is invested in research and development programmes. This vast investment has given Hitachi the opportunity to conceive many world firsts, for example the technologically advanced and acclaimed scroll and semi-hermetic Screw compressors. These have made possible the unique Hitachi air conditioning systems and water chillers which have revolutionised air conditioning worldwide. Specifiers and users alike can rest assured that performance and cost efficiency are not the only parameters by which Hitachi products can be judged. Ecological thinking stems from the very first stages of new product design and continues throughout production and onto installation procedures, equipment and operation, with priority being given to the use of environmentally friendly refrigerants such as R407c and R410a. Hitachi, Helping you to Help the Environment Since January 2007 the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive has been in force with the aim to reduce the amount of electrical waste being sent to landfill. Hitachi are committed to work within this directive. Whilst currently fixed air conditioning systems do not fall within this legislation we accept our responsibility to help the environment by offering to take away air conditioning systems that have reached the end of their life With Hitachis commitment to provide the highest level of service we now offer to collect air conditioning units, of any manufacturer, and remove them from site for disposal in line with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (WEEE) see price list for charges for this service New Government regulations have come into force which requires EU A-G energy labels to be displayed on domestic air conditioning units. Energy labels provides clear and easily recogonisable information for consumers about the energy consumption and perfomance of appliances.The most important part of a label is the energy efficiency rating scale, which provides a simple index of effiency from A(most efficiency) to G(least efficiency). The extension of mandatory energy labelling to air conditioning equipment provides further evidence of the Governments commitment to continue making improvements to the UKs energy efficiency