Airedale by Modine, the international critical cooling specialist, last week celebrated the opening of a new 14.6-acre production facility in Bradford, in response to increasing demand from global data centre customers and manufacturing began at the site two months ahead of schedule. The company secured the site on the outskirts of Bradford in May this year and has since reconfigured the space for the manufacturing and testing of computer room air handlers and fan wall units. An existing facility in Leeds will now focus on chiller production. Between the two sites, overall UK data centre production capacity is expecting to increase by 150%.
In addition to increased production capability, plans for the facility include the construction of a ‘state of the art’ fan wall test centre. Once complete, the new R&D facility will expand Airedale by Modine’s overall world-class testing capabilities and the company will welcome customers from around the globe for factory acceptance tests. Further job creation to support longer-term growth at the Bradford plant was forecasted by the company back in May, with a projection of over 200 highly skilled production and support roles being created over the next three to five years — approximately 10% of which are likely to be apprenticeship positions.
Adrian Trevelyan, Airedale by Modine managing director, said: “The opening of the new Airedale by Modine manufacturing facility in Bradford marks an important milestone for our organisation. With significantly increased capacity, we can offer extensive support to the development strategies of data centre operators, whose growth reflects the unfaltering demand for digital applications in society.”
Airedale by Modine has enjoyed continual growth in its global data centre business, in line with unabating demand for digital technology. This growth trend is predicted to continue, reflecting increasing worldwide demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, which will see a move towards hybrid air/liquid cooling systems. As part of its global expansion strategy, Airedale by Modine now operates out of UK facilities in Leeds, Bradford, Consett, Guadalajara in Spain, Rockbridge, Allen and Grenada in the USA, and Calgary in Canada.