Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Scroll A High Tech Operation In County

By JOHN MILLER

Members of the Clark County Industrial Council were given a lesson in high tech operations.

Rick Izor, general manager of Scroll Technologies, and Gene Fields, one of Scrolls engineers, talked about how they manufacture air conditioning compressor units.

Originally, Izor said, the plant was constructed by Carrier in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with production beginning in 1993 under the Carrier name.

However, the company couldn't produce enough product to be fiscally sound, so in May 1995, the company merged with Bristol Scroll Compressors, part of York, and became Scroll Technologies.

Now, the plant manufactures compressors for the two biggest companies in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning market -- Carrier and York. Carrier does $5.6 billion annually, while Bristol sells $3.2 billion per year.

Izor said the plant is on track to produce 443,000 compressors by the end of 1997, with plans to manufacture 500,000 in 1998.

He also told the CCIC board, the company started with 503 employees in 1993, and currently has 627 on its payroll, making it one of the largest employers in the county.

Fields handled the technical end of the program, telling how the compressors are made utilizing two spiral pieces of metal fitting into one another.

He said there are no valves in a Scroll compressor. The hot air pulled into the unit from inside homes is forced to the center of the compressor and out an exit port.

On of the most interesting parts of his talk was learning Scroll received its first patent on Oct. 3, 1905, some 92 years ago, for an air conditioning compressor. Since then, the company has received hundreds of patents.

What makes Scroll compressors better than the normal piston-driven compressor is they are smaller in size and much quieter while operating. In addition, there are fewer parts to break down.

But, when a Scroll compressor does break down, Fields said, it cannot be repaired and must be replaced. This is because the unit is in a sealed casing.

According to Fields, Scroll is working to make the units even smaller, more efficient and more cost effective for homeowners.

He told the CCIC two of the big three auto makers have been asking the company to manufacture an automobile air conditioning compressor. In fact, Fields said, several of the company's engineers have been hired away by the auto industry for this reason.