www.hcr-inc.com - About HCR

About HCR

HCR Inc. was founded in 1974 by George R. Smith, P.E., a refrigeration engineer for over 40 years, and a highly respected member of ASHRAE (author of "Refrigeration Loads" in the 1994 ASHRAE handbook), member of IIAR, IARW, Chairman of the monitoring committee for ASHRAE-sponsored research into the frosting and defrosting of evaporator coils, and probably the world's foremost expert in air infiltration into freezers and coolers.

HCR stands for its working principle: a Horizontally directed air stream that travels in a Curvilinear path and is Re-Circulatory.

The company had set out to find a better solution for moving traffic through cooler and freezer doors. Using a completely fresh engineering approach and the principles of psychrometrics, the refrigeration engineers at HCR developed new technologies that pioneered the re-circulatory air door industry.

In 2004, HCR, Inc. became a part of The Jamison Door Company, the world's leading manufacturer of cold storage and specialty doors.

Today, with more than 30 years of field experience, HCR has gone from the drawing board to application, from a basic idea to reality, and has proven itself with thousands of successful installations Worldwide, and inside the facilities of the largest, most demanding and cost-conscious grocery and food distribution centers, food processing plants and refrigerated warehouses.

Today, HCR has a complete line of successful and highly energy efficient open-doorway products for application in grocery store distribution centers, refrigerated warehouses and food processing plants from -40°F freezers to non-freezer applications.

HCR Air Doors Remove All Obstacles

HCR makes the appeal of an unencumbered, wide open doorway for your workers to move about freely and efficiently a reality…removing all obstacles from your path.

The benefits of HCR in your facility are visibly dramatic through the elimination of frost and ice and additionally remarkable in increasing productivity. When applied to large freezers with high-traffic or problematic doors, fully operational HCR units are essentially the same as adding refrigeration capacity.

Merchandise movement is significantly increased and HCR units help expand critical storage space. Safety concerns are reduced due to the clear visibility of the open doorway, the removal of frost and ice on the floor, and the elimination of moving door parts. HCR makes the appeal of an unencumbered, wide-open doorway for your workers to move about freely and efficiently a reality… removing all obstacles from their path.

The Principles of Psychrometrics Put to Work

Psychrometrics is the study of moisture in the air and the changes in air conditions such as temperature, absolute and relative humidity, and moisture content. Nowhere are the effects of Psychrometric principles more evident than in a cold storage environment.

According to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), within seconds after a door is open a natural air exchange occurs. When there is a doorway between two rooms with considerable or extreme temperature differences, the natural air exchange translates into significant cold air loss and warm air and moisture infiltration. Further, infiltrating air can account for up to 50% of the refrigeration load in a cold storage facility.

Rigid doors work well where traffic is low and open and close cycles are few and of short duration, or when the room temperature differences are not extreme. But there comes a point where a rigid door no longer serves as the most cost effective solution. The more the door is opened, the more air exchange takes place and the doorway is subject to all of the problems that would occur as if there were no door at all.

HCR applies the principles of psychrometrics by first eliminating the moving door that is constantly opening and closing replacing it with a wide open doorway vestibule that provides a continuous air barrier between rooms, preventing infiltration by while capturing and conditioning the air to a non-frost non-fog producing state.

More about HCR, Inc.

Although HCR has grown as a company, and has joined the industry leader Jamison Door Company, and its products have become legendary in the industry, the company philosophy remains the same today as it did then: to provide an unconditional guarantee of customer satisfaction with every product!

HCR Inc. is located in the geographical center of Montana ... Lewistown. Relocating there in July 1991 from the Washington DC area of Maryland and Virginia, HCR has become a vital resource for the local community. All of HCR's models are manufactured here in their entirety. In fact, HCR handles complete production, from design, to manufacturing, testing and installations. With the ability to custom design units and ship anywhere, HCR products have been in use all over the world, and HCR is widely recognized as the leader in the air door industry.

HCR, Inc.