Zamil Air Conditioners' (ZAC) new 30,000-sq ft laboratory, the Air Conditioning Technology Centre (ATC) has been officially opened at the company's headquarters in Dammam's First Industrial City.

The ATC was commissioned and built by ITS (Intertek Testing Services), described as global leaders in testing, inspection and certification services based in Courtland, New York, US. The labs, which cost more than $3 million to build, are the most modern facilities of their kind and the only such labs in the Middle East, making ZAC the only manufacturer in the region capable of guaranteeing local and international certifications of its products, the Saudi company said.

ZAC vice president Abdulla Al Zamil said at the opening ceremony: "Today is a very proud day for all of us at ZAC, all of us who had a vision of being forerunners in our industry here in the region. And today I am proud to say we did it - we truly are the leaders. As an integral part of the product engineering department, the addition of the ATC has greatly enhanced R&D efforts offering quick turnaround times for performance testing to accelerate product development schedules. New technology, new systems and new models will be out in the market in record time."

The ATC will function as a guarantor of international and local certification programmes including Saso, the ARI (Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute), Aham (the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers), ETL and others. Consultants and engineers will now be able to request results of the tests performed on products as a guarantee of the units' compliance and performance rating, ensuring published product specifications conform with simulated lab tests.

"Global standards are changing every day," said Al Zamil, "and we strive to be able to successfully monitor standards and keep up to speed with our up-to-the-minute insights."

The company said the new technology centre positively enhanced ZAC's globalisation efforts. "Products for different markets require the lawful certification of that particular market and with the facilities in place for compliance with specific requirements, ZAC is on par with some of the world's biggest manufacturers of air conditioning solutions," it said. Standards conform to Ashrae (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers) and Ansi (American National Standards Institute).