Air-Conditioning Technologies for Environmental Creation

Challenging Renewable Energy Technologies as an Environmental Creation Company of the 21^st Century
KITAMOTO Manabu

Latest Trends in Air-Conditioning Technology
HONGO Ichiro / NUKUSHINA Harunobu / HIRAYAMA Takuya
High-efficiency air-conditioning technology has become increasingly necessary for energy conservation because air conditioners account for a significant portion of electric power demand. Heat pump technology, which is defined as renewable energy in Europe, is attracting worldwide attention from an energy-saving standpoint and is being applied not only to air-conditioning systems but also hot-water supply systems.
With these trends as a background, Toshiba Carrier Corporation has been focusing on research and development of core technologies including air-conditioner compressors, inverters, and refrigerating cycles, and releasing high-energy-saving products. We are making continuous efforts to develop highly efficient air-conditioning systems.

Heat Pump Hot-Water Supply System Applying High-Efficiency Rotary Compressor and Inverter
OKUDA Kenji / TANABE Tomoaki / SUMIDA Kazuhisa
Demand is increasing in both the household and industrial sectors for heat pump hot-water supply systems incorporating a high-efficiency heat pump. Such systems are considered to be renewable energy systems due to their dramatic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions compared with conventional gas-fired hot-water supply systems.
In response to a broad range of market needs, Toshiba Carrier Corporation has developed a heat pump hot-water supply system featuring energy-saving performance and user-friendly functions utilizing our core technologies including inverter technology, which we have cultivated through the development of air conditioners, and a high-efficiency rotary compressor.

High-Efficiency Large-Capacity Heat Pump Modular Chilling Units Contributing to Realization of Low-Carbon Society
MASAMOTO Tsutomu / TATEISHI Akio / MUROI Kunio
Toshiba Carrier Corporation and The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. developed the Super Flex Modular Chiller, a large-capacity heat pump chilling unit employing the highly efficient refrigerant R410A, in 2006. Since then, we have developed and launched the water-cooled Super Flex Modular Chiller in 2007, the Super Flex Modular Chiller Type V with large-capacity and space-saving features in 2008, and the Super Flex Modular Chiller with ice thermal storage in 2009.
With the aim of realizing a low-carbon society, we are promoting the development of high-efficiency electric heat pump chillers based on our heat pump technology as a replacement for conventional combustion-type heat source equipment in the market for large-scale air-conditioners.

Multisystem Air Conditioners and Air-Conditioner Control System Using Web Browser to Support Building Air Conditioning
NAKATSUGAWA Norihiko / KIGUCHI Yukio
The demand for enhancement of energy conservation in the field of building air-conditioning systems has been increasing due to the revision of the Law Concerning the Rational Use of Energy in recent years.
Toshiba Carrier Corporation has developed a new air-conditioner control system using a Web browser that employs a control display with a high level of usability and visibility and offers efficient energy-saving operational management such as central and cooperative control of air conditioners, as well as the use of multisystem air conditioners equipped with a DC twin-rotary compressor and high-efficiency vector control inverter.

DAISEIKAI_TM Room Air Conditioner with Advanced Energy-Saving Technologies
SATO Takehiko / KITAICHI Shoichiro / IDE Shinichi
In response to the worldwide demand for the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, there is a strong need for improvement in energy conservation of room air conditioners in individual homes.
Toshiba Carrier Corporation has developed the DAISEIKAI_TM UDR series room air conditioner for home use. The DAISEIKAI_TM UDR series features a dual compressor controlled by an automatic cylinder shift control mechanism that realizes a wide capacity control range by switching from two-cylinder drive to single-cylinder drive, providing excellent operating efficiency at low load. The power consumption in low-load operation is reduced to 45 W, which is comparable to that of a room fan.

Contribution to Open Source Community—Development of Communications Software for Linux and BSD Operating Systems
KANDA Mitsuru / KOZAKAI Yasuyuki / FUKUMOTO Atsushi
Open source software, which can be used and revised freely under publicly accessible licenses, has become increasingly popular in recent years. It is developed with the cooperation of many software engineers around the world, and the source code is open to anyone free of charge. When companies employ open source software in their products, they are required to not only make use of this open source software but also to contribute to the open source community.
Toshiba has been contributing to open source software activities through the development of computer networking software including Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)/Security Architecture for Internet Protocol (IPsec) software for Linux, and IPsec keying software for Linux/Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).

Algorithm-Level Description Language for Very High-Level Design Improving Embedded System Design Productivity
SHIRAI Satoshi
With the aim of accelerating software and hardware design processes, Toshiba has been promoting the development of a very high-level design approach by optimally synthesizing various software and hardware codes automatically from a single algorithm description.
An algorithm description language has been newly designed for the very high-level design approach, featuring not only concise algorithm descriptions independent of the memory usage and parallelization method of the specific platform but also easy algorithm analysis. This allows the generation of C-level codes optimized for each platform.

IK-HR1H/IK-HR1CD CMOS Full-HD Remote Head Color Camera System
OKUBO Masatoshi / SHINOZAKI Hiroshi
The demand for compact high-definition (HD) video cameras has been increasing not only in the broadcasting industry, which is the leader in HD technology, but also in the areas of industrial, medical, and scientific imaging applications.
Toshiba has developed a new full-HD remote head color video camera system, comprising the model IK-HR1H camera head equipped with a full-HD (1080p) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor together with the model IK-HR1CD camera control unit, thereby strengthening our industrial camera lineup. The camera head achieves space saving by superior thermal design compared with existing products and can be mounted in a small space on equipment such as medical endoscopes and so on. Furthermore, with the use of a 10 m cable between the camera head and camera control unit employing high-speed digital transmission technology that can achieve a throughput of 1.78 Gbps, the system offers flexible installation and operation suitable for various forms of usage.

XDE_TM Video-Quality Enhancement Technology for DVD Players
MARUYAMA Koji / NAITO Nobumasa
With the wide dissemination of high-definition television (HDTV) sets for digital terrestrial broadcasting in recent years, full HDTVs equipped with a large, high-resolution (1,920 x 1,080 pixel) liquid crystal display (LDC) are becoming the mainstream. However, the picture quality of DVD players when playing standard-definition (SD) resolution (720 x 480 pixel) video contents such as DVD movies is insufficient for these HDTVs.
Toshiba has developed the XDE (extended detail enhancement) video-quality enhancement technology and incorporated it into the XDE600 DVD player. XDE can not only upscale the resolution of DVD contents but also process sharpness, color, and contrast detail to output images in high quality.

Leaky Coaxial Cable Wireless LAN System for Stable Communication in Steelworks with Various Metal Structures
SUGIYAMA Tomonori /GOTOU Chikashi / NODA Keisuke
In a steelworks, many systems such as overhead crane systems that have vehicle structures moving along a lengthy track are operating. Stable wireless communication between the moving vehicle and access point is necessary for operators of such crane systems to work while continuously watching the monitor display.
Toshiba TEC Corporation has developed a new wireless LAN system using leaky coaxial cable (LCX) as a long antenna for the wireless access point instead of conventional antennas. We have successfully put this system into practical use in steelworks having a multipath environment due to the presence of various metal structures.

Optical Current Transformer for High-Voltage DC Transmission Systems
MURAO Takeru / HIRATA Yukihisa / SASAKI Kinichi
An optical current transformer (CT) is a small, lightweight, and high-dielectric-strength optical current sensor applying an optical fiber for sensing that can measure not only alternating current (AC) but also direct current (DC). In the field of high-voltage DC (HVDC) systems, many DC current transformers (DCCTs) are utilized for measuring DC current in high-voltage circuits up to DC 250 kV.
Toshiba has developed an optical DCCT for submarine cable protection in HVDC systems and evaluated this sensor through field verification tests at the Furukawa Cable Head Station in the Hokkaido-Honshu HVDC Link. As a result, we have confirmed the effectiveness of the optical DCCT and are aiming to commercialize the product in FY2009.

Toshiba's Efforts toward Applying FPGA-Based Digital Instrumentation and Control Equipment to U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
GOTO Yasushi / HAYASHI Toshifumi / HOSAKA Yasuomi
Two major problems are encountered with conventional central processing unit (CPU)-based digital instrumentation and control (I&C) equipment in nuclear power plants: the difficulty of securing long-term operation due to the short product life cycle of CPUs, and the long period required for the functional verification of software.
To overcome these problems, Toshiba has developed digital I&C equipment for nuclear power plants using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). An FPGA is a large-scale integration (LSI) containing logic circuits that can be programmed to perform necessary functions without the use of software. FPGA-based digital I&C equipment makes long-term operation possible by securing the logic circuit design even when FPGA devices are changed. We have also developed comprehensive design and verification methods that make internal signal processing more transparent, to improve verifiability.
This FPGA-based monitoring equipment has already been installed in Japanese nuclear power plants, and we are aiming to apply it to advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) plants being planned in the United States. We are now working toward obtaining Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval for the use of FPGA-based systems as safety-related equipment in U.S. nuclear power plants.

ET-1400 Space-Saving and User-Friendly Multifunctional Ticket Issuing Machine
NAKAO Masahiro / YAMASHITA Yuki / OZAKI Yoshihiko
A multifunctional ticket issuing machine is a type of railway station service equipment that issues a variety of tickets and commuter passes. Toshiba has delivered such machines to more than 10 railway companies so far. In recent years, demand has been increasing for a next-generation multifunctional ticket issuing machine due to not only the necessity of updating machines that are more than a decade old, but also the dissemination of integrated circuit (IC) cards in urban areas.
In response to this situation, we have developed the ET-1400 multifunctional ticket issuing machine that supports IC cards and offers greatly improved functionality and usability in addition to the conventional functions.